“I'm not a happy customer. It started great with my car. But when it came to a warranty claim on my Kia , it took 6 weeks to even just get them to process my claim. A litany of excuses , passed about like a dirty rag , failure to take responsibility, and even openly telling lies , I cannot forgive this appalling dreadful experience. I definitely would not recommend purchasing a car from Arnold Clark, with Hillside road Aberdeen, being particularly atrocious.”
“❌❌ PLEASE STAY CLEAR FROM THIS COMPANY ❌❌ I am one of many customers, who unfortunately has been sold a faulty car by Arnold Clark with so many problems. I faced issues with the car the minute I drove it away from their depot, and told them straight away within my warranty period, they booked me into an Audi garage who advised of a long list of issues such as corroded exhaust pipe, rear silencer corroded, excessive wear lip on discs, suspension issues, wiring issues with the lights and lots more. Since Audi advised of these issues, Arnold Clark have completely ignored me, they have not answered me and we’re not at all willing to help - almost as if they knew they were guilty of selling me a car that wasn’t at all safe to drive in or Road worthy! The car is not at all safe and I cannot use it. I am now still having issues with them not responding and they have been reported to The Financial Ombudsman, Resolver, raised the issue with my Finance Company and the FCA, and I am now taking legal action. This company is absolutely disgusting and I would advise you to steer clear of them!!! I am not the only one who has these issues, please please please research their reviews and others who are in the same position as I would hate anyone to go through the stress I am having to go through with them.”
“Spoken down to, ripped off, arrogant staff and repairs you’re booked in for don’t have the necessary parts so another visit required. Faults not diagnosed multiple times until out of warranty then magically diagnosed with the attached fee of course. Was the diagnostic even run at all? Nothing seemed updated and as I said diagnosed.
Do people fall for this con game?
Will never set foot in another Arnold Clark’s
A waste of time and money for a lacklustre unprofessional service.”
“I was a 3-time customer of Arnold Clark; unfortunately, I will never be one again.
Should you have any major issues following purchase, please beware that their post-sales service is appalling. I lost hours of personal and work time in communication with them and travelling to and from branches, not to mention an undue amount of stress attempting to resolve the situation and in communications with an incompetent workforce.
8 days following purchase, I raised a fault with the vehicle to Arnold Clark. When given the opportunity to find the fault, the Salford branch advised me that the brake discs were pitted and needed replacing, and that this should have been noticed during the pre-sale preparation of the vehicle (a statement which head office have since contradicted).
The brake discs were replaced under the post-purchase warranty; however, they were unable to replicate the fault the vehicle had been booked in for at this time.
The fault recurred and the car was then booked in at the Bolton branch, which was the original purchase site. As I no longer felt safe with the vehicle due to the fault, coupled with what I had been advised regarding the brake discs, I employed my ‘Right to reject’ as per the Consumer Rights Act 2015.
Whilst awaiting confirmation of the fault to proceed with rejection, I asked the branch manager, Dan Edwards to investigate why the car had been sold with the brake discs in bad condition (which I had previously requested of more junior staff) and requested the return of the wiring for the dashcam which I had had installed, Dan assured me he would come back to me on these points. Alas, he did not. I sent a follow-up email confirming my intention to reject and raised these points again. They were subsequently ignored, and Dan then became abrupt and ceased communications.
I then wrote a formal complaint to Arnold Clark’s customer service department. I received a response to only one issue raised, with no actual explanation on this point and no response regarding the rest of my complaint, including the queries relating to the brake discs and wiring.
Following this unsatisfactory response, I requested that my complaint be escalated to a senior manager. Almost a week later, I received a response from a manager, this time responding to multiple points raised, although still missing some. I was advised that my comments regarding the service received from staff would be investigated internally and that I would receive no feedback on this and that this was Arnold Clark’s final response.
Arnold Clark clearly do not care about customer retention or customer satisfaction, if the points raised had been responded to accordingly in the first instance, I may have considered purchasing another car from them in the future, but I certainly will not now.
It is also worth noting that Arnold Clark do not offer any courtesy vehicles suitable for those with limitations due to physical ailments or those with an automatic-only driving licence.
In addition, I would encourage anyone looking to purchase a vehicle from Arnold Clark not to use their ADD500 part exchange promotion and to instead negotiate their part exchange value further. Should there be any reason to reject the vehicle, this value is non-refundable as per the T&Cs. No one expects to have to reject a vehicle; if I had any expectation of this, I would have negotiated myself as I would not have accepted the non-promotional value.
I have now suffered substantial loss due to this experience, losing at least 12 hours of work, paying for the fuel of family and friends and for taxis, the cost of dashcam installation, the cost of changing vehicle insurance and tax for a vehicle I barely used (due to safety concerns and faults being looked into at branch), and the part exchange value, with no way to recoup this.
Overall, I now have an extremely negative view of the Arnold Clark brand and the competence of their customer service department, a loyal customer lost”
“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.”
