“Lets face it Arnold Clark is the Ryanair of the motor trade. I have an MOT and service plan for my own car bought new from Citroen Edinburgh. Could not give me an MOT slot for 3+ weeks after MOT ran out and would not extend the timescale. Same issue with my daughter's car (why did I go back to AC---convenient).
Purchased a 2year old car for my daughter was advised a further 3 year guarantee on used cars. Did eventually manage to get a service date a few months ago. Now has electric handbrake issue --advised today no extended warranty and will cost her £174 for them to look at in a week. Off to find email advising have a warranty.
She uses her car to travel to work in the NHS.
Arnold Clark is a profiteering organisation - best avoided as I will do in the future”
“Purchased a Jeep Compass. Sent from Inverness to Stoke-on-Trent apparently having just been 'serviced'. Book Stamped. Decided on an MOT at S-o-T as there was only a few months left on the 71 plate. Sold a 2 year service plan and further 2 MOT's. Then find out that following the 'service' by the Inverness Branch they were unable to reset the service and oil indicators as they did not have the experience
or necessary diagnostic equipment. (I was then quoted £120, by Mangoletsi, for the reset of the service reminder and oil degradation indicators as if they weren't then problems would ensue as it would give engine management problems). I should have been informed that their 'service' plan was not satisfactory and I should have been told that the services should be carried out by Jeep.”
“Bought my Mercedes from chris in Liverpool couldn't have been any nicer said he would send me an manual and fix the scrape on the seat but as soon as the sale was completed he totally ignored my calls and emails and no manual was sent and no seat was fixed just took my money and ran basically”
“Book car in for service Inverness volvo. What a shambles . Brought car in day before and still after 530pm when ready. They close at 530. Happened as when MOT. I suspect that they do all the volvo cars then leave other car makes till end as cannot be bothered. Willbe checking my oil and filter as previously not done. My advise don't use Inverness Volvo and stay away from Arnold clark service plans 😡🤬”
“Dear Arnold Clark Service Team,
As per today’s service for vechicle 2008 model Peugeot car, we are not satisfied for the service because in standard service the all other service companies at least provides
1. free wash and vaccum
2. Air filter change
3. . New spark plug replace
4. New fuel filter change
These are the basic things provided by all other service authorities and quoted charging £165 . Why we chose Arnold is because we purchased our car from there and we expected a better service.
But these are not done in my service. We are not satisfied with the service provide to us.
Thanking you
Binu”
“Awful, greedy company. I was sold a faulty car and have had to fight tooth and nail to get my money back. I refused the car in writing within 30 days under Consumer Rights Act 2015, and was subsequently ignored for months. This situation has been dragging on now for 5 months, Arnold Clark have finally admitted they sold me a faulty car and that I was within my legal rights to refuse it - they have agreed to refund 95% of my money, but I still haven’t received it. They could have saved me a monumental amount of stress, time and money by accepting liability in the first place, but they are a very greedy company and they will do anything and everything they possibly can to take your money from you. I strongly advise people to avoid this company- I will certainly never make the mistake of buying from them again.”
“Arnold Clark sold me a Rio 1.0 turbo. All photos, technical spec and documentation showed this. But when I went to arrange my own cover registration showed it was a non turbo 1.2. Two hours of fobbing me off and saying emissions showed it was likely a turbo- and dealing with three staff later I asked them to get a mechanic, to lift the bonnet and see if there was physically a turbo! There wasn't. No apology. No attempt to source another car at same price. Manager failed to email me and it's now a week after my complaint went in and still no reply despite chasing them. They said it would take 5 days to get my money back but put it back in my account after two without even telling me. The kicker is that I was buying this from a Kia main dealer site, the car was a 23 plate so the very same salesmen were actually selling them new last year so presumably knew all along what model it was. Make your own minds up about whether this is acceptable. They left me seriously out of pocket, lost me the sale of my old car because I couldn't pick up the new one etc.
I accept mistakes can be made but not the lack of apology and failure to try and make it good. The enclosed screen shot of their advert clearly shows the wrong model advertised.”
“Knowingly MIS-SELLING vehicles , sold me a vehicle and told me it had full service history but as it was an online service history they would forward me a copy the next day , they then spent 8 weeks looking for the service history but eventually admitted the car didn't actually have FSH and suddenly denied ever telling me this , even though they spent 8 weeks trying to trace it and even sending me an email apology regarding this .
Absolute crooks who have lost a loyal customer over what could have been sorted out pretty easily.
Customer services and complaints are a complete waste of time , this is simply an in house tick box exercise and they simply take the word of the dealership you have an issue with.
Now opened a case with the motor ombudsman.
Looking at the amount of negative experiences by customers i would avoid Arnold Clark at all costs .”
“USED the stoke on Trent branch ! Avoid this business at all costs. Sold me a 2017 Honda CRV When delivered it had an emissions light on following a Honda recall. Went back into them was with them for three days As a disabled passenger, I need a lot of room in a vehicle, And they offered me a Corsa As a Loan Vehicle for two weeks Whilst they try to sort the problem. This meant I was basically housebound for this period. I was unable to attend my hospital appointment. Dealer principle refused to take my call. Now have no car so will need to start again”
“Recently purchased a car from the Huddersfield branch. Olivia Child and her manager provided very poor customer service. They sent us a video of the car deceptively, without showing the actual condition of the car. When I went to receive the car, I found an issue and spoke with the click-and-collect guy in London. He informed me to send them an email since it was Sunday and they couldn't do anything at the moment, but assured me they would fix it later. Now, they are telling me they can't do anything because I already signed the agreement. Please be aware of this branch.”
“Sold me a car with knackered front end suspension. They did everything they could not to fix it, or even look at it for that matter. I will never buy a car from them again.”
“Bought car in July and took it back within 60 days (Wigan Renault) as I had an issue with the clutch - the pedal dropped to the floor whilst driving. They returned it to me saying 'they drove it around, but couldn't find a fault'. 11 months later during MOT, they tell me my car has a clutch fault - the same symptom I told them about last July - but they'd like me to pay £960+ LABOUR ONLY to investigate. I asked why this wasn't investigated properly last September and their response was "we drove it but couldn't find any issue - so we couldn't investigate further without there being a problem". Wrote to Customer Service, who came back with "the reason you brought it in last September was difficulty selecting gear"??? What the hell - that was never mentioned by me nor anyone at Wigan.
They then tell me that the issue in September was different from the issue they have picked up.....which is very strange, as in September they said there was no issue! Doing their best to avoid paying to repair the faulty vehicle that was sold to me in the first place.”
“Sadly the Arnold Clark reputation of old seems to be back. Bought a car from Arnold Clark Fiat in Paisley, the sales experience choice of cars etc was actually pretty good. BUT !!! Pray nothing goes wrong after this as you are firmly on your own .The after sales from this branch is absolutely abysmal, I was told the vehicle I purchased had Full Service History and this would be forwarded the following day , after 8 weeks of fobbing me off they suddenly denied all knowledge of any service history as the vehicle doesn't actually have any.
Sadly contacting customer services is a complete waste of time as the complaints procedure unbelievably passes your complaint back to the branch you are having issue with so cannot possibly be resolved, customer services don't reply to your emails anyway.
You buy from a large garage thinking you are protected from Mis Selling like this but sadly a managers bonus is more important than their honesty .
Now reported the case to the motor ombudsman.”
“Quite frankly the worst company I’ve ever had the experience of dealing with, I bought a vehicle from a branch in Carlisle (motor store) in September 2022. When the vehicle was delivered to a local store it had 50000 more miles than the advertised mileage. They refunded me £500 after I initially refused to take the car. I had also paid for a two year service plan and extended warranty, good luck with trying to get your car booked in if you want a service/mot or repair , you have to wait months probably because they prioritise customers who are not on these plans to make more money, . I reported a fault with my vehicle in Jan 2024 and had to wait three months to get the car in, then they couldn’t find the fault so advised me to take it to a Renault dealer. The car went into a Renault dealer who identified the fault after two inspections, they told me the timing belt had been fitted incorrectly (a new timing belt had been fitted 9 days before I bought the car) and incorrect coolant used. Another independent garage also told me they had used incorrect oil (seems to be standard practice for AC garages) . The vehicle was not covered under the extended warranty because of AC’s incompetence so I could not claim , I rang the customer service team at AC who couldn’t have been less interested, they could not get the car repaired immediately so I was forced to accept a repair at the Renault garage rather than wait months for AC to book my car in. This repair has cost me circa £750. When I complained to AC they refused to refund the repair saying the vehicle had been driven with over 20k miles since it was bought (it hasn’t ) but in any event it’s taken 6 months to get the fault fixed at another garage because they wouldn’t book the car in any quicker and could not diagnose the issue. Terrible company, due not risk buying a vehicle from them.”
“Turn up at 0800 and told the staff member i will be waiting. As it was for a mot and service. failed on 2 small things of whuch i know will take a maximum of 1hr to fix i have now been sat here for 6 hrs. No one gives me an update. I also wanted to use the toilets but they are disgusting.”
“I purchased my car 3 weeks ago started to hear a banging noise in drivers rear was taken in garage for checking as had 60 day warranty was told needed new rear bushes Arnold clark head office authorised the work but garage I purchased it from asked to be checked again it was with a different mechanic and he stated that needs new bushes
Garage I purchased it from wants to check vehicle
I am driving a vehicle which is not roadworthy and I am afraid to say if I don’t get new bushes on vehicle then they can keep it
I will NEVER buy from Arnold Clark again total ripoff merchant and I am a female and I will not be fobbed off”
“Arnold Clark extended warranty is not worth the paper of the customer copy they give you.
You would get a better warranty from Trotters independent trading.
Nothing is covered and they will extract every penny they can.
Avoid at all costs”
“Seriously just avoid, their servicing after you purchase and try get stuff seen under warranty or with auto care is just a joke. They fob you off and mess you around.”
“Service from west calder branch has been shocking only had car8 months been car knows the way to garage it’s self staff tell lies and service manager well what can I say ain’t this true would never recommend this company”
“If I could give 0 stars I would.
Bought a car from Stoke on Trent dealership back in February this year, initially the communication from Joshua - the salesman, was great until I received the car.
The car took 2 weeks to arrive despite being told it would be 7 days, it arrived with a handbrake fault which I was not made aware of until I went to collect it, only to be told it’ll need to be repaired - which took another 7 days. 2 weeks after collecting the car the handbrake fault returned and I tried to contact the dealership / salesman on several occasions, leaving several messages to no avail, thankfully after being passed from pillar to post Aberdeen AC agreed to take the car in to repair, only to advise me that the break pads and discs were badly worn, the timing belt needed repaired and the car had done in excess of 30k miles between November and February and not been serviced prior to selling - none of which I was made aware of, I took the car to an independent garage who confirmed the above and advised the car should never have been sold the way it was and was sold in an unsafe state.
I raised a complaint with the AC central team specifically advising I want NO contact with the dealership as they were given ample chances prior to my complaint, only to receive a half arsed email from the manager and bombarded with calls.
Of course issues happen but I was unbelievably understanding given the delays until I was told about the condition the car was sold in. Overall experience was very poor and I’d recommend avoiding this dealership if possible.”
