I am very disappointed and saddened by the whole experience of purchasing a vehicle from Chippenham Motor Company (CMC) Buying a car should be a joyful and exciting event. I was making this purchase for my wife as a distance buyer and was relying on the good word of the sales team involved with some internet pictures as a guide. As this was a 3 year old car with not even 10k on the odometer I wrongly presumed this would be an easy open and transparent transaction. The issues stared after I was requested to pay in full, in advance of delivery. However, as a main dealer I accepted this as normal practice for this garage. I was then told after paying almost twelve thousand ponds that delivery would take 11 days. I was a little disappointed at this, but there was no desperate rush I accepted this as CMC were absorbing the cost of delivery and would give me time to sell our car privately as the trade in price offered was only 33% of the book price according to the internet. My wife however was actually upset with the delivery time and I defended the garage when she complained to me that 11 days was too long. Our car sold the first day after advertising, so we hired a car to cover the gap and the extra money we made more than covered the car with enough to spare. After taking a day off work to wait in on delivery I got a call at 10am advising there would be no delivery. CMC’s attitude was just . . . . Tuff luck. There was no offer to cover travel costs or car hire or compensation for the extra time without a car or the inconvenience and disappointment they had caused. I later found out they knew about this mess 3 days previously, yet they were still unable to rectify the issue or give me any additional advance notice and manage my expectations a little better. After five more phone calls, much stress and then some disrespect form the sales manager thrown in for good measure we finally agreed the car would be delivered the following day with a full tank of fuel as compensation and a car wash as it would be driven and not loaded onto the back of a transporter. Finally the car arrives the following day and after 360miles of driving the car was not washed as promised, when CMC where challenged on this there was a lot of backtracking and inaccuracies about agreements made the previous evening and the sales manager advised he only agreed that “the driver could arrange to have the car washed if he wanted and the cost would be from the delivery drivers pocket”. So not only does he disrespect customers, he doesn’t value his staff either. The car to be frank was a mess, to deliver this to a customer shows complete apathy. CMC should know better and leave delivery to the professionals and always present a car in its best light. Then we come to the alloy wheels, after being told they were in good condition with no kerbing, well this couldn’t be further from the truth, they were badly scuffed and kerbed . . . at least 3 out the 4 were. I had also clarified over the phone that premium tyres were fitted all round. However, this had since been changed with 2 replacement front tyres “Nexen” brand. When challenged the sales manager advised these are “legal” as the old ones had less than 3mm tread. Well I would say they should be illegal as they are not fit for purpose, within the motor trade they are referred to as “ditch finders” and this is for good reason. Wet grip is rates as a “C” when looking these up, not suitable for a resident of the UK/Scotland. I have purchased a performance motor car with 150-Bhp and capable of accelerating to 60mph in less than 9 seconds. Cars like this need premium tyres not budget brands. I’m confident the CMC team would not fit “Nexen” tyres to their own cars. So to expect a customer to accept these is offensive. The valet on the car was also poor, two receipts for large amounts of alcohol and a half used packet of cigarette papers were found in the car. I’m confident this was not the delivery driver as he did not smell of cigarettes or alcohol when I drove him to the train station. He seemed a very pleasant young man who was going the extra mile for the customer and his employer and should be given praise for this. Then we come to the sales manager who dismissed my complaint of non-delivery as incidental making no allowance for the disappointment and inconvenience he has caused. The man is a dinosaur of the motor trade; I thought this type of sales person was extinct in 2017 He then proceeded to accuse me of extortion as I requested reimbursement for this trouble and expense of having no car for commuting to work the following morning. He needs to learn empathy and customer satisfaction are the key to a successful business, both skills of which he is vacant. If this man treats all CMC customers like this he poses a real threat to the garage’s long term success, as they will have little or no repeat customers. Businesses are measured on how they overcome problems and ensure customer satisfaction, not ambivalence, disrespect and disappointment. His tone of voice to clearly upset and distressed customers was outrageous. For example, after one particularly challenging phone call, I advised him we were going round in circles and the conversation was at an end, he sarcastically told me “I like phoning customers on my day off”. I will let you decide if this is acceptable. From my point of view if he had addressed the issues the first time round he wouldn’t have needed to call me on his day off. I appreciate CMC are a business and need to make a profit to survive but when you get it so badly wrong you have an obligation to make things right for the customer. Eventually after several more phone calls, 3 hang ups an escalation to the Customer Relationship Manager and six more emails, we agreed CMC would cover the cost of having the wheels fixed, the travel costs covered and the costs of the wash n polish I paid for before my wife came home to see her new car. I still have to pay £200 for appropriate tyres from my own pocket and there was only a tank of fuel to compensate for wasting a days A/L and a 2nd days leave to take delivery and the hours spent calling emailing and trying to reassure my wife, so I don’t think £50 of fuel even comes close to covering this. There were a couple of other small issues like The odometer was advertised to be 9600 and after delivery it was over 10600, taking the 360 miles delivery into account that’s another 600 miles the mysteriously appeared. Car supplied with only 8 months MoT and not 12. Unfortunately after all the above I’m unable to recommend purchasing a car for this garage over the phone and internet. Possibly some of this could have been avoided if I could have viewed the car in person in advance of the purchase but again as its 2017 this shouldn’t be a requirement. Please also note one of the reviews below has been reported as as it’s a manager from CMC giving themselves five stars. Hopefully this will/has been removed by Trustpilot. You pays your money and takes your chances!