Tom

Hidden faults with car, no customer care

Don't confuse a box of chocolates/bunch of flowers with customer service - after all you've paid for them. I contacted Central cars on 5/1/22 about a car I had seen on Auto Trader, that came with free delivery up to 180 miles. As I was ~180 miles away, this was perfect for me, as work meant I couldn't visit their showroom during opening hours. When discussing delivery details, I was told that they were no longer offering free delivery, and it would instead cost me £1 per mile. This was then rounded up to £200 delivery fee for some unknown reason. I paid a deposit and arranged a delivery for the following Wednesday. The day before I expected the car, I received a phone call at 5pm to say that the car didn't pass it's MOT, and would need a new spring fitting the following morning. The delivery was rearranged for my work place during my lunch hour. Despite this, the MOT certificate for the car said that it passed on the Tuesday, with no record of any issue or work carried out - how strange. The next day, I received an email saying that the full balance needed to be paid before they could release the vehicle, and that if there were any issues I was covered by their free 3 month warranty. As I was at work, I was unable to transfer the funds until around 18:30. On delivery day, they failed to deliver the car, blaming it on a late payment, despite the money being in their account on the day. They also didn't have the courtesy to let me know the car would not be delivered. Having taken a taxi to work, I was now left stranded. A point that I raised with Central Cars but was completely ignored. Not even an apology for the inconvenience, or for the lack of communication. When I finally received the car I saw the history stopped in 2019 at 25k miles – half the millage of the car. I also noted that on the last service, there were advisories about a buckled wheel and uneven wear to the tyres and suggesting that the wheel geometry is checked out. This along with the broken spring that wasn't recorded on the MOT, raised concerns. Additionally the car was rough to start, had a loud thud when turning the wheel to full lock, jittered when changing gear at low speeds and vibrated aggressively when stationary. I did think I could get the car fixed via the warranty, but this was capped at £500, rendering it useless. None of these issues were mentioned during the sale, and the car was described as running flawlessly. I contacted Central Cars after inspecting the car, addressing my disappointments and that I had been messed around enough by them and I simply wanted my money back. They didn't respond. I contacted Central Cars again the next day, stating my consumer rights and that I would have to go through trading standards if they refused to get back to me. Surprise surprise, they got back to me straight away this time. However, they refused to collect the car, saying that I would have to return it in order to get my money back. So here I am nearly 2 weeks after my initial phone call, out of pocket for travel to and from work the day that they didn't deliver the car, without notice. Out of pocket for insurance on the vehicle to move it, and then again to cancel the policy. Out of pocket for arranging the car to be returned, not to mention needing 2 people to take a full day for the round trip. Throughout this process, I spoke to Lee and Charlie, and neither one of them were apologetic at any point, or even admitted any wrong doings, most of my points were left ignored and unanswered. Communication was abysmal ever since the money had been transferred. They have still not updated their Auto Trader adverts to remove the free delivery option, nor have they changed the car advert to include the faults. They have falsified MOT certificates to hide repairs, failed to produce receipts of servicing work carried out, and they have breached data protection laws by sharing personal details of other customers. I would be very wary of what else they could be hiding when selling their cars.