sorry not been around the forum for ages, changed jobs and been really busy, just looking for someone who can provide service for my wifes grande punto, previously had some nightmare experiences with various of Arnolds dealerships
Hare is a Full review from a Former Employee
Used to work for Arnold as a Trainee Sales Mngr, one of my duties being a buyer of used car stock. Often went out to look at a range of vehicles with a view to buying - often they were ex-rental and had various problems including (often) accident damage. Would on many occasions not have touched the car with a barge-pole myself, however, I was often instructed to take the vehicles anyway, as the managers would buy any old junk provided it could be cleaned/tarted up to a presentable sale condition. Arnolds say that they fully check all used cars prior to customer collection, including HPi for outstanding finance/write-offs/etc, and they also do a VMI mileage check. I have seen used cars go out to customers with no safety check - having only been given a quick valet, as the workshop was too busy to do the necessary checks. I have also seen salesmen rip up the VMI mileage check certificates as they have come back showing mileage discrepancies and have told the customer that they have checked the mileage and that everthing is fine. It was so bad in the company that if one salesman felt that another had stolen his customer (and hence his commission) that just proir to the customer picking up their car, the spurned salesman would scratch the bonnet/side of the car so that it would reflect badly on the other. There were many occasions when salemen would come away from a deal laughing and talking about having "raped" the customer as they had basically conned someone without much finance knowledge into paying over the odds on finance (ok, so customer should know better, but 'conning' someone who thinks they are getting 13%APR into paying 13% flat rate is a bit off).
On the up-side, Arnold can do some good deals on new/pre-reg stock - matching most of the large car supermarkets in England. Although I swore upon leaving the company that I would never again deal with them, I bought a pre-reg car in March 2002 as I needed a car in a hurry, and didn't have the time to go to the bigger English car supermarkets to do the deal - MISTAKE!
Car arrived valet outside, but mud and dirt all over interior (and an empty Fanta can under the passenger seat!). No pre-delivery inspection done as sump half-empty, coolant half-empty, and PDI checklist and service book stamp not completed/stamped. At the time of writing this, now had the car 11 months, and had a trip to the garage 12 times to TRY to have problems sorted. 3 trips should have been sufficient, but due to staff incompetence and inability to do a proper job, 3 trips turned into 12. At one point they were putting more things wrong than they were fixing!
I have worked in various garages during my time and while the dodgy reputation of the motor-trade applies to all of them in either a small or large way, Arnold's were by far the worse - not through any singular event, but through a combination of poor management in the dealers, lack of training for employees, incompetence, and poor quality staff.
No longer work in the motor trade (got a respectable job these days), and don't usually bother to pass comment on companies I have a complaint against, as if I receive poor service I just don't go back, but I feel compelled to write this review as in my opinion, Arnold Clark is the worst company myself and friends have ever had to deal with.
Best career decision I ever made was to get out quickly, and best decision I have ever made as a consumer is to avoid Arnold Clark's spivvy, incompetent, wide-boy, employees for evermore.
Cheers!