“I cannot stress how much Arnold Clark should be avoided.
I bought a car from the Preston Motorstore in June of this year. The vehicle had multiple issues when sold to me, that were all reported immediately. One issue should have been an MOT failure, and another was a catastrophic failure of the central locking. On reporting the issues to Arnold Clark, they attempted and failed to resolve. On further reporting the issues remaining after the failed attempt to repair, Arnold Clark’s Service Manager, Mike, then claimed there was no fault. On formally rejecting the vehicle, the car was independently inspected by the manufacturer who were horrified that the car had been sold in a dangerous condition. The upshot was that the car has been rejected with the finance provider, although Arnold Clark have still tried to wriggle out of it. The General Manager, Jack Huggins, was the biggest snake of them all, and had zero idea about what he was doing. He provided conflicting information at every step, information through even conflicted with Arnold Clark HQ. The guy was a liability to both me and to Arnold Clark.
My assessment of Arnold Clark is that they live up to their nickname within the industry of “Arnold Shark”. They sell dodgy motors, and their service staff are either incompetent in being unable to correctly carry out their duties, or are fully negligent in identifying and covering up issues. The customer service department is a joke too. I’ve contacted them with this as a complaint, and their initial answer amounted to “go away, your finance provider has sorted you out” (obviously not in those words). On pressing the complaint back to them, I’ve now received an equally dismissive response.
In short, these people will take your money, put you and your safety at risk, and will take no responsibility for doing so. They are scumbags”
“utter joke of a big car company!
my wife bought a car of them and nothing but
problems with it in the first 2 shes had it.
broke down sothing to do with the turbo
this car is a 16 plate. was at 70mph when it cut down to 40mph
luckerly no one hit us very dangerous.
also the boot trim is falling of inside.
tyres are bald outside 2 front.
AA came out and reset the code so i can take it back.
got to the garage and they told us can't do anything with no codes.the AA man has gave them a code put in a report and told them it needs to be fixed if not it will go in limp mode again if this is the case it is dangerous!.
i have left it with them to get it fixed i have told them i don't wan't it back till its safe to drive again.
Arnold Clark Edinburgh Seafield Motorstore!!!!!!!
:-(”
“I brought a vehicle from Oldbury branch with the service plan in 2019. I have yet to be able to use the plan for a MOT or service due to the lack of availability. Apparently you need to book at least 4 months in advance to secure an appointment and use the service you have paid for. Once again i need to seek an alternative garage to service and mot my vehicle which is not what i paid for. Overall customer service has been shocking. Its a shame they cannot continue good relationships once you buy the vehicle!”
“Would never recommend Arnold Clark. They sold me a car before the pandemic that had so many issues, then we went into lockdown and I could not get these issues fixed. (Still under warranty.) They told me to phone back when the branch opened back up, so I did, to then be told my warranty is up and nothing could be done. I’ve had the car for only a year and a half and so many issues have went wrong with it, and they are so quick to pan you off when you call to ask questions or complain about it. They just don’t want to deal with you after the commission is made. I don’t know how they’re so highly regarded. Everyone I speak to says the same as me. Especially if you’re buying your first car, do not choose Arnold Clark because they will see you coming and take you for a ride. Disgrace of a company.”
“Beware buying from Arnold Clark !
I bought a car from Arnold Clark Preston. The car was damaged during transportation and during a seat repair. They acknowledged the damage was their fault (also photographed at sale by sales employee) after some blame dodging. AC expect me now to photograph damage again (after loosing photos and original complaint) and get quotes myself, prior to me taking car to repair facility, leaving my wife without transport to work. This has been going on now for 2 months with lost information/photos etc. and I have now lost my goodwill.”
“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”
“5 star review for Brad Gallagher.
Very happy car from cluck & collect was as described.
Brad Gallagher at Birtley motorstore was first class , friendly & very accommodating. He was a pleasure to deal with, nothing too much trouble & made the click & collect experience very pleasant, having bought many cars in the last 30 years, this was new to me & would recommend it..”
“Great customer service, especially when engaging with my elderly parents who were buying the car. Adam Senior at Salford and Dan Smith at Newcastle have both been excellent. A blemish on the car was noticed at pick-up and they were both only too pleased to arrange for this to be sorted out (later date).
Thanks so much!”
“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”
“I must commend Arnold Clark Benton Newcastle SEAT for their brilliant service. The Benton dealership branch goes the extra mile to help you and make everything quick and easy from servicing your car to buying a new car. Their customer service is fantastic, nothing is too much trouble.”
“On buying a car from Arnold Clark alone definitely 5 star they couldn't be more helpful Nick Sanderson excellent at his sales job but sadly after sales service like a different company we sadly bought 2 services from them prior to each service we had quite a bad oil leak from the oil filter once maybe twice is a problem especially on a 19 plate car.
I was told its genuine vauxhall parts which I don't dispute possibly over tightened also told that the locking nut was damaged on rear wheel and asked to pay £70 to replace I argued that they must have damaged it on last service they disagreed I said the last time the rear wheels where off was when they took them off.
The person went to speak with someone out the back finally with the never said anything other than all done no explanation just a very poor situation very disappointed with everything.
I would love to go back to Arnold Clark but I have doubts now especially with warranty you get if you possibly have a fault all you get is you have to go back to manufacturers and there warranty its an easy cop out you'd be better off going to a main dealer and get fobbed off by them rather than fobbed off twice.”
“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”
“on seeking a selling price on internet for Arnold Clark the price they offered looked to good to be true,so made a appointment at Doncaster branch met Liam Dixon who valued my car a true gentleman i excepted the offer given to me everything was done very quickly and efficiently.i would recommend Liam and this company they are first class.”
