Buying a car from brand main dealer

[Wberryg]

I think the lack of customer service we got yesterday was shocking but I'd like other opinions.

Went with eldest DC to buy a car. Their first car purchase so they wanted me and DP there.

Test drive booked for a set time. We arrive a few mins before. Salesman is 'busy'. We stand in the showroom for 15 mins before he comes over to apologise for running late. He finally gets to us another 15 mins later.

He then asks what car we are after. Spends 10 mins painfully slowly I putting DCs details into the computer. We say we've already seen a vehicle on the Network Q site. He looks and can't find it.

I show it tp him on my phone. He still can't search for it on his computer. He tells us it's probably no longer for sale also that some of the things it comes with are not fitted to that make of vehicle so the ad is wrong.

Despite telling him DC wants a 5 dr car with certain extras he starts searching for basic 3 door model. We haven't done test drive yet but we've been sitting with him for nearly half an hour.

He asks his manager to call the other network Q dealer but he can't get through. Eventually after 15 more mins he goes on test drive with DC leaving his computer screen unlocked with all DCs personal info on.

While they're out we speak to the other dealer and reserve car over the phone. He expresses surprise when we return that this was possible and again tells us car is not as described!

DP has bought several cars of this brand but from a different dealer (this was our nearest) and always had a really helpful service but this was useless, we were there for 2 hours in total and dod all the work ourselves!

Never buy a car from a main dealer. Never get a service at a main dealer.

Unless you have so much money you have got bored with burning it

Dc was buying a nearly new car (March 2018) on a PCP deal so we needed to buy from dealer. However the experience was so useless in future I'll know just to do the whole thing over the phone and save myself 2 hours of pain.

I've bought second hand cars from main dealers, mainly because of the full one year warranty they give. I'd have walked away within the first 15 mins of waiting probably though OP. There's plenty of cars out there.

Sounds more like a rubbish salesman than a rubbish dealership.

Yeah he sounds scatty and disinterested. More a case of a bad salesman, or he was having a bad day as opposed to a bad dealer.
I buy all my cars from the main dealer and all service / repairs done there also

He was possibly trying to direct you to a different car and one that they have available on site so he can push you to a deal there and then and increase his commission.

It wouldn’t surprise me if he gets less commission or maybe even none at all for a car reserved online.

It is beyond me why anyone would buy a second hand car from a dealership. You are literally throwing away money and in your case, for appalling service

Sounds more like a rubbish salesman than a rubbish dealership.

Agree. We've bought nearly all our cars from main dealerships. Like anywhere else, there are good and bad sales staff. We purposely avoid weekends. We are also happy to walk away if the salesperson doesn't seem to know what they're doing. The last new car we bought, the sales guy was absolutely brilliant - listened to what we were telling him and came up with some good options - in fact we ended up with a brand new car, same spec, at a lower price than the older ex-demo we went in to test drive!

@Lillygolightly the salesperson's commission is linked to the profit that's in the car. Margins are very small and most cars are worth £50-£100 to them. There isn't a lot of money in it at all

I booked test drive last year with a main dealer to drive a specific used car they had on their forecourt. Booked the appointment in person. Cometh the hour, I turned up to be told in a very offhand and patronising way "sorry love it's not today". So I said "Why have I got an appointment card here for today written in your handwriting?"
So then of course the car wasn't ready, then it wouldn't start and they had to get the battery booster which took ages.
The guy was huge and sweaty (we're talking a small car here) and the whole experience was really uncomfortable (in a bit of a creepy way). So much so that I later went to a neighbouring town with DH this time to retest the same model. In the end we went for something different, but it was like I'd been back to the 60s and treated like a silly little woman. Will never darken their door again. I know it was just one salesman but if they employ him they must know what he's like and that says something about the dealership.

I won't name that brand, but suffice to say the attitude of the SKoda and Honda dealerships could not have been more of a contrast.

@Pinkyy, OP has already explained why her son has to buy from a dealership.

We had similar from a main dealer. DH had researched exactly the car he wanted colour, doors, spec, trim etc. He'd found one online but it was 500 miles away. So we went to the local dealer to see what they could do.

Booked before we left home but no-one available to talk to us when we arrived 45 mins later. Waited 30 minutes, still no-one, but the accountant guy could talk to you, um ok. Accountant guy searches around and eventually tells us that the specific car DH wants is just not possible, never made, not possible to get. Sends us to the next door office who sell brand new cars. They also tell us what he wants is just not possible either new or second hand.

Went home, found the next most local dealer, called them, they had exactly what he was looking for sitting on their forecourt.

It's unreasonable to buy a new car as a first car.

Let alone the depreciation, they will have prangs in it, if not worse.

Eliza I bought a new car as my first car. 19 years later we had to scrap it as it had finally died. I think that was probably a worthwhile investment.

It's unreasonable to buy a new car as a first car.....Let alone the depreciation, they will have prangs in it, if not worse.

Speak for yourself. Neither me nor OH ever pranged our cars in our early driving years. I learned in my parent's brand new car and never pranged it.

Let alone the depreciation, they will have prangs in it, if not worse.

Not necessarily. DH bought his first car brand new. I subsequently learnt to drive in it. No prangs for either of us in it until we moved on to a bigger car when it was 10 years old.

You went to a Vauxhall dealer so there's your problem. Was it EH, by any chance?

YABU to consider a Vauxhall, yes!

I had a car I liked, but changed it because of the appalling customer service at the local garage (and others in nearby areas). I should have realised when I first went there and no one could be bothered to speak to me, let alone find out what I was looking for.

The satnav failed pretty quickly and they were very offhand when I took the car to get the software updated. The engine management system light came on and I took it to the garage, who suggested I call the RAC. I pointed out that I was actually there and wanted someone to look at it in case it was a dangerous fault. I waited for two hours for them to tell me it was a sensor- fixed in minutes if not seconds.

Servicing was a joke. The car was in the garage for eight hours with no communication from them and despite the fact that I had made it clear, I needed it back the same day. When I collected it, it was filthy. It was suggested that I take it to the nearest supermarket car wash. I’d still have the car if I wasn’t so pissed off with their lack of customer service.

The worst thing is, they think I’ve still got it and bombard me with offers Togo and trade it in for a new car. No, just no. Never again.

I bought one from a garage where the salesman phoned or emailed regularly, keeping me updated about availability, where I was greeted in the showroom, offered coffee, shown various models and treated with courtesy and friendliness.

It's the first car DC has bought not their actual first car (as they've been driving my old car for the last 2 years since passing driving test). DC needs a reliable car for work, none of us can do anything other than basic Maintenance nor do we have anyone who can do work for mates rates...so a nearly new car with a long warranty makes sense.

I would say the people in the dealership 200 odd miles away were great. It was just this guy and his colleagues who were so lacklustre and unhelpful.