Staff from Ideal Car Centre in response to Mercedes disaster

We are sorry to hear that you are unhappy with your car but we are somewhat shocked and disappointed by your review as we have gone out of our way to help you. The suspension was inspected at your request and there were no faults found with it. There was also no fault with the rocker cover, a very slight oil leak which we fixed for you at no cost to you. It was not a big job at all, it was very minor. During this time despite you ringing us constantly every day or two, we have acted courteously and professionally and helped you at every opportunity. We have not heard from you since so I am not sure what you other concerns could possibly be. We did not offer compensation as your 'faults' were fixed at no cost to you so I am not sure exactly what compensation you would require. You were aware at purchase of the warranty claim limit of £500 per claim - a warranty we supply FREE - and you declined to upgrade to a 12 month warranty for £150 with a claim limit of £1,000. You have had the car almost 5 months and the car has probably spent 1 week maximum being repaired, at your request for items which were not faulty but we repaired as a gesture of goodwill. Unfortunately you bought a 10 year old car done almost 100,000 miles and expected it to be like a brand new one.

Dave in response to ALL - My worst experience ever

UPDATE: Police have now spoken to this individual representing Ideal car centre and warned him regarding threatening me with lawyers and court action for slander (because I left a honest negative review of my dealings with this trader) if I did not remove my negative review. I have also contacted trading standards with complaint on what I believe to be the dangerous condition of vehicle sold to me and the non stop phone calls which I believe amounted to harassment. I have now blocked these ideal car centre tel numbers. Dave

Staff from Ideal Car Centre in response to ALL - My worst experience ever

Unfortunately this review is not a genuine review. Mr Herrera has been caught by both Google and Autotrader attempting to leave multiple fake reviews and as such the matter is now with our solicitors. The police did contact us to inform us they agreed with us and would support our claim against Mr Herrera for libel. Whilst Mr Herrera did indeed purchase a car from us his version of events is completely incorrect and is in fact his attempt to blackmail us and extort money from us. Shortly after purchase Mr Herrera contacted us with bogus ‘issues’ and threatened to post negative feedback all over the internet if we did not meet his demands including paying him some £600. Although we acted as we should and tried to help the customer, he has since posted false negative reviews on every site possible (some multiple times) as we refused to be blackmailed. Unfortunately we have now had to involve our legal department to resolve this. Mr Herrera called to enquire about one of our cars, wanting to purchase it over the phone. We described the car in detail to him and stressed he should not leave a deposit over the phone unless he was 100% happy with our description and certain he wished to buy the car. He decided he was and insisted on leaving a deposit to buy the vehicle and received an order form confirming everything via email. As Mr Herrera insisted on paying for the car on collection we even agreed to forgo our normal process and allow him to do so as he had not seen the car yet. Mr Herrera then came and viewed and test drove the car. He confirmed it was exactly as described and that he was happy with the condition and that everything worked and the car drove exactly as it should. He paid for the car and even signed a handover form confirming that he was happy with the condition of the car and that it drove as it should and the car functioned exactly as it should. Subsequently we received an email from Mr Herrera with a list of ‘complaints’ and demanding that we pay him for work to be carried out otherwise he would ‘flood your facebook, trustpilot, autotrader etc sites with negative feedback’. His complaints included the condition of the tyres, which he was told about prior to sale, including two being worn low, and he also viewed prior to completing his purchase and informed us it did not matter as he was having all 4 tyres replaced with all weather tyres on his way home. Also a ‘scary vibration’ from the wheels balancing which Mr Herrera confirmed was not present on either the test drive or his journey home but only appeared AFTER he had all 4 tyres changed so therefore was caused by his tyre fitters! Also complaining about the service history when it was not advertised with any and he was informed it had none. Another complaint was regarding the condition of the brakes which Mr Herrera claimed needed replacing all round, despite confirming that the brakes performed exactly as they should and the car had been independently inspected by two garages including the AA which both confirmed the brakes were not overly worn and functioned exactly as they should. Mr Herrera tried to claim £600 from us for the brakes, yet we priced them including all parts and labour at under £200. We even offered for Mr Herrera to bring the car to us to have the brakes looked at and for us to contribute towards them purely as a gesture of goodwill, but as soon as we declined to pay him £600 he started posting negative reviews everywhere. Whilst we have sold Mr Herrera a very nice car which was exactly as described and he signed to confirm he was happy with the condition of it, he unfortunately felt the need to complain. Whilst we made every effort to resolve his complaints and help as best we could we do not feel it is reasonable for customers to blackmail us with threats of false and unfair reviews.

Staff from Ideal Car Centre in response to Have to commit to buy for test drive

We are sorry to hear that you are unhappy with your experience. When you booked an appointment we did state that the appointment was to view the vehicle. Then if you were happy with the vehicle after viewing it we could have gone for a test drive, however you stated that you did not like the car enough to buy it, therefore a test drive would have been pointless. We are happy for customers to have test drives and usually recommend all customers test drive a car before buying, however unfortunately as we explained to you at the time, we are a small dealer and do not operate demonstrator models like a main dealer would. You told us you had no intention of buying our car and as we also explained when you were there, at the time you turned up we only had one member of staff present and also 3 other customers, one of whom who had already purchased a vehicle and another who was there to purchase a vehicle, so unfortunately at that time we simply did not have the manpower to be able to take you out for a test drive in a car you yourself admitted you had no interest in buying. We explained that we operate a try before you buy policy whereby if you were looking to purchase this vehicle we would happily go for a test drive. As you told us you had no intention of buying our vehicle any time soon we explained that there was little point you driving the car at this time but that if you decided that you did indeed like our car enough to buy it then we would be happy for you to make an appointment to come back and test drive the car. Once again if you do decide at any point that this is the car for you, we would be happy for you to come back and drive the car, but if you are just wanting to see what this type of car drives like then we would recommend driving a demonstrator model at a main dealer as that is exactly what they are for.

Dave in response to Have to commit to buy for test drive

I too felt forced into leaving a deposit, I was also told that i had to make payment before Tuesday as it was the end of the month. I had a list of a dozen issues wrong with vehicle after purchase and they didn't want to know, I was then receiving many calls, and so i had to go to police, i also made a complaint to trading standards. My worst customer service I have ever experienced in my life. Dave.

A Buyer in response to Have to commit to buy for test drive

I was interested in your car - to say anything else is simply not true. I made the point that the bodywork had not been looked after (bad dents and deep scrapes) compared to the interior. Your employee seemed to take this personally. I found your outfit very unprofessional - i requested a test drive when I made the appointment. I do not appreciate my time being wasted. I would not recommend this dealership to anyone.

John Smith in response to Have to commit to buy for test drive

This also happened to me and told to leave a £500 deposit before test drive. I then had a list of issues wrong with the car, some minor and some serious.