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“Would Give 0 Stars if I Could :(”

written by on 17/01/2018

Absolutely shocking service! Would not buy a car from these people ever again. AVOID, AVOID, AVOID!

My husband and I went to view a car last year and there were some minor signs of trouble with the engine (oily-smelling smoke upon startup), but we were assured that this was due to a recent repair and that it would be fine. The car ran fine upon the short test drive (~10 minutes) that we did and it appeared that the car was in decent shape. We were assured that the car would be MOTed upon purchase and we looked over the car to see if had any of the regular faults that particular model tended to have.

We negotiated a price and were told that they couldn't do a better offer as it was implied that if we did get more money off at the beginning, it would be less money they'd be willing to spend if anything went wrong. (RED FLAG!)

We made payment via BACS as recommended by the salesman (RED FLAG - always make your payment by card so you can dispute the payment if something comes up!) and were told we could collect the car in a few days.

We lived about an hour and a half drive from Bristol and DURING THE DRIVE HOME, we had an engine warning light come on. Within a few days, it was discovered that one of the front brakes was clamping and not releasing, which caused it to overheat. Indeed, even the convertible roof failed as well as several other warning lights appearing on the dash.

We were advised to DRIVE the car back to Bristol ( on a major motorway with the BRAKE clamping on the wheel!) so they could repair the car. This was all done on my husband's time. We were not given a courtesy car (which while it is not required, for a purveyor of luxury vehicles to offer it was a bit of a surprise considering they KNEW it was our only vehicle and we were making 3-hour round trips to drop the car off). We went several MONTHS without the car, constantly ringing them to find out what repairs were allegedly being done and when the process was completed. They kept saying it would be a few more days (which they were correct, if a 'few' meant several weeks).

Once we went to pick the car up as we were assured the work was completed ( ha! ) - another 3-hour round trip for us. We attempted to operate the roof and it broke before we even got it off the lot!!!

Eventually we got to the point where we explained we did not want the car back, we wanted the money back instead. It had been months without the car and they had become increasingly terse on the phone. They were always conveniently 'getting on a train' or 'driving' when we tried to call and on several occasions they refused to speak to me. We invoked our Consumer Rights and eventually what happened was they dropped the car off when neither my husband nor I were home (without explaining that they would be doing so) and dropped the key in the letterbox without even indicating they had done so. This was MONTHS after initially giving them the car... and the kicker? NOT ALL OF THE WORK PROMISED WAS DONE! MONTHS LATER!

This is a *short* version of what was a very tedious experience that should not have occurred at all had these people had the slightest bit of integrity. Work that was claimed (in writing) to have been done was not done and there was no explanation of this when the car was dropped off.

People can make up their own mind about this company, but I can assure you, we will NEVER be using this company again. I have never had such a shocking experience with a lack of customer service like I saw from the people at Hamilton Cars.