arnold clark

ictmad

bought a nice nissan almera 3 year old from arnold clark last year in the deal i got a "clark plan" which comes with 2 free servcies and 2 free mots,so yesterday i went to arnold clark in inverness(not where i bought car from but can use it anywhere)i had pre booked mot+service and todl them i had the clark plan my appointment was 2.00 pm and i arrived at 1.45,walked in and gave them my details 1st question i was asked,was how was i paying for the mot,i said its free in clark plan,she said not its not just service but i,ll check,she did and said it wasnt(i know it was as was told this twice at time of buying car,this is only reson i returned to arnold clark to get them both done)so went and sat down in the reception area(have a viewing aREA into the garage,wehre u can see ur car being fixed) looked in to garage at 3.40(2 hrs after i arrived and they hadnt even looked at my car yet,was still outside where i parked it) no-one approached me to say it would be a little longer etc,finally at 4.50 was told it was done and was charged £90(£50 for my "free" mot,£12 v.at on servcie oil filter,air filter oil etc)luckilyl i didnt need anything for car to pass mot,just felt totally ripped of with this in whole

zappster1966

Here's what the Arnold Clark website says about the "Clark Plan" -

"For vehicles that are 3 or more years old, Clark Plan offers excellent value for money by covering the future servicing and MOT requirements of your vehicle over a two or three year period.

Available on most makes & models Clark Plan covers the cost of an annual service and MOT Test."
http://www.arnoldclark.com/servicing/servicing_repairs/aftercare/index.html

If you download the PDF document itself you'll see in very fine (and almost illegible) print a list of policy exclusions ... exclusions which seem to include the cost of oil, filters etc. But it does say the cost of the MOT is included so I think you've got grounds to return to them and demand a refund of the £50 for the MOT. So that's your task for Tuesday morning, get right on the phone to them

Good luck with that.

But look at some of the items included in their schedule ... "check horn operation", "check wipers & washers" etc etc ... much of it you could do yourself ... nor does it seem to be the proper servicing that your owners handbook would require at each service interval, it's not tailored to any particular car. I think such services are just rubbish and give you a false sense of security. And making you wait the best part of three hours is just ridiculous.

Last car I bought from AC was a little (old style) Mini, early 1990's. Just 3 weeks after I bought it the entire exhaust assembly - from where it joins the engine right to the tail pipe - fell off when I was doing 65mph driving through 5 lanes of traffic on the M8 approaching Glasgow City Centre. Sent me veering into the next lane towards the crash barrier & it was more luck than anything that I emerged unscathed.

I have never been so terrified in all my life.

They refused to replace the exhaust under warranty, gave me a clapped out Fiat with baldy tyres as a courtesy car & I only got my £500 for the repairs back after Strathclyde Police kindly gave me a copy of their CCTV coverage & I took out a summons at the local Sheriff Court.

I will never use AC ever again.

There was a website about AC complaints somewhere, sure it was arnoldclarksucks.com or something like that ... anyone know if that's still in existence ?

poppy_f1

zappster1966 wrote: »

There was a website about AC complaints somewhere, sure it was arnoldclarksucks.com or something like that ... anyone know if that's still in existence ?

yeah http://www.arnoldclark.worldonline.co.uk/

MarkyMarkD

ictmad wrote: »

so went and sat down in the reception area(have a viewing aREA into the garage,wehre u can see ur car being fixed) looked in to garage at 3.40(2 hrs after i arrived and they hadnt even looked at my car yet,was still outside where i parked it) no-one approached me to say it would be a little longer etc

So you sat in the waiting room, with a view of the garage working area, and didn't notice for two hours that they hadn't touched your car? Did you fall asleep or something?

ictmad

MarkyMarkD wrote: »

So you sat in the waiting room, with a view of the garage working area, and didn't notice for two hours that they hadn't touched your car? Did you fall asleep or something?

no i was chatting to a nice lady,there only a small viewing window and workshop stretches aronud wall from window,and wasnt paying much attention