Think once, think twice, THEN think again…read more
Bought a car from Ryans Garage recently, and have never had such a bad experience. Judging from the other reviews this does not just apply to car sales.
Having bought the car, and driven home to Bristol, there was a family illness, which meant the car was parked on my driveway for just over 4 weeks. Following this illness, I checked the oil and water before I drove it to the supermarket. The water was low, so I topped it up. The next day I checked the water again as I could see a wet patch under the car. It had dropped down again and was topped up. Over the next 2 days this happened again twice more. Because of the inconvenient drive to Portishead, I decided to take the car to my local VW main dealer. They examined the car and said the water pump was leaking and had to be replaced.
At this point, the car had been driven 120 miles in total from when I bought it. I rang Ryans Garage and spoke to Ryan personally as he was the main person I had dealt with. I explained the above, and his immediate and condescending response was "you have exceeded your 1 months statutory rights so I can't do anything".
Next day, I obtained a quote for the work from my local, specialist and trusted garage, and this time rang a more sensitive and customer orientated member of Ryans staff, who had had some dealing with the car when I bought it. I sent him the quote and confirmation that the water pump was at fault, and he promised to speak with Ryan and try using some reason with him. I rang again in a few days and was told that Ryan had agreed to pay half of the repair cost. I had no choice but to accept this. Two days later the work had been done, so I rang again and sent a copy of the bill I had paid in full. I was promised this would be passed on to Ryan and dealt with. Over the next few weeks, I rang again several times and was told either he was unavailable or it was being dealt with.
Eventually, I managed to speak with Ryan. He told me it should have been done, and he would contact his finance people immediately! Over the next few weeks I rang the finance section twice, and was told they knew nothing about it, and on both occasions that they would forward this information to Ryan immediately and get back to me. As with every promise of calling me back, from all the different people I spoke with, they never called, none of them, not once!
This whole scenario has tested my trust in human nature to the upmost. I am disgusted with the appalling customer service, blatant lying and dishonesty, I have received, from the top, down. I will never use them again, and will certainly never recommend them. I have accepted that I will never be paid half of the repair, but, it is a sorry society, when people have to stoop to these tactics to make money.
