AutoQuake 2nd hand car sale - any one brought from?

9jaguy

9jaguy wrote: »

Sent a mail this morning with regards to my experience with the car and what needs fixing, expecting a reply.

Got a reply from a particularly helpful member of the customer care trying to point me in the right direction on how to get whatever I find wrong with the car fixed. Further updates to follow.........

j4mieuk

After reading all the comments on here I have to admit I was a bit worried about buying a car from Autoquake but as I was after a very specific car and they were the only retailer who had the exact model and engine that I wanted I decided to just go for it and reserve the car.

I agreed to go an view the car earlier this week and after reading about the long waiting times I called them twice to confirm that the car would be ready and waiting for me when I turned up to the appointment. My appointment was set for 12noon and I arrived at 11:40am upon arriving at the warehouse I was sent to the portakabin to wait for a staff member to attend to me. It was at this point I could see the valet team had only started working on the car, I also seen the famous 120 point inspection being carried out. The guy who carried out the inspection looked like he was just giving the car a quick "once over" I guess he was in a hurry as there were another 4 customers waiting in the same portakabin for their cars. After waiting 45 minutes I decided to go and find someone to ask how much longer it would take. I was not shown my car until just after 1pm.

Upon inspecting the car I noticed that the aircon was not blowing cold and suggested that it might need a regas. I spoke to the member of staff who was dealing with me and he claimed to be surprised that it wasnt picked up in the famous 120 point inspection. I was told that they would get one of the mechanics to regas the aircon and it would only take about 30 minutes. I also asked for a test drive and was allowed to drive the car around the compund to make sure I was happy with it. I decided to go ahead with the purchase on the condition that they fixed the aircon. I was sent back to the customer portakabin where I waited another 30 minutes. Then came the hard sell!

I read over the warranty t&c's and given that they could potentially not payout for anything and claim it was wear and tear I decided against it. I also decided against the GAP insurance. The staff get commission and are targeted to sell as many warranty and GAP addons as possible and the attitude of the staff member changed completely once I told him I had no intention of taking either.

I was filling out my paperwork and signed all my forms only to be told that they are not selling me the car anymore as the aircon had a leak. I explained that I had paid my money, completed all the paperwork and had been onsite for over 3 hours so you can guess how angry I was at this point. After much haggling we agreed that they would fix the aircon and deliver the car to me for free.

Since then (3 days ago) I have called the aftersales team 6 times to find out that they can't tell me what is happening with the car or when I can expect delivery. I have always been told that the only way they can get in touch with the branch which sold me the car was through email. So far they have sent 5 emails and not had any response. I am now trying to get contact details for Karl Marriott (VP of customer care) to find out how he can allow this operation to run in this way.

I will let you know how this gets resolved but my advice is to make sure you have planned for a long wait when you collect your car and make sure you check everything yourself. Like many others I believe that the 120 point inspection is an absolute joke and not worth the paper its written on.

PS sorry for the length of the post!

j4mieuk

I managed to send an email to Karl Marriott last night but have not yet recieved a reply. I called the contact centre this morning asking again for an update only to be told that they will email the branch again and hope that someone will get back to me by lunchtime.

At this stage I am thinking about cancelling the purchase as i'm annoyed that they refuse to let me know when I can get the car that I have already paid for. :mad:

maninthestreet

Don't Auto Quake have telephones??

Errata

Autoquake would be a highly unusual business if it didn't have telephones.
However - as this thread is the 5th result when Autoquake is googled I'm sure it's owners take a close interest in what MSE members are posting about it.

Arthur_Daley_3

Please do yourself a favour, leave AUTOQUAKE alone, they are frustrating and un-proffesional.I had a near miss ordered via site for direct delivery, an hour before the car was due they called to say they had lost the keys. Later they told me it would be about a week before they could get replacements. What a load of rubbish!!!!!!!! More likley is as I did not want finance or GAP which they constantly tried to sell me, they found a customer that would pay the additional items. Cars are sold in almost a reverse auction situation, sign ups are contacted and offered the vehicles and the most proffitable sale is actioned. Personally I do not have a problem with them doing that but come on AUTOQUAKE tell the truth (lost keys?) wonder which part of the 141 point check covers the keys................Do yourselves a favour go elsewhere.

Kilty_2

:rotfl:
:rotfl:
:rotfl:
:rotfl:

Shef

Booking appointment - fairly easy.

Late arrival of sales agent when viewing car made us too late for Post Office and received dubious advice re driving without valid tax.

Encouraged only to test drive in carpark at Leeds, and only reluctantly offered offsite test drive.

Another person buying a car had made 6 hour train ride to discover car bonnet couldn't be opened and therefore he couldn't drive the car away - he was understandably furious and suspicious of 141 point check.

Problems with taking out 7 day insurance as their system down (not Autoquake's fault) but salesman still tried to get me to pay on card several times as I waited despite being told I wasn't paying until I knew I'd be able to drive the car away that day.

Decided to take 1 yr warranty but decided to cancel within 14 days. Still waiting for confirmation of cancellation and refund despite having called to chase 3 times over the last 2 weeks.

All in all I'd be reluctant to recommend Autoquake to anybody based on my experience - which is a shame as the ideas behind the company (using web to reduce costs etc) seem good.

willielast

My own thoughts re Autoquake (although I haven't bought from them).

One minor point: I've emailed asking them for the MOT certificate number for one of their cars. With this information, and the car reg (which is given on their site), you can then use the VOSA website to look up the MOT report. This will show you if the car has any lurking advisories, despite being a pass. Well, I asked, but they point blank refused. But if you go to a dealership, you can surely expect to see the full MOT certificate.

A more serious point: their website says that if you have a car delivered, and choose to return it within 7 days, then they will keep the cost of delivery of the car. I cannot understand how this meets the Distance Selling Regulations, which state that the cost of delivery has to be refunded when one exercises the right to a refund within 7 days of delivery.
Note of course that Autoquake can require you to pay for the cost of returning the car. But what doesn't seem possible under the DSRs is to hang on to the cost of delivering it to you, deducting that from your refund. Perhaps someone at Autoquake can explain how this is possible?

9jaguy

9jaguy wrote: »

Got a reply from a particularly helpful member of the customer care trying to point me in the right direction on how to get whatever I find wrong with the car fixed. Further updates to follow.........

I have dropped the car off at Autoquake's designated garage this morning to get the car looked at and hopefully fix the problems I noticed on the car (windscreen seal coming off, wheel balancing, wipers split, and o/s/f callipers bending), I believe these should have been covered under the '141 point check' they claim to carry out on the cars.

Like I said before do your own checks and raise any issues you have with them, it wastes a bit of time and money but it’s worth it if the issues you find with your car can be fixed by them. I hope this helps. I will update the forum once I hear from them later today.