Mercifully, I'm not writing this review because I have reached the age of buying a Volvo (I have not morphed fully into my Dad as yet, happy days!), but because this is the Arnold Clark dealer in Stirling that is in charge of the dual control hire cars. Hiring the dual control car from here is only £9 an hour, with free fuel for the first 10 miles of every hour the car is hired (so if you booked it for 2 hours you'd get 20 free and so on) which makes it fantastic value for money if you are lucky enough to have someone brave/stupid enough on hand willing to go out and help you learn not to bang into things whilst being in charge of a motor vehicle. Due to the value for money and the savings made on an independent driving instructor, I'd give them 5 stars right off the bat. However. The customer service is pretty shoddy. Not the worst I've ever had, but dangerously close. The first time we hired, we showed up with the appropriate paperwork, filled in some forms, went out and nearly hit a cyclist (I kid, maybe) came back and handed in the keys and paid without a problem. Boom, job done. The guy who dealt with us that time was pretty dismissive and not particularly helpful, but it was really busy so I was happy to make allowances. The second time, we were handed keys to a car that wasn't there and when we went back and explained this to the guy he actually said to us ''You can't have looked properly, the car has to be there if I have the keys''. Now I follow his logic here, but he said this sneeringly and dismissively AFTER we had explained we'd had the sense to check ALL the hire cars in the complex to make sure we hadn't just missed it. We were 15 minutes into our allotted hire time before he gave us another set and got us on our way. Not cool. When we were done, we parked up the car and I went to hand the keys in and pay. I told my colleague (my work are paying for this) I'd be 2 minutes. It was more like half an hour in the end, making me late for a meeting and him late for another job he was doing. Heading into the showroom where they deal with hires, 2 members of staff, both on the phone. One was in deep discussion about seeing his ex for the first time and his lads holiday to Benidorm with someone and the female was having a discussion about the drama of booking her own holidays around other staff. They both saw me and carried on with these conversations. After about 5 minutes when I pointedly put the keys on the desk and pulled the credit card out, the girl cut her conversation off and decided to allow me to pay. Now I had explained before hand to them it would be a company credit card I was using, it did not have my name on it and would this be a problem/did I need to bring authorisation etc, I was told no I didn't, it would be fine. The first time it was accepted without question, however this time the girl proceeded to announce loudly she was not putting her job on the line for me (causing other customers to stare and listen in) because I had an unauthorised credit card. She practically threw it across the desk at me and told me to hand over my own card, which I didn't have. I explained this and the fact I had previously paid with the company card to no avail. She then brandished the phone at me and told me to call my office for authorisation which wasn't an option, given they were in the meeting I was by now supposed to be in myself. She eventually let me go after announcing that if someone didn't fax in authorisation from the office ''within an hour'' that she would make sure to chase the bill up personally etc. Pleasant she was not. And by the time she had finished, we got caught in the rush traffic, making us both even later than we already were. I am not in the least impressed. read more

Where do i start?? This was my first time buying a "newish" car, was mucked about from the start. 2 months ago i had seen the car I had wanted at this branch, black Seat Leon 62 plate. went to go see it with my partner (we live in Larkhall) so it's not like we're local to the stirling branch. The finance was to be in my partners name but, i am the named driver, we thought every i was dotted and every t was crossed and would be picking it up 3 days after we had first came in. this wasn't the case, far from it. 1 day before we were meant to be picking it up, i got an "inconvenient phone call at work telling me there was a problem with my partners signature on the papers and his passport...no match. trip back to stirling to rectify this. a day later ANOTHER phone call..yet MORE papers to sign to do with the finance! (Why weren't we told this when all the papers were signed the first time!!) So had to endure ANOTHER trip from Larkhall to stirling to sign these "other papers". we then got told we couldn't pick the car up until the finance company had received these papers (it was a bank holiday) so you do the math. by this time I was very annoyed and told John Goggins ( the person who was dealing with us), to this he had replied that it wasn't their fault but the finance company's fault. but if ALL the papers had been signed at the SAME time then there wouldn't have even been a problem, so it was Stirling branch's fault. All in all we had had to do three trips to this branch to sort everything out, when it should of only been one trip. had told John this and he said he would fill the new car up for our inconvenience, (no such thing happened). When we EVENTUALLY got the new car, we noticed when we were driving back a huge cigarette burn in the back seat and a huge scratch on the back casing and mirror on the drivers side. soon as we got the car back we tried to call the branch to tell them what we'd found, no answer. I called the very next day and spoke to John to tell him what we'd found, he said it would definitely be sorted.....once he came back from his 10 day holiday that is what a cheek!to that I had asked could we not take it to another branch that was closer to us, was told no straight away! so just had to wait the 10 days till he came back, even though someone else from stirling branch could of done it. He eventually called to tell me that he would need to order the mirror in, and get the upholstery guy to do the back seat at the same time as the mirror gets done so i would only need to bring the car in once (now he cares about me going back and forth) I work shifts, so when he called to tell me the mirror was in, i was night shift at this point and told him I would have to wait till I was dayshift, he said he would call me to get the car booked in...this was the last time I spoke to him, when he hadn't called I waited a few days then had had enough of getting treated so badly, especially for buying a 12 grand motor from them! so I called last week to speak to the manager Ewan hutcheson and told him everything that happened and that John Goggins was pretty poor at his job. Ewan was very nonchalant at what John had done..or hadn't done should i say. but, he did say he would find out if John had even ordered the mirror in, and call me back on tues (which was yesterday) no phone call yesterday, no phone call today either. These people at this branch DO NOT care about after sales AT ALL!! they have no problem selling you a car and taking your money but, when it comes to complaints...they don't want to know and pass the buck. it's a pretty sad day though when the MANAGER EWAN HUTCHESON doesn't help either. my advice...go somewhere else to buy a car from because this experience was one i hope I NEVER have to go through again!! Oh and one last thing...my car was SUPPOSED to come with front and rear car mats...it didn't. had to spend 25 quid to get a set myself. bunch of shysters!!!! So do not go to this branch, or in fact Arnold Clark at all if you want to be treated accordingly. read more