“Their administration is absolutely awful. Failing to keep promises on refunds is just not on. Withholding money because of silly wee girls taking the huff. Interest charges on the way to them for everyday it’s late.”
“Arnold clark Aberdeen,you should hang your heads in shame,my daughter went to buy her first car from them,she said she wanted to pay for it herself and since im a long distance trucker i couldnt be with her to look at cars (just home this week) ive seen the car now and im really angry,dents,marks and passenger front wheel has been kerbed to death! I asked my daughter why she didnt notice the wheels, she said the passenger side was parked next to another car and she couldnt get down that side!! Thats a dirty salesman trick,but im not finished with arnold rip off clark,im taking this further and i will find out who the dirty salesman was! Oh and the car was over priced too,people need to be warned”
“Bought my new car on the 3rd of June am still waiting for my log book . I have phoned,text and went in to see if they could help me did not get any help . I had to phone DVLA they said first the heard anything was on the 28th September and waiting this is shocking service from Arnold Clark. Sold the car and don't want to help.”
“I have always been wary of Arnold Clark as I have heard some bad reviews and issues that people have had regarding the company. However, decided to give it a try and seen as they were offering a good deal for trade-ins at the time, thought I was getting a good deal. Now, the car itself was immaculate, can't fault the valeting team on that part. Drove the car home that day, Saturday.
After work on Monday, whilst it was still daylight, I had a look at the tyres, just as I had heard issues of old tyres and sure enough, the passenger front tyre, on the outer edge, was worn down to nearly nothing and the edges were all cracked.
Took it to get privately looked at by tyre place near my work who told me that the tyres were all original tyres that the car came out with back in 2016 when the car came off the ramp. The tyres were clearly damaged, old and cracked and needed replaced.
When I phoned and asked about being booked into get them changed under my warranty, I was told that if I paid for four new tyres, they would reimburse me for two tyres. So, now I need to spend another £200 for tyres to only get £100 back when the tyres should have been replaced.
I was also told that if the tyres were cracking due to age, there was not much that could be done on their end. However, they should not have sold me a car with its original tyres as in nearly six years, there wouldn't be a massive deal of tread left. It is also approaching winter when decent tyres a must for getting around safely. So, I have felt quite cheated.”
“They don’t deserve the one star. A truly dreadful experience, this firm sold me a defective car and the follow up customer service was disgraceful.
Don’t go anywhere near them, go to a reputable dealer.
No stars in this company!”
“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”
“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”
“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”
