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Arnold Clark Horror Stories


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Few things.

I got them to replace my brake discs and pads last november. 2 months later they were screeching like f**k so I took the car back and said there was nothing wrong with them (incidently the brakes stopped screeching, as they do, for a day or two). I haven't bothered my arse going back with it. Apparently its a common fact that they use cheapo pads and discs.

Also, went to Tannadice a year back and got a flat tyre (i had only had my car 3 months at this point). So when I go to change it, the spare wheel was a completely different fitting from my car. I've got 4 nuts on my wheels and the spare was a 5 nut wheel. Naturally, i was fucking livid as Dundee is a bit out the way for me and I had to drive home with a not so slow puncture. I went straight to AC the next day for a replacement when the daft bint told me there was nothing she could do because i didn't take it out to check when I first got the car. After explaining to her gaffer that taking the spare out the compartment in the boot to check that it fitted wasn't on my agenda when I first got my car, and also that it should be a given that it should match my car, he reluctantly agreed to swap it. It was a battle all the same. p***ks.

And now recently I've noticed that I've been charged for repairs that they shouldn't have. I know hee haw about cars and my cam shaft sensor went on the blink. After paying them 40 quid for the pleasure of just looking at it, they've charged me another 80 on top of that for the repair. As it happens, this is covered in my warranty. I've still to go in and pull them up for it. Might not even bother because it's probably not worth the hassel.

I wouldn't recommend them but I may have just been unlucky.

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I had to put my Polo in for a repair before I discovered a decent backstreet garage, so took it to an Arnold Clark VW.

After doing the repair they advised me there was some other potential work needing done (front bearing needing replaced), I told them to GTF and when I next got my car serviced there was nothing said about fixing either of the front bearnings.

It did need replaced eventually, maybe a couple of years later or so. But they obviously saw it was a bit worn and fancied trying to con me out of the cost of replacing it.

Absoloute chancers.

In fact the main thing putting me off replacing my current W-reg car is that it still goes and a worry that any car I buy might cost me a fortune in maintenance at whatever con-man sells me it.

No matter what goes wrong with used cars, it always seems to be out of the terms of the warranty. Funny that.

Edited by Jie Bie
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Horrible Garage. I once walked in to see about buying a car CASH. (well not actual cash but money from my savings - but I was not needing finance) It was the summer and we had been playing 5s in the morning - I had 3/4s on and an Argentina top. The Salesmen literally just looked at me and went about the rest of their day. I was quite young and not dressed to impress - clearly they never thought that I was better paid than them on a good week!! I must have stood at the front for 5 good minutes. I even started opening car doors myself and still nothing!!

What a way to treat people!!

I buy my cars from Parks now - a proper company.

Similar experience to myself as I was buying the car with CASH as well. Seen the car advertised on the Arnold Clark website and decided it was worth a drive to Stirling for a closer look. So I turned up with the wife and 3 screaming bairns to view the car in question (probably didnae look like the kind of guy who would have £8998 of cash to spend on a car). Anyway had a quick look over the car when the salesman approached and asked if he could help with anything. I asked if he could get me the keys so I could get a look inside and to get me all the paperwork so I could check the amount of previous owners, was it and ex rental, service history etc. Everything was OK, so asked if I could get a quick test drive. His response was along the lines of 'what are you going to buy the car?, maybe we should talk about what you have to trade in first and if the figures add up for you'. My wife and I just looked at each other, I could see that she was a touch pissed off with his attitude. Once the saleman was informed not to quote any finance options as we would just be paying cash, he seem to change his attitude and become a bit more pleasant. I recently found out that the guy in question had left the business, no surprises there then

This was the start of my horror story, only myself to blame as I should have walked at this point

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  • 3 weeks later...

Never had any problems when buying a car from them, their service department is utter garbage though.

I reluctantly put my car into them for a service and MOT last year as it was a freebie included in the sale of the car. Unsurprisingly they managed to find several trivial faults that didn't exist but would cost a fortune to fix. The worst was them claiming my back brakes were binding and I would need a new set of pads. Fair enough, they were binding but this was because they had wrongly adjusted the handbrake. So they were trying to screw me £100 odds for a new set of pads that weren't needed.

The service manager couldn't seem to understand why I was so angry. I ended up just taking the car home, borrowing some toold and adjusting the handbrake myself, which sorted the problem. I will never be letting their service department touch one of my cars again.

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a week on, still no sign of Arnold. Have we scared him away? dry.gif

Indeed, no sign of Sir A recently.

My life has been much better the last couple of weeks as Im offshore in West Africa at the moment. No calls from Sir A's Sales or Servicing Departments. Ahhh bliss, offshore is an Arnold free zone

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  • 4 weeks later...

After talking about Arnold Clarks on the topic about the Vauxhall Astra, I just remembered this piece of trivia

Last weeks Sunday Times had a supplement which gave a listing of the 100 biggest private companies in the UK. Arnold Clark was the 15th, that right, the 15th biggest private company in the UK. They made £187m profit last year and the c***s still cant give you any aftersales care.

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After talking about Arnold Clarks on the topic about the Vauxhall Astra, I just remembered this piece of trivia

Last weeks Sunday Times had a supplement which gave a listing of the 100 biggest private companies in the UK. Arnold Clark was the 15th, that right, the 15th biggest private company in the UK. They made £187m profit last year and the c***s still cant give you any aftersales care.

Aftersales is the bane of all manufacturers / dealers - they are there for one reason - to sell cars/trucks/buses whatever - Aftersales is a bottomless pit of heartache & tiny profit margins - hence the reason why customer service is so poor.

I work in aftersales (in the commercial / HGV sector in the south of England) & our fixed costs ,training costs & staffing (both productive & non productive) are massive - We charge £70 per hour yet our margins are between 3 & 5 %.

Im sure given the choice - all manufacturers/ dealers would ditch Aftersales in a hearbeat.

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  • 6 months later...

Anyone ever have bother with them after buying a new/used car?

I'm thinking about buying a 09 focus off them but for some reason I think they are cowboys!

Anyone out there able to share some success or horror stories to help me on my travels....no pun intended!

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Anyone ever have bother with them after buying a new/used car?

I'm thinking about buying a 09 focus off them but for some reason I think they are cowboys!

Anyone out there able to share some success or horror stories to help me on my travels....no pun intended!

Plenty of horrors stories out there but I've never had a problem with them, then again, I've never had a car from them that's broke down, yet.

Edited by ayrmad
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Their Car Sales/After Sales and Servicing etc are monumentally terrible. I run my employer's leased car section, and Arnold Clark are on of the companies we lease from. To be fair, they're pretty good on that side, and we've never really had any problems.

What would concern me is that the cars after their three year lease go back to Clarks, and unless they're in absolutely terrible condition are put to their second hand car sales bit, with a rudimentary tidy up and basic service (if you're lucky). They also won't tell you that it's been a lease.

One of our employees had a tiff with their Motherwell branch, who sold her brother the same car she'd previously been leasing. He was told an absolute crock of shit about the history and he wasn't happy at all.

Like i say, from a leasing point of view they've been great (only since they punted the guy i used to deal with elsewhere), but i'd never buy one from them in a million years.

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