“told car we were buying was ready on the monday. Arranged to pick it up on the Friday (Changed insurance to new car), only to be called 30 minutes before to say it was in another part of the country, nowhere near us (changed insurance back to existing car). one of the cars we were trading in MOT ran out day after we were supposed to receive car, and had to spend a day trying to sort that out. then made appointment to pick up car, (changed insurance again) left sitting with nobody seeing us for 30 minutes- when eventually got to see car only to find someone had done a very bad repair on some paintwork with paint that didnt match and looked like it had been done by a 5 year old. said i wasn't accepting the car, and they were rude and dismissive. walked out.
dont bother”
“Staff out and out lie to you, bad service from the start even on test drives, try to con you from the start pushing prices up, reception woman was terrible and had a hell of an attitude this is across two of the dundee sites out of three and in this case two out of three is not good, avoid if at all possible, bandits and know for it.”
“Don't buy from them, the car will probably have loads of problems which they will "overlook" which you will then have to pay thousands to sort out. No wonder thay offer the servive/MOT Plan, just more ways of ripping you off.”
“If u could give this company 0 I would each person I've dealt with has been more incompetent than the last. I've had the car back in the garage twice since I've had it and only had it 3 months. One person tells me 1 thing another tells me another. Car broke down on way to my holiday totally spoilt my holiday cost me a fortune to hire a car. Been told can't even escalate my complaint. Stay away don't touch”
“Nice to know that as soon as money is paid, no-one wants to know. Service is horrendous, customer service and overall principles are ignored and left with no other option than trading standards”
“Arnold Clark Toyota Bishopbriggs Glasgow
My wife's Toyota Aygo went in for a service on 26th August 2021.
The service department called to say that the disc brakes and pads were corroded and also had a split windscreen wiper and would they proceed to replace them. Cost quoted at over £250.00.
The car had only done about 120 miles since its M.O.T so I said not to do anything.
I collected the car and drove 1 mile home. I checked the wiper blade and found that was in perfect condition.
I jacked up the car and removed the wheels. The discs and pads were also perfect. The discs were smooth, shiny and not even any slight scores. The car only had 8059 miles on the clock and the pads were good for at least 12,000 miles and the discs for probably another 40.000 miles.
It took 5 emails and several phone calls to manage to speak to someone to justify themselves. What a waste of time. Despite all discs having normal surface corrosion where the pads don't make contact they tried to cover up by saying it was only advisory. No explanation for asking to go ahead and replace perfectly serviceable items. If I had been someone with no knowledge of brakes I would have probably said to replace as I would not want to risk a problem with brakes which was the way it was made to sound. The service manager admitted if it was his car he would not
have replaced the brakes. He came out to the car to look at the wiper blade and admitted that he could not understand why that was reported. I showed him also using the windscreen washers a perfectly clear screen with a single wipe. He insisted standing outside the car he could see a smear. I still can only see a perfectly clear screen. This is not the only story that has come out of that depot. Since I told people several have told me about similar experiences. Disgraceful way to behave. No difference between trying this than the people who phone you at home trying to scam you. In future it will be my local independent garage that has only given good service and only repaired items that needed it.”
“My daughter bought a Fiat 500 from Stafford branch on Friday. Had to Waite close to 2 hours for them to sort out the log book as a previous customer had returned the car, "alarm bells ringing!". Finally got the car and I decided to drive due to her inexperience of motorway driving and it being rush hour on the M6 North bound. Managed to get 17 miles away from Stafford branch and car suddenly lost power going to 25/30 miles an hour on M6. 4 lanes with inside lane conned off, managed to manoeuvre to conned off lane due to gap. Thankful that my daughter wasn't on her own as the traffic was horrendous and deadly. After two different tow trucks moved us to Keele service station then home, had the AA check the car. They found a catalog of problems and did repairs there and then. My daughter then tried to use the car, but exactly the same thing happened again! What worries me is they sold this car to a young girl knowing it had this history of power loss and knowing she had to drive on one of the busiest motorways on the UK, is absalutly reckless to me. What people do this!! Shame”
“AVOID if your looking for a new car then don't come to arnold clark. They will be friendly and do anything to sell you the car but after that your on your own. Aftersales / customer service is next to none existant. My car went in for a warrenty repair. They gave it back because they didn't have the part. So we booked it in for a couple of weeks later. I went to drop it off only to be told when I got there the part hasn't come in. Booked in again for a couple of weeks later for a week. That came and went with no updates on the repair. Only to get a call off a rental company arranging a car for me. I had no idea what was going on. So I rang arnold clark to be told the wrong part was sent and the one we need is on back order with no date as to when it will be here. I asked for my car back and they refused saying it will take too long to put back together. So we will have to wait. It was only an air con problem so no reason I couldn't have my car back. After more chasing they said the part should be in next week. Well guess what, that came and went with no phone calls to let us know if its even come in. I tried calling 4 times only to be told the service manger is busy, finally got throught at the 5th attempt to be told he's trying to sort something out and will call tomorrow morning with detail guess what no call again.So now I'm stuck paying a monthly fee on a car I haven't got and don't know when I will have back because they refuse to put it back together due to the man hours. The complaints department is just as useless and you just get told its out of there hands. I wouldn't dream of treating customers like this but like I say once they have your money they simply don't care. avoid avoid avoid”
“The lady at reception was absolutely awful. Got there early morning today and she was obnoxiously rude. First impression left a sour taste. Definitely not somewhere I'd do business.”
“Made an appointment to view a car .and was told car was ready to go i wasnt impressed buy the fact the car hadn't been cleaned and the state of the alloys ..never asked if there was anything elese that i would be interested .didnt introduce himself to me .maybe i wasnt spending enough for there liking not a nice experience at all”
“Avoid the Wednesbury branch! Myself and my wife brought a BMW 5 series from them, we had issues with the car taking it back 5 times in total to then they decide they could not fix the issue! Within those 5 times of giving the car back to try and repair the vehicle we we were give a fiat 500! With a new baby this just wasn’t sufficient! Also just for your information the BMW was straight back in the site for sale as soon as we gave it back so to my knowledge if they could not fix the car 5 times when it was in the service station I find it very doubtful that the car was fixed prior it to being re sold! We then traded that in to get an Audi A4 slightly smaller and more expensive, only because of negative equity otherwise we would have gone elsewhere! we then had issues with this car where the engine light came on and the warning light! This has gone back 2 times so far bare in mind we have just had it under 2 months, I complained about having a fiat 500 to then they gave me a fiat panda! Now I am not a snob a car is a car but when I’m paying just under £400 a month for a luxury car I expect like for like! We still have issues with the vehicle which is still going back and forth at the moment the customer services are of a very low standard I asked for call backs, I never got I was that fed up of dealing with them over the phone which was at least twice a week I asked them to email me! Still no response! Myself and my wife both work full time and don’t have time to do this! from this experience please go to a proper dealership and please please read the terms in your contract regarding any curtsey cars! I hope this helps people in the future! I wish I read the reviews before buying from them!”
“Took car in. Spent 3 weeks with no communication. When called said they had been told they had been asked to wait for a call allowing them to move to each part to find the issue. Not true. Were actually asked to call my partner with an update after each test was done. When finally returned had created a massive crack on windscreen which they claimed at first that it had on arrival, it didn't. Then claimed a seagull had dropped a stone on it and asked for my partner to claim off her insurance and they would pay the excess although they are responsible for looking after it while it's there. All this going on while mot was coming up which they knew. Asked 3 times if she wanted to do mot at Arnold clark and told no 3 times. Feels like they delayed it to try and force the booking for the mot. Now car is stuck at their garage and we will miss mot at other garage which was already payed for. Writing to their headoffice tomorrow to complain. Absolute shambles of a garage in Inverness.”
“Contacted Arnold Clark Seafield re new car.Reception unable to connect me to sales but would arrange call back.
No contact that day, phoned next day to check and was informed no record of my call; but would arrange contact.
No contact or explanation received.”
“Do most of people who are Arnold Clark customers know they are being lied to ? The answer is obviously not they are being told they cannot have a cash refund within 30 days of purchase this is not true, check the 2015 consumer act which states if the item is not as represented or damaged you have the right by law to return the goods other aspects also apply after the 30 day period, having read so many recent reviews about the gangster mentality being used against customer it is someone sued this company possibly a crass action lawsuit would stop them. Do not trust them or the customer service h.q. they just hit you with more rubbish and do less than nothing, lip service not customer service.”
“Went to get the car at Arnold Clarke old bury and agreed for new Jeep Compass. It was to be picked up on the Friday (we went on Tuesday) but with finance going through, we were hammered into taking the car on Wednesday and when said we can’t come we’re told they will deliver as need the forecourt cleared. At that time our salesman got changed to a different one!!!
Week in the car started giving trouble and we had to call for diagnostics. We received call that they had to follow the protocol and keep the car in to check the battery. We were given Fiat 500 as courtesy car ( my husband being a big man could not even get in and out of that car!) anyways after 3 days we were told that there was issue with battery and it needs to be replaced and my husband said ok. After having discussion over the weekend and no call from Arnold Clarke as to what was happening with the car we called them ( only took about 2 and half hours to get through to someone!!!) and talked to service desk and when told the battery was there and that car will be ready latest by Tuesday morning we said we were not happy with what was happening and that we didn’t want a new car that was already showing problems - we were asked “are you rejecting the car?” To which we said “yes” - we were told that the battery will be put aside and we will get a call from the manager. Instead after few hours we got call from our designated “new” sales man who said that we have” lost the right to reject the car as we had said yes to the repair” when we told him that we had refused the repair before the battery was installed we were were basically badgered into agreeing to keep the car . So rude that I ended up drying and very upset. my husband not wanting to argue any more just agreed. The car was delivered to us and now in addition had scuff marks on it.
Basically, horrible service provided at all levels and badgering customers into carrying on keeping cars that are faulty to begin with telling them things like - l know this as I do this for living !
I am so sorry that we ever went to Arnold Clarke old bury and will warn others not to waste their hard earned money where there is no respect to what you have to say or time to talk to you apart from when selling.”
“I live in Edinburgh, car bought from Elgin branch meant to be delivered in 2 weeks as requested and agreed, required for wedding in troon. not delivered as agreed, its now 3 weeks and still no delivery and no update from them. My wife and i are currently discussing whether to continue or cancel deal.”
“Purchased an Audi A3 from Citroen in Linwood site, within a week or two there was a long list of issues such as abs sensors, alloys wheel paint peeling, car going into limp mode intermittently, AC not functioning properly and a few other faults. The service provided was absolutely shocking, with no regard to the fact the car was pretty much un-drive-able. Was constantly told that I would receive call backs and nothing happened. Very poor conduct from both the sales teams and management teams”
