White Horse Car Sales Centre - www.whitehorsecarsales.co.uk

I paid a deposit on a Ford Fiesta and arranged to collect it the following weekend, as it had to be MOT’d, taxed and a small scratch repaired. The salesman said he would ring me to confirm that it would be ready during the week. As I had not heard from him by the Friday of the following week, I asked my husband to give him a quick call to make sure it was ready as I needed to arrange payment and insurance. I also asked him to check that the EPS machine was working as the previous weekend it had been out of order and I needed to know if other arrangements for payment would be required. He was told the car had been MOT’d, but not taxed yet and that would be done the following morning. The EPS machine was still not working and payment would have to be made in cash or by a banker’s draft. As the balance payment was £4250 I did not feel comfortable carrying cash, so asked at the bank for a banker’s draft. However, I needed some form of formal identity for this, such as a passport or drivers licence, which I do not carry with me. I was also told that there would be a £12 charge. I emailed my husband and asked if he could call your salesman again to confirm that he was willing to reimburse the cost of the draft as it is difficult for me to make calls during working hours. The salesman agreed to pay the £12.

I then had to find a bank that opened on a Saturday morning as my local branch is closed. I was a bit unhappy with this, so when I arrived home from work that evening I rang your salesman and asked why he couldn’t have let me know about this earlier, even Thursday evening would have been ok, as I could have taken my passport to work with me on Friday and arranged the Draft during the lunch break. The salesman, Nick was most rude, he told me my husband had already called him six times that day about the Fiesta and the best thing he could do was to give me my deposit back and sell the car to someone else. I couldn’t quite believe what I was hearing and told him that was up to him, but said that my husband had not called six times and he was mistaken. He insisted that he had received six calls from my husband. I knew this was a blatant lie. During the course of the conversation he changed his mind, and the calls became 4 or 5 times. Still blatantly lying. He told me that if I still wanted the car I could collect it at 12pm the following day and it would be ready. When I came off the ‘phone I was in two minds whether to go ahead with the purchase.

As I liked the car, I decided to get the bankers draft the following morning and continue with the purchase. When we arrived to collect the car, the scratch had not been repaired as promised and I was told that the touch up stick had been ordered and I could either take the car back up to be done or I could do it myself. I am sure you can imagine how I started to feel, not happy at all. But, it was only a small scratch and I decided to let it go. We then asked to see the paper work. The vehicle registration certificate had not been filled in correctly. My address did not appear on it. I asked the valet, also called Nick, how the DVLA would know where to send the new log book as my address didn’t appear anywhere on it. He told me he could fill that in later, even though he did not have my address. We then asked for the HPI report and he told us ‘they didn’t do those’. My husband had been briefly shown the report the week before and I also pointed out that it states on your website that HPI checks are carried out on all vehicles. He then said they only do them if a customer asked. He couldn’t find the report and said he couldn’t do one, but could send it on at a later date. I told him I would not be parting with any more money until all documents were present and correct. He accused us of being paranoid, said he would speak to Nick and have the HPI report done and ring us that afternoon so that we could go back to collect the car. Nobody bothered to contact me and I waited until Tuesday afternoon, when I called to ask why they hadn’t been in touch. Nick told me that I was making a fuss over nothing and that the HPI report had been there on Saturday. So, again, I asked why he hadn’t called that afternoon to let me know. There was no straight answer, I was accused of being pompous and paranoid and he didn’t want to do business with me. I asked for his manager’s name and address, which he refused to give me and told me he was the manager. I asked for my deposit back and the £12 I had paid for the draft. He told me I could have it on Wednesday, the following day as the secretary would have to sign the cheque and she worked Wednesday and Friday mornings. I asked my husband to call in for it after work on the following day and surprisingly, both Nicks were nowhere to be seen, but had left the secretary on her own to deal with it. The £12 was not there and my husband did not want to confront her over it whilst she was on her own. I have spent £12 for my inconvenience and I am absolutely disgusted that these two incompetent salesmen can treat customers in this manner. As I would have been spending £4500, I think it is fair to say I should have been treated with more respect.