My honest review of Car Shop – get comfy as this is a long read. To start off with the reservation process was relatively simple and straight forward, you find the car you like, pay the £99 reservation fee and the car is held for you. I received a phone call from one of the customer service team approximately 90 minutes after I reserved my new car online. She stated that there was no delivery charge and no administration fee which is what I though as this is not listed anywhere on their website or the subsequent emails you receive. The car was based in Wakefield and I live in Kent so they had to transfer the car from there to Northampton (as this was my closest branch) and then onward delivery to my home address using a delivery driver as opposed to a flat bed transporter. All relatively straight forward, or so I thought… A few days after reserving the car I received a phone call from one of the Customer Service team at Northampton (after chasing Car Shop as I had not heard anything). The person that I spoke to said there would be a delivery charge and an administration fee! He told me that there were 2 options of admin fee - £99 which would cover the processing of the paperwork i.e log book etc. and the other option of £149 which would cover cleaning and sanitising and extended warranty he also tried to sell me Guard X and GAP insurance which I declined. He swiftly moved on and started discussing delivery to which I voiced my concern as I wanted delivery on the weekend and this was now Wednesday (having reserved the car on the Monday) I was still trying to take in the shock and confusion of the admin fee and thinking of all the options he mentioned whilst arranging delivery so it all felt a little rushed. The following day I received a call from the business manager to talk through the cost of the car including the part exchange, and the admin and delivery fee. By now I had had time to take in the fees and questioned this. He put me on hold and the person I spoke to previously picked up the phone but sounded unsure why I had been put through to him (sounded like a lack of communication) – I was also confused why he picked the phone up as I was expecting to still talk to the business manager but I said to him I am not happy with the admin fee and £200 delivery fee as the lady I spoke to when I reserved the car said there were no such fees to which he said he will have to go away and listen to the phone call. I said that’s fine go and do that but under no circumstances will I be paying any fees so if you come back and try to charge me any fees I will be cancelling the car. A few hours later he rung back and said that as their policy had changed a few times – partly due to Covid (which seems to be every companies go to at the moment) within a short period there was confusion within the company so no one quite knew what was going on. Long story short he confirmed there will be no admin/delivery charges and he himself will be delivering the car. A few hours after that the Customer Service Manager at Northampton rung to discuss the issues I had, he went on to say he could not see a delivery booking for the car on the portal so was not sure if they could deliver the car in time. At this point I was confused as the person I spoke to previously had said he would deliver it, now I am losing my patience and told the manager that I didn’t mind who delivered it just make sure it gets delivered at the agree time. The Manager confirmed the Customer Service person will be delivering it. The business manager rung me back and went on to email me through all the paperwork that you have to e-sign (using Docusign) as well as the invoice. On the invoice it had the incorrect part exchange price, which I queried and had to get an amended invoice sent through. He said the price was different due to a slight change in mileage, obviously I was still daily driving the car that I was part exchanging as I have no other way of getting to work so maybe this is something they need to consider going forward. Whilst I was going through and signing the paperwork the Business Manager called me (about 20 minutes after sending the paperwork through) to chase me to make the payment. I said I was going through it all and will be sending it (via bank transfer) shortly. Due to the amount that I was sending I was not able to use the mobile banking app so had to log on to the website via the banks card reader to send the money. Not a straight forward process within itself and made all the more stressful by being sent the wrong invoice and then being chased to pay it! I was told the car would be delivered as arranged on the Saturday but had not received any communication on the delivery day itself with a delivery time so had to chase for this. When the car eventually turned up it all felt rushed and I was not given the time to check the car nor the paperwork over. The person who delivered it asked me to sign a piece of paperwork, handed me a brown envelope (supposedly containing the paperwork) and jumped in my car that I was part exchanging and left. As it was all so rushed it was not til after he had left that I realised they had removed the new owners slip on the VC40 so I could not tax the car nor tell DVLA of the change of ownership! So I spent the next 6 hours constantly chasing Car Shop for the 11 digit reference number to which they had no idea where this was.I was also missing the SD card for the Sat Nav so I was not able to use this either. Someone rung me back to say the collections team had the SD card and I received this a few days later in the post.Later that evening someone else from Car Shop rung me back and they taxed the car and informed DVLA of the change of ownership, I’ve no idea how they did this without the 11 digit reference number which is only on the new owners slip and quite frankly I do not wish to know. Now the saga continues… It is now about 7pm on the evening the car was delivered – bearing in mind I’ve spent all day chasing Car Shop to try and get the car taxed and ownership changed over, I am now able to drive the car. Whilst taking the car for a drive I noticed a strong vibration coming from the steering at +50mph not only causing the steering wheel to vibrate but the seats to vibrate also. The following day I notice some chips on the bonnet and the front grille and a tear in the back seat. None of these defects were mentioned to me at any point and nor were they in the advert. I call Car Shop to notify them of the vibration and defects to which they said someone will call me back to discuss further. One point to mention, whenever you call car shop you go through to a central customer service team (even if you attempt to call the branch directly) and they log a call with the branch you are dealing with who then call you back so be prepared to constantly wait around for call backs. When I received a call back from Northampton (now dealing with another person from this branch) they said to book the car in with Halfords who will sort the vibration and they will organise for a mobile mechanic to come and look at the other defects. I called Halfords and went to book it in for the Saturday as this was the only day I could do. The manager who I spoke to at Halfords said I had to get pre-authorisation from the fleet team at Car Shop as this was warranty work and he could not do anything until they had this authorisation. So I called Car shop back again, explained everything to them and they said they will log it and get someone to call me back. The next day I heard nothing so I called Car Shop again to chase and again they said they would log another request for someone to call me back. Later that day someone called me back and said it was all sorted, they had spoken to the manager at Halfords and it was all authorized, the balancing and tracking and diagnosis as I also mentioned the car felt like it was going to stall when pulling away (bearing in mind this is an automatic car). I arrived at Halfords and the person on the desk said all they have is authorisation to run diagnostics on the car and not for any repairs and the Car Shop will not pay for balancing or tracking as this is not covered by warranty. Thankfully the manager walked in and knew about the car and agreed to carry out the balancing only and if I wanted the car diagnosed with the engine problem I would have to re-book it in for a week day (which I could not do due to work). By this point I just wanted to get out of there so agreed to get the balancing done. I dropped the car off at 0800 and didn’t get it back until 1630 after chasing Halfords as I had not heard anything from them so that was that day gone. The person on the phone was quite rude and lacked customer service skills to say the least. The manager at Halfords assured me the vibrating problem was resolved and he had taken the car for a road test himself. Now I don’t know where he took the car but he clearly didn’t get up to great speeds as the problem was still there even though I explicitly told him it happens from 50mph onwards. By this point I had enough and was not prepared to be messed around anymore so I told Car Shop via webchat that I wanted to send the car back and get my part exchange back (being in the 14 day cooling off period) they said they would get the Northampton branch to call me back to discuss this. The next day I heard nothing so I called them to be told there were no notes on the system logging the chat or request. So I had to wait for a further phone call from Northampton Eventually I got a call back to be told I had to personally take the car back to them as I had to sort the paperwork out and they needed the card I had paid with in order to return the money. As you can imagine this did not sit too well with me and especially during lock down where you are not allowed to travel (hence why I bought online in the first place) they were effectively instructing me to break the law. I told them I had received all the paperwork via email and paid via bank transfer so they can send the paperwork to me via email and send the money back in the same manner.After a lot of back and forth they agreed to collect the car and deliver my part exchange back to myself. This had to take place during a week day when I was at work so I arranged for this and specifically asked several times via email for them to ensure the new log book for my old car that I had part exchanged be brought down too as I had already transferred ownership to them and needed this to tax the vehicle and change ownership back to myself.You can probably guess what happened next…the car arrived and sure enough they had sent the old log book! I was not surprised at this given their performance and lack of competence hence why I asked them to ensure this would be sent. When I was in the process of transferring the vehicle I asked them what address I should put the new log book in, no one told me and the only address I had was their head office address (in Leicester) so that is where I registered it to. The driver that delivered my car back eventually got through to Northampton who said they did not have the log book and they were not able to get hold of their head office as they had all been furloughed. Two and a half hours later, after standing outside in the freezing cold trying to sort this out, multiple phone calls to DVLA who you cannot get through to for love nor money I was told by Car Shop to go to the Post Office and fill in a V62 new owners form at the expense of £25. Now I’m no expert in this but surely you wouldn’t furlough every single person in the office, you would keep 1 or 2 people to oversee things particularly as it is the head office?! Thankfully I have an understanding boss. There are about 30 people in my office who have all seen the pain and stress I have gone through with this shamble of a company and all of whom think they are an absolute joke and would not touch them with a barge pole. Several weeks on and I receive a letter from a confused DVLA asking why I have re-registered the car back in my name after they have issued a tax refund. After explaining the reasoning to them I now (about 6 weeks later) have the new log book all-be-it with an additional number of former keepers (another thing to consider when purchasing a car) Although I have now received my money back and the cost of V62 I still have not heard anything from Car Shop apologising for miss-selling me a car and all of the cost and aggravation they have caused me. Overall there is a lack of communication within the company and a lack of communication to the customer. Their aftersales service is non-existent and leaves you with the impression that you really are just another number… My advice to you really is quite simple – avoid Car Shop at all costs – wait until the dealerships re-open or if you must buy online, buy from someone local to you that you are prepared to travel to (in case you have issues) and buy from someone that you can trust.