“Problems arose when documents were signed and deposit handed over.
Two emails and no response on Monday 7th October for me to then call and be advised Blue team are not in the office but a member of the Red team can pick up and look into my request. Firstly - an out of office email is a thing and can notify your customers of when you're not in the office if you don't want to physically tell them and what they need to do in your absence (such as contact the red team).
Secondly on my intial call no one was available so I explained the situation to the lady who picked up the call and she advised me I would get a phone call from 'Alex' on the red team as the aftersales team I thought I might need to deal with were not in. I did infact receive a call from Alex who then proceeded to tell me that no information about why I was calling was handed to him so I needed to go through this a third time. From this point I was fairly annoyed as customer service has truly been lacking since Sunday 6th October.
Third point - After running through everything with Alex on the phone, Alex said he would need to talk to the workshop who had gone home for the evening. I said this was fine but communication has been lacking so I do need to know what the response is. Alex said he understood and he would ring me the following day (Tuesday 8th). This phone call never happened. It was only upon sending an email and threatening to withdraw the sale did I get confirmation I could collect on Friday 11th October.
Friday 11th October rolls round and I am there for my 10am collection only to find out the car is not ready. I go and sit with the after sales team and fill out all the paperwork whilst we wait. During this hour sat at the table I am left for 45 minutes alone whilst the after sales team try and get it together. I'm left for so long the member of sales who sold me the car came up to me twice and asked why I was still there!! After an hour and a half I am told the car has been sent back to valet as it's not satisfactory. Should be 15/20 minutes maximum. I'm told to return to the waiting area where I am left for another hour as no one checks the cars done and hands it to me!
I then get in the car and the car itself stinks of fag smoke and has marks all on the inside which quite frankly look like mold! I have a nearly 3 year old who must commute in this car everyday and we're not lucky enough to own two cars!! By this point I am beyond done with the people at this branch and drive home.
Within a week the drivers wing mirror breaks and I ring the branch and book it in to be repaired. 5th December is what I am offered and I'm told to make a list of any other issues I may have and tell them at drop off and they will fix them the same day. I'm also told a courtesy car will be made available for me which will be a like for like (so i expect similar price wise car and runs the same i.e electric).
I have rang today - 4th December - only to find out they can no longer take my car with ALL the faults it has and fix it tomorrow. Despite the fact that is what was promised and that my courtesy car will be petrol. The cost of petrol for someone who does the amount of miles I do in a day is ridiculous which is why we changed to electric. It's not acceptable to pledge a like for like vehicle and then go back and confirm a petrol vehicle is all that is available.
I don't know what manager I spoke to today however he was patronising and rude. Initially siding with me that this is not acceptable for a car which has been in my hands for less than two months before backtracking pretty quickly at the mention of a full blown complaint if this is not rectified and the fuel difference for petrol covered. A full list of faults on the car is below:
Faulty wingmirror (Initially did not close after the first week however now intimitantly works)
Faulty windscreen wipers (leading to a breakdown on the M40 for 3 hours with a toddler during Storm Bert!)
Driver's side door does not latch without slamming
TPMS fault on tyre - intermittently comes up on display in a flash and then disappears
Full beam fault - Will randomly flash when it's dark. Not just one flash several in a row. Often says Auto Full Beam not functioning.
Regenerative Braking - Says this is not available an abhorrent amount. Often 2 or 3 times a day.
I don't think any of these are acceptable for a car which has been in my hands less than two months and proves the car was not properly tested to confirm full functionality before it was handed over to me.”
“Poor experience buying my car, and even worse aftercare.
Summary: wasted time on trips to the showroom, mechanical issues, aftercare refusing the fix issues, aftercare making poor repair jobs, and previous owner's medical records, medical equipment, and bank statements left in the car
First trip
I rang ahead about viewing a car I'd seen on the AvailableCar website. I was told the car would be available to view and test drive and was given a time.
Once I arrived I was told the car wasn't able to be test-driven, all I could do was look inside. The car hadn't been cleaned, it looked as though it had just been dropped off by the previous owner, something I pointed out to the salesperson. They said next time the car would be cleaned and ready for a test drive. One tyre was also bald, definitely not legal. I pointed this out and I was told it looked fine to them but that they'd raise it with a mechanic.
Second trip
I was able to test drive the car, but it still hadn't been cleaned, I pointed this out again to the salesperson. They said by the time I collect the car they'll make sure it's had a full service. The bald tyre had been replaced and I agreed to purchase the vehicle and part exchange mine.
Third trip
I drove down to collect the vehicle, I had to wait around for nearly an hour for someone to see me. When I got to the car it still hadn't been cleaned, there's coffee stains on the pillars, spilt and dried hand wash in the glove box... but by this time I'd already part exchanged my vehicle and switched the insurance.
I now noticed multiple issues:
- As soon as I turn on the ignition there's a warning light telling me there's no fuel in the tank.
- On the drive home I realise that the air conditioning also isn't working.
- There doesn't look to be any screen wash in the car. I refill the reservoir only to see that the screen wash pours straight back out again.
- The car is dirtier than I first realised, there are even old medical records and bank statements from the previous owner left in the car
- There's even an empty pot for a stool sample left with the medical records
- The car was struggling to start on occasion. I had the batter tested, it wasn't charging and needed replacing
- The seal in the driver side door was torn
Aftercare:
Don't expect friendly customer service from these guys
I ring the the aftercare team, they tell me I can drop the car off at the weekend, borrow a rental and return the following weekend. The rental car was also filthy and full of pet hairs (despite them lecturing me on how animals are allowed in their cars and how extra cleaning fees would be charged).
They replaced the door seal and the battery, they also re-gased the airconditioning (but did not check for leaks). For an entire week I'm told they cannot see the screenwash leaking. (I'm asked to believe they cannot see water leaking from a bottle). The car was also finally cleaned-ish, but the coffee stains and dried hand wash were still missed!
I believe the aftercare team stretched this out so I'd give up, I needed my car back and they don't have to fix anything under warranty if they don't admit there's a fault. I'd tried to book in for a repair again after this, but now I'm told I can't borrow a rental for the week like last time (I can only get there on weekends because of work), just another way of them stopping you using the warranty.
My garage found the leak straight away, they even said there were screws missing from when someone else had taken a look.
My aircon is now not working again. Although it was re-gassed AvailableCar either didn't check for leaks, or hoped that their temporary fix would outlast the warranty period.”
“Our visits to AC at Castle Donington were spoilt by long waiting times to get service from the staff. I know it’s August and holiday time but if pick up time for the car is 1040, and after a 5 day wait, we expected things to be ready. After waiting 20 min, we explained that we had to go to work at 1130 so could someone be found or could we change pickup to Saturday. Apparently, you can’t pick up on Saturday, so we finally got to see a person at 1110. It was obvious that the paperwork hadn’t been finalised, they couldn’t find the payment details and the car was not parked outside but on the lot somewhere. Finally got the car but no petrol so more time lost with the result of being late at work. AC expect you to pay on time so they should have the car ready on time too. We were not the only people waiting 20 to 30 min for attention. Suggest you factor this wait into your schedule. My rating - appalling service.”
“We bought a beautiful skoda superb from the leeds branch last year and I cannot possibly express what a great experience it was for us. Everything is designed to make a stressful process as chill as possible. All the cars open and able to be looked at properly, plenty of space, soft play for the little ones and mario kart for the slightly older kiddos. When we decided what model we were looking for they only had 1 available onsite but in manual. They found an automatic at another branch and were perfectly happy to bring it half the length of the country for us to test drive.
Aftercare service was exceptional too. Our car was unfortunately stolen after about a year and the insurance wanted our warranty paperwork which had been misplaced in a house move. The available car staff were sympathetic and caring and immediately sent us copies of the paperwork.
We were positively gutted when we came to look for a new car that the leeds available car has closed down and been replaced with an absolutely horrific alternative. Nothing but hard sell, scripted questions, dirty cars,
Come back available cars!!”
“Told my car would be ready Thursday morning. Told to pay tax and insurance it the day before which I did. Then less than 24 hours notice that it won't be ready. I booked a train to collect the car and absolutely no compensation of any kind. All they care about is taking your money.”
“My partner bought the car same old story as most ppl here.Had the car for 4 mon. Keept breaking down,has spent morw time in their repair shop then on the road.To whoever is bying a car from them consider going somewhere else if not the make notes of who you deal with take pictures and record every conversation otherwise you end up with same car they keep promissing to fix or lose 4000 by selling it back to them.They dont give a damn after the sale.Hope this helps someone”
“Bought a car, came to pick it up EML light on, ten minutes later sales man John Sharp said it’s ok
2 days later smoke coming in from the engine, all the dash board lit up. I was advised I could not have a courtesy car unless I get it fixed. I agreed, then 10 days later everything went wrong. The management were no use at all, the sales team no use at all. Finally I exchanged for another car. It wasn’t dropped off at my home address when they said. I had to get taxi to work, I would not recommend this company, they are so up there own back sides, once they have sold you the car, they don’t care. I’ve had nothing but trouble. So please do not buy a car from here”
“After purchasing a car less then 15 months ago which we have had nothing but trouble with, and has cost us over £1500 in total. we contacted Available car to speak to them about the pile of junk they had sold us to be told they wouldn’t take any responsibility and didn’t want anything to do with it. They are so lovely and helpful when they are taking your money but the after care is absolutely disgraceful. We took our car to a garage to be told the problem it had was an old problem and had been leaking for quite some time to of coursed the damage it had. It is quite clear that their cars aren’t checked over properly. Please for your sanity Avoid, Avoid this garage at all costs as the stress it has caused our family is unbearable.”
“Very bad after sales bout car 4 months ago and had nothing but trouble they would not help to rectify faults took money ok they give you excuses that after 3 months warranty they say anything can happen to the car and they can't do any thing cost me £10000 for car and £600 at dealer to fix first problem and now have to take to dealer again because central locking don't work or power windows great service until you drive out of Leeds branch shameless people”
“I saw the car online i wanted, i have been doing research on this very car so understand what i am looking at. I called in to AC to have a look at it after checking it looked ok, i went to find a sales person. I was approached fairly quickly and told them what car i was interested in, i was then barraged with loads of questions which irritated me specially asking me what is my intended purpose for use with this vehicle?? I know these sales people go on courses and are taught how they must deal with customers but not all customers are the same. Before i knew it they were filling out paperwork like it was a mad rush...I had to stop her and say we need to look at service history etc before we proceed in finer details because they don't advertise the history status on line etc. When she showed me the cars history in which i understand they can only produce what they have.. anyway it was very sketchy so that was my main concern. We went for a short test drive which was fine i was happy with that but when we got back i had a better look around the car because now it was unlocked and i found a few more concerns and issues that could have hidden more serious issues so i told her about it and was told i could chat with her manager number 1. Again i have no issues with these representatives of AC i told him of my issues and he showed me a copy of the checks they do when they take these vehicles in and i was quite impressed with how thorough it appeared to be and down on the list were all the issues i had found including the car having recent a paint repair. I was fairly satisfied in what manager number1 put to me so it was up to me to decide if i wanted to do a deal. I said i was happy to take the car with very sketchy history with history of paint repair which could have been an un recorded collision and all this would reflect on the sketchy history and mileage. So I've dealt with sales person first and number 1 manager in which i asked for a little reduction in the price to cover the risk of me buying a possible load of trouble and looking at past reviews i didn't want this. so number 2 manager goes to see number 3 and returns with an offer of knocking £200 off the sale price which was very disappointing so i asked for £400 to be knocked of and told him i would buy the car and take the risk but they refused so i walked away. As i was walking away i looked round and saw Number 1, 2 & 3 all talking together and glancing over at me so i expected a call before i got to my car but it never came.
I don't have any gripe with any of the staff but they advertised that they will try and fix you up with a car. The car i drove was the one i wanted but had these issues that they could not guarantee i offered to buy the car with only a £400 discount but they let me walk away. Someone else is going to end up with this vehicle and may not spot these issues and that's where the trouble starts.
I was very impressed with the layout of the place and the stock levels are staggering and under the lighting the cars look outstanding. However don't be rushed by these people and check history with care because it doesn't look like a company that will help you out after they have taken your money looking at past reviews.”
“Buying a new car isn't one of the cheapest things in life - it's next highest expense after buying a house and just ahead of a new kitchen in the expense list.
After spending a long time choosing what car we wanted and then finding the right one to fit the bill we ended up at the Available Car showroom in Leeds and bought a car at the start of August.
Over 4 months have passed since we bought our car and Available Car have failed on all fronts - every time a fault occurred and was returned for rectifying, we had new issues ALL CAUSED BY AVAILABLE CAR!
We have has:
Damaged engine tray - AC did not refit correctly
Damaged bumper by screwing broken tray to it - done by AC workshop
Damaged paintwork - from AC workshop
Scratched window - incorrect refitting by AC
Dent and pain damage - from AC workshop
They have had the car for around 8 weeks of the time we have owned our car. They have agreed that this is all their doing, but hold firm in that as a family business they do not offer any compensation.
Available Car agreed that they would swap the car - although are only offering the invoice value of the vehicle, which is a whole £4000 less than the equivalent car they are selling TODAY.
What they want to do is to profit from their mistake and leave us out of pocket "trading in n" our car that we have never had a chance to drive because of their mistakes!
I would not recommend this company to my worst enemy - they are borderline criminal in their activities.
If we can't get agreement on this this week we will be seeking legal advice.
The worst! 0 / 5 STARS!!”
“Having paid for my new car and changing over my car insurance etc to pick up on Friday at 1.20 a morning phone from Available car informed me someone had damaged my new car in moving it around the showroom .I appreciated the honesty and was told I could pick it up Monday morning after repair .However this made me decide not to go ahead with sale.Apologies were made for the mishap at the time but no further contact by them for my refund I had to ring them .That was quickly sorted by a nice chap .I have had 3cars from them and my partner just bought one too.Since this the same car went up on the website and was £200 dearer then £500 dearer ?I feel at least a follow up call would have been a kind thing to do I know there’s COVID a new manager etc .The staff seem nice the young man who first dealt with the sale and test drive was lovely.”
“The service, particularly the after sale service is terrible. After choosing the vehicle I wanted it was a good 2 hours of paperwork, checks and negotiation. On the day I picked my vehicle up I was given a time to arrive. On arrival I was seated and waited 35 minutes before anyone came to see me, then again, a good hour of signing papers and being read legalities etc.
However, the major frustration is the after sale service. Once you have paid your money their interest is non existent. I have been chasing a spare key for my vehicle for four months. I was told at hand over I would have it in a few weeks. I called up 8 weeks later and told it would be with me in 2/3 weeks time... it wasn’t. 4 months down the line and I still don’t have it! I have called their after sales team multiple times. Sometimes there is no answers, when there is an answer I’m always told “no one is available, we will get someone to call you back” a call that never comes! Frustrating and terrible service and I am still without my second key as promised.
My advice and warning would be get everything you need at point of sale and hand over, because after this point their service and responses are embarrassingly bad. Sales over service it seems.”
“Emma is rude and unhelpful, despite them giving me a quite which I have photographic evidence of, they offered me the car at 40 a month more than the original quote and then Emma was just awful to deal with”
“BEWARE take photo's when you test drive a car, I had a test drive and then purchased the car but there was no spare wheel on purchase I was made to feel like a liar. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED”
“Unhelpful and unrpofessional. No locking wheel nut was incldued in the handover but they deny this. Not something you would always think of asking for.
Their offer of a solution is for me to make a 300 mile round trip and they will remove the wheel nuts and replace the, BUT they will only replace them with non-locking standard wheel nuts.
Appalling lack of customer service. All I ask is for them to re-imburse the £35 cost to me from a main dealer to replace the missing wheel nut. But no, they make it difficult, costly and offer a service that is below par. Who on earth would want nuts that don't lock. Nuts in itself”
“My partner brought a car from them and it went wrong after 3 maths he had it checked over by a Aldi garage and found out the belt had been put on wrong so it frayed and went into the engine causing considerably damage to the engine so far it's taken 3 weeks for available car to put it right. Can't believe they put the belt on wrong.l would never go there to buy a car”
