So, about a month ago the gf and I bought a new (used) car for her from a main dealer.
Part of the condition of the sale was that they fixed a couple of very minor issues and put some new tyres on the rear.
She picked the car up and within 30 mins an error message pops up indicating a bulb failure. I had a hunt and realised it was one of the reverse lights so replaced the bulb. Minor annoyance.
Next day one of the tyre pressure sensors alarms as we're heading away for the day. We pull over as soon as possible and I check the tyres - can't for the life of me see anything in them or any signs of deflation. However to play it safe we drive to the nearest place with an air pump. Check the pressures and find that the tyres they'd replaced had very low pressure in both. I pump them both up and we wait a bit to see if there's any loss of air. There isn't but by now we're quite a bit behind so have to cancel the plans. Very annoying. Continue to monitor the pressure and it's holding fine. No punctures. No leaks on the beading. Problem must have been under-inflation by the dealer. Incompetence.
Two days later we go to head away again and about 2 minutes from home the car starts making an awful whirring noise from the front end. GF pulls over, I stick my head under the bonnet to try and locate it. No joy and slowly the noise fades away. Think 'bugger this' call the garage and get it booked in. They can't take it for about a week...so a 3 day old car and they won't even look at a problem for a week.
We wait and both notice that this fault only occurs when the engine is cold. It disappears as it warms up hence why it faded when I was trying to listen to it. We make the garage aware of this fact.
Eventually we get it in and they insist on going for a test drive with her straight away. Yes, that's right - we've driven the car to them with a problem that only presents when it's cold and they want to go for a test drive when it's warm. Obviously we go out and there's no noise. They essentially say bring it back if it gets worse.
We book the car in again a couple of weeks later. Drop it off Friday lunchtime under the proviso they're going to investigate and let us know by Fri evening. Evening comes around and we've had no phonecall so the gf calls the dealer 4 times. No answer. Eventually on the 5th attempt we get a pickup and they basically explain they took it straight out for a test drive and there's no noise. That's right. They took the car that makes a noise when it's cold out on a test drive straight after it had been dropped off from 20 miles away...
So...the gf losing even her infinite patience points out the error of their ways and suggests that they keep it overnight and test it when cold in the morning. Dealer agrees.
So, roll on the next day and it gets to 1pm and we've heard nothing. GF calls and leaves a message for them to call her back. No callback. Calls again at 2:30pm, same. No callback. Calls again at 4pm. No callback. Calls again at 5 and finally gets through to someone who tells her to come and collect the car.
Turns out, when she gets there, that they haven't tested the car. The reason being they didn't even know it was there. Having completely run out of patience the gf asks for the complaints procedure.
We've since tried escalating it and cannot get a response from anyone. Nobody responds to mails. Nobody returns calls. We've got a car that we've owned less than a month. That has had a fault reported to them since it was 3 days old. That had two STUPID errors. That has been in their dealership a number of times and hasn't had the fault investigated under the clear conditions we stated. We've had utterly crap service. Have never once been offered a courtesy car or even a collection service.
Basically...wtf do we do? I'm at the point where I'm starting to look for ways to return it and get our cash back.
Part of the condition of the sale was that they fixed a couple of very minor issues and put some new tyres on the rear.
She picked the car up and within 30 mins an error message pops up indicating a bulb failure. I had a hunt and realised it was one of the reverse lights so replaced the bulb. Minor annoyance.
Next day one of the tyre pressure sensors alarms as we're heading away for the day. We pull over as soon as possible and I check the tyres - can't for the life of me see anything in them or any signs of deflation. However to play it safe we drive to the nearest place with an air pump. Check the pressures and find that the tyres they'd replaced had very low pressure in both. I pump them both up and we wait a bit to see if there's any loss of air. There isn't but by now we're quite a bit behind so have to cancel the plans. Very annoying. Continue to monitor the pressure and it's holding fine. No punctures. No leaks on the beading. Problem must have been under-inflation by the dealer. Incompetence.
Two days later we go to head away again and about 2 minutes from home the car starts making an awful whirring noise from the front end. GF pulls over, I stick my head under the bonnet to try and locate it. No joy and slowly the noise fades away. Think 'bugger this' call the garage and get it booked in. They can't take it for about a week...so a 3 day old car and they won't even look at a problem for a week.
We wait and both notice that this fault only occurs when the engine is cold. It disappears as it warms up hence why it faded when I was trying to listen to it. We make the garage aware of this fact.
Eventually we get it in and they insist on going for a test drive with her straight away. Yes, that's right - we've driven the car to them with a problem that only presents when it's cold and they want to go for a test drive when it's warm. Obviously we go out and there's no noise. They essentially say bring it back if it gets worse.
We book the car in again a couple of weeks later. Drop it off Friday lunchtime under the proviso they're going to investigate and let us know by Fri evening. Evening comes around and we've had no phonecall so the gf calls the dealer 4 times. No answer. Eventually on the 5th attempt we get a pickup and they basically explain they took it straight out for a test drive and there's no noise. That's right. They took the car that makes a noise when it's cold out on a test drive straight after it had been dropped off from 20 miles away...
So...the gf losing even her infinite patience points out the error of their ways and suggests that they keep it overnight and test it when cold in the morning. Dealer agrees.
So, roll on the next day and it gets to 1pm and we've heard nothing. GF calls and leaves a message for them to call her back. No callback. Calls again at 2:30pm, same. No callback. Calls again at 4pm. No callback. Calls again at 5 and finally gets through to someone who tells her to come and collect the car.
Turns out, when she gets there, that they haven't tested the car. The reason being they didn't even know it was there. Having completely run out of patience the gf asks for the complaints procedure.
We've since tried escalating it and cannot get a response from anyone. Nobody responds to mails. Nobody returns calls. We've got a car that we've owned less than a month. That has had a fault reported to them since it was 3 days old. That had two STUPID errors. That has been in their dealership a number of times and hasn't had the fault investigated under the clear conditions we stated. We've had utterly crap service. Have never once been offered a courtesy car or even a collection service.
Basically...wtf do we do? I'm at the point where I'm starting to look for ways to return it and get our cash back.
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