Discussion
I have a feeling that we’ll get some conflicting views here, but I’d be interested in what other people would do.
Traveled from the Midlands to Preston on Saturday to see a Skoda Yeti at a small dealer. 200 mile round trip and the car wasn’t anywhere near as good as described, with poor / missing service history, noisy aircon, and a duff wheel bearing. I sucked it up - it’s the way things go.
Got home and found another Yeti to go and see. Another 200-mile round trip. Called the dealer (Skoda main dealer) on Saturday afternoon and booked a test drive for this morning. They took all of my details, including postal address, email, phone number and they even asked me to show a driving licence if I wanted to drive it. They quizzed me about part-ex (none) and finance (cash). Arranged to be there as they opened this morning.
I got there on time, spoke to the (only) staff member and told him I was there for a test drive of their red Yeti Monte Carlo, at which point I was told it had been sold. Some investigation revealed that it was probably already sold when I booked the test drive.
I’ll admit to being extremely annoyed, but didn’t resort to bad language. However, the staff member was under no misunderstanding about how I felt. The chap (who later admitted to being the manager after I demanded the name of the manager) apologised a few times, but then said “what can I do?”, and tried to blame one of his team, which annoyed me even more…. All they had to do was call me back to say the car was already sold, but he didn’t seem to get it and just said that they’d been busy that day.
I obviously had enough of a rant at the manager, because an hour later, I got a call from the owner of the dealership, who was probably a bit miffed at having to handle a seriously unhappy customer on a bank holiday Monday. Again, he was apologetic and said he’d try to put it right - he offered to sort it by Friday, which I’ve agreed to, although I’m struggling to see what he’s going to do by then.
That’s 10 gallons of V-power and 5 hours of a bank holiday Monday wasted. So - what would you do (assuming of course that they can’t find me an equivalent car by next weekend)?
Suck it up?
Hit them for how much I’m out of pocket?
Haggle for additional inconvenience?
Leave a terrible TrustPilot review?
Complain bitterly on an Internet forum and get told to grow a pair?
Over to the PH collective….
Traveled from the Midlands to Preston on Saturday to see a Skoda Yeti at a small dealer. 200 mile round trip and the car wasn’t anywhere near as good as described, with poor / missing service history, noisy aircon, and a duff wheel bearing. I sucked it up - it’s the way things go.
Got home and found another Yeti to go and see. Another 200-mile round trip. Called the dealer (Skoda main dealer) on Saturday afternoon and booked a test drive for this morning. They took all of my details, including postal address, email, phone number and they even asked me to show a driving licence if I wanted to drive it. They quizzed me about part-ex (none) and finance (cash). Arranged to be there as they opened this morning.
I got there on time, spoke to the (only) staff member and told him I was there for a test drive of their red Yeti Monte Carlo, at which point I was told it had been sold. Some investigation revealed that it was probably already sold when I booked the test drive.
I’ll admit to being extremely annoyed, but didn’t resort to bad language. However, the staff member was under no misunderstanding about how I felt. The chap (who later admitted to being the manager after I demanded the name of the manager) apologised a few times, but then said “what can I do?”, and tried to blame one of his team, which annoyed me even more…. All they had to do was call me back to say the car was already sold, but he didn’t seem to get it and just said that they’d been busy that day.
I obviously had enough of a rant at the manager, because an hour later, I got a call from the owner of the dealership, who was probably a bit miffed at having to handle a seriously unhappy customer on a bank holiday Monday. Again, he was apologetic and said he’d try to put it right - he offered to sort it by Friday, which I’ve agreed to, although I’m struggling to see what he’s going to do by then.
That’s 10 gallons of V-power and 5 hours of a bank holiday Monday wasted. So - what would you do (assuming of course that they can’t find me an equivalent car by next weekend)?
Suck it up?
Hit them for how much I’m out of pocket?
Haggle for additional inconvenience?
Leave a terrible TrustPilot review?
Complain bitterly on an Internet forum and get told to grow a pair?
Over to the PH collective….
I think you would struggle to get any compo via legal means as there isn't a contract.
Despite that, I would be as annoyed as you sound. It doesn't seem much to expect them to call you - perhaps they didn't know how far you were coming? But I would share your annoyance. Be interesting to see what they come up with.
Despite that, I would be as annoyed as you sound. It doesn't seem much to expect them to call you - perhaps they didn't know how far you were coming? But I would share your annoyance. Be interesting to see what they come up with.
limpsfield said:
perhaps they didn't know how far you were coming?
Fair point, but they were VERY aware - I asked lots of questions about service history and apologised for all the questions, but pointed out I didn’t want to drive 100 miles and be disappointed with the car.In their defence, I definitely wasn’t disappointed with the car…
I think the ability to reserve, and purchase, a car online causes a lot of problems like this too. I remember making arrangements to go and view a car the next morning, and as we were sat at the salesman's desk going over the details he suddenly looked puzzled and told me the car had actually been reserved by someone online before I arrived. I was very annoyed and that was only 10 miles up the road, so I've since made a rule to not travel very far at all now!
This is the danger with going to view or buy anything, regardless of whether it's 2 miles away or 200 miles away. Even more so these days with online purchases. As per the chap above, unless it's something incredibly rare then just bide your time and wait for something to come up reasonably local to mitigate against these situations happening.
Also from the dealer's point of view, they are fielding calls and emails all day long from vaguely interested buyers / window shoppers who say they are definitely coming on x date / time to view it, please hold it for me, and 99 out of 100 of them will never show up. The counter-argument that they should have contacted you to let you know it has been sold is a fair one, but the dealership will have several members of staff and it's likely that the sales bod who sold the car wasn't the same sales bod with whom you'd arranged the test drive. You can't realistically expect them to inform every other staff member in the dealership every time some guy has said he's coming to do a test drive in the morning. They'd never sell anything with all the no-show time-wasters.
Also from the dealer's point of view, they are fielding calls and emails all day long from vaguely interested buyers / window shoppers who say they are definitely coming on x date / time to view it, please hold it for me, and 99 out of 100 of them will never show up. The counter-argument that they should have contacted you to let you know it has been sold is a fair one, but the dealership will have several members of staff and it's likely that the sales bod who sold the car wasn't the same sales bod with whom you'd arranged the test drive. You can't realistically expect them to inform every other staff member in the dealership every time some guy has said he's coming to do a test drive in the morning. They'd never sell anything with all the no-show time-wasters.
I've had something happen like this..
Called about a car on Thursday, agreed to view on Saturday.
Had a call Saturday morning from the sales chap confirming the appointment, I was already on the way (about an hour).
Arrived on time to be told by the sales chap that it was sold by a colleague on the Friday, but he'd not put a marker on their stock list. Oh well, things happen.
Turned round and as I was pulling into my drive had another call from the sales chap who told me that in fact the one that sold on Friday was a diesel and not the petrol I'd been interested in (same colour, spec etc) and he'd hang on if I wanted to pop back and see it.
Politely told him that after already wasting a couple of hours due to their lack of communication I'd not be buying from them. He actually had a bit of a moan at me that I wasn't going back to view it as agreed on Thursday..
Strange experience all round.
Called about a car on Thursday, agreed to view on Saturday.
Had a call Saturday morning from the sales chap confirming the appointment, I was already on the way (about an hour).
Arrived on time to be told by the sales chap that it was sold by a colleague on the Friday, but he'd not put a marker on their stock list. Oh well, things happen.
Turned round and as I was pulling into my drive had another call from the sales chap who told me that in fact the one that sold on Friday was a diesel and not the petrol I'd been interested in (same colour, spec etc) and he'd hang on if I wanted to pop back and see it.
Politely told him that after already wasting a couple of hours due to their lack of communication I'd not be buying from them. He actually had a bit of a moan at me that I wasn't going back to view it as agreed on Thursday..
Strange experience all round.
TBH your story makes it sound like the dealer IS doing the right thing after their mistake.
Manager took on board your rightful displeasure, owner called you.
That's good progress so far.
We all make mistakes don't we?
Annoying for you yes but what you may find is that the dealer is a good un!
Manager took on board your rightful displeasure, owner called you.
That's good progress so far.
We all make mistakes don't we?
Annoying for you yes but what you may find is that the dealer is a good un!
Also, unless it’s a special car don’t travel too far
When it plays up you need to be able to take it back to where it came from
Or know the manufacturers warranty should cover it but with that pissing Hyundai dealer in Southampton it turns out the second hand car I had purchased had t been serviced properly and other garages didn’t want to get involved
When it plays up you need to be able to take it back to where it came from
Or know the manufacturers warranty should cover it but with that pissing Hyundai dealer in Southampton it turns out the second hand car I had purchased had t been serviced properly and other garages didn’t want to get involved
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