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| Customer service | 4/10  |
|---|---|
| Value for Money | 5/10 |
| Overall rating | 4/10 |
Full review by
Big Dave Midlands
on 5th Aug 2008
User Rating : 4
Respect :
0
Good Points: Large choice of vehicles, all cars in compound that have completed the preperation process are unlocked, no pressure from swarmy sales people, no obligation test drives available.
Bad Points: Very low part exchange values, no haggling on screen price, finance rate or px valuation. Sales persons lack spark and motivation and dont seem to care if you buy a car or not. Not many cars under cover if the weather is poor. Not all cars in good condition. Ridiculously short test drive route.
General comments: Despite the accolades from the press the availablecar.com business seems to receive, so far my experiences of dealing with them, has been less than positive.
I was a genuine buyer looking to buy a car in the popular £5000- £7500 price range. I was interested in two cars within this price range and submitted an enquiry via their website asking to be contacted. However, nobody rang me, so I decided to drop in on my way home. I had already done some research on the internet prior to my visit on which cars I wanted to look at and what my car was worth in part ex or trade value using the parkers.co.uk, whatcar.com and wisebuyers.co.uk valuation sites, and printed off the information I needed.
I arrived on site and was warmly greeted with a smile by two ladies at the 'reception desk 'who handed me a booklet with all of their cars listed. After a short walk around the pitch, I located the two cars I was looking for and after giving them a look over to see if the cars where in suitable condition etc. I returned to the reception desk to book a test drive. Unfortunately it was at this point where my experience began to deteriorate.
I was asked to take a seat, allocated a number and was shown the coffee machine which costs 25p a cup (I don't think so) but was not shown the free water machine (I found this later on). After a wait of 15-20 minutes where people who had sat down after me had been greeted and led away to a desk by their 'sales person 'I was eventually found by a member of staff, who apologized for the delay and blamed reception for not informing him of my interest. I had seen the reception area call him some time previously and he stank of cigarettes so it doesn't take a genius to work out where he had been instead of dealing with customers.
I asked why nobody had contacted me as I had asked to be called. After a bit of looking around on their system after initially denying they had a request from me, my enquiry was found and the 'white 'team that had been allocated my enquiry had not called. The member of staff told me he was from the 'black' team so he would take over my interest. I then gave the member of staff the registration numbers of the two vehicles I was interested in. After tapping this information in their system, he then recited the information from the computer screen to me very quickly. When I asked a couple of questions regarding the documentation and servicing that was available or would be completed on the car I received a company line 'script 'response about 'dealership standards servicing 'if it needed doing... I was then spoken to about the interest free extended warranty and how much that would cost a month on top (even though I had yet to discuss finance or payment or actually driven a car at this stage).
We then moved to the subject of my part exchange vehicle, the member of staff asked me lots of questions very quickly about the car, and we went outside to my vehicle whilst he looked around it. This took another ten minutes. I was asked to leave my keys with him so the 'valuer ' (I am dubious if such a person actually exists) could look it over and get a price. So why did we just waste ten minutes going over it if somebody else was going to repeat the exercise?
Still dealing with my part ex, we came to the issue of car tax. I had taxed my vehicle only 4 days previously for then next 6 months at a cost of almost £100. The member of staff implied that it was against 'the rules 'that had co-incidentally only been changed two weeks ago (yeah right) for me to remove the tax disk and that I had to leave the tax on the car because it was illegal to put a vehicle out to the trade without it. I questioned this so called rule as it was news to me (and I have bought enough second hand motors over the years) I was then told in a cold and impersonal manner that if I took the tax off that I would have a further £100 deducted from my part ex value (come again!).
Still reeling from this insult before my car I had actually been valued (never noticed parkers.co.uk having a taxed or non taxed vehicle value!) I then had to wait a further 15 minutes whilst Simon fetched the first car of interest. Eventually after he obtained some trade plates the car was ready for me to drive.
The car had admittedly not finished its full preparation cycle (and the valet is the last thing to be done apparently) but it absolutely stank of cigarettes. The member of staff ' s response was that he was a smoker (no kidding) and he couldn't smell it. His next response was to turn up the air conditioning and set it to recycle which only increased the stench. The test route was a quarter of a mile route around the block which in my view is not enough time to get used to a car at all. I asked for a longer route but was told they are not insured for longer routes.
After arriving back at their site, whilst parking it when the member of staff engaged reverse, a bleeping noise sounded from the car. I asked it if had parking sensors, the member of staff joked (I think) that he could reverse into another car to see if it did or not, and it didn ' t matter if he hit the other car as their excess would cover it! Once the car was parked, I was left to look over the car in a bay nearby to their office area, and had a good look over it. Bearing in mind the car had according to the member of staff just been serviced to 'dealership standards 'the oil level was below the maximum mark and the air filter was filthy and black with road grime and needed replacing. The second test drive came and went with the same waiting time for the car to arrive and the same short route offered, and was again left to look around both cars until I was ready to go back in and speak to the member of staff .
After a few minutes of looking over the cars having pretty much decided to go for one of them, so I returned the office area and sat down where I noticed the member of staff had the clip board on his desk with my car keys and valuation notes on it. According to my research using the three previously mentioned valuation websites my part ex value should be some where between £1975 and £2453 and the trade value between £2060 and £2295. I was offered a blunt and insulting £1300 with no explanation other than the 'valuer' had got this figure from the CAP trade guide and the offer was fixed and non negotiable. (I should point out that my car was spot on mileage for the year of car and had a full service history and only two private owners with straight metallic paint bodywork and a mint interior.
Obviously slightly offended by the low offer I produced my information printed from the three websites I had used and said I would accept the lowest website valuation of £1950 for the car and I would sign the deal right there and then. However the member of staff was totally disinterested claiming he had not heard of any of the sites is used and they only use CAP and repeated the statement that the offer was fixed and non negotiable and then added neither was the screen price of the car or the APR of 11.9% (their advert states 10.9%). I asked to speak to the 'valuer 'and was told this wasn't possible.
Needless to say communication broke down very quickly and the member of staff probably in rush for his next cigarette break, was quick to hold out his hand with the statement ' thank you for trying us'. He was lucky he didn ' t receive a swift left hook. Two hours of my time wasted with under pre-prepared cars, a passionless 'Salesman 'who seemed to be devoid of motivation and minimal effort made to please the customer in so many ways. the member of staff seemed keen to point out to me on more than one occasion when discussing my potential purchase if the subject was a bit tricky for him, that he wasn't a salesman, well in that case can I speak to one please?
I am sure there are some who have been happy with their service or vehicle purchased from them, but my own conclusion with Availablecar.com based upon my own experience, is the deal you get is ok if you are an inexperienced buyer, have no part exchange and you want their rate of APR finance for the full term. Other than this you will struggle to get genuine value or service or interest from the staff at availablecar.com.
Big Dave Midlands's review and ratings | 1642 words
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