Peter Vardy Mini

Had a 9am appointment to look at part exchanging my car. They made a courtesy call the afternoon before to confirm the time which I did. I turned up at 8:55am and was advised my sales advisor was in a staff meeting and would be out in 5 mins which seemed reasonable. I happily browsed for a while. Then sat in the waiting room. 30mins later no sign of anybody!!! No one came over to check who I was waiting for, or to apologize for the delay or even to offer me a drink. I could hear the staff meeting going on and on in a room right next to the waiting area. Lots of bursts of laughter but at no point did anyone in the meeting come out to check if customers had arrived. Just before 9:30 I gave up. I really didn’t feel like buying a car from them at this point. A couple of ladies had arrived just after me also for a 9am appointment and were still waiting when I left. They obviously had more patience then me.
I wouldn’t mind if my sales advisor was busy with another customer but there was only the receptionist of the shop floor. If you’re going to make and then confirm a 9am appointment then be ready or at least check if your customers arrived. Maybe the next staff meeting should include actually coming out onto the shop floor to speak to customers as a tactic for selling cars. In the end I booked an appointment at a rival mini garage while I waited and have now bought a new mini.
Oh they did call to check where I was 2 hours after my appointment time. What a joke!

Cant fault the Service from the sales staff. Very useful information & no hovering, plenty of space, ‘honestly’ answered questions too.
I had decided I was buying from Arnold Clark this time with a discount voucher, but was hounded in the showroom, on the phone, email & post, so paying a little more was worth it from what I know of Vardy.
This is my 9^th Mini & 5 Stars easily.

I went to view a second hand toyota and was greeted by a really helpful salesperson who showed me the car and offered me a drive in it. When I asked for a trade in price I was told that this was impossible unless I was prepared to commit to buying the car. The reason given was that my sales assistant’s colleague was too busy on a Saturday to go through the process of getting a price for my car, and besides, someone had phoned in about this car already. What happened to customer care? I might have been interested in this car a the right price, but when staff have an attitude that is more centred on their own experience than that of the customer, I certainly wouldn’t consider buying from this retailer.

Another one that hovers between a 2 and a 3. I wasn’t super impressed with customer service — on the first visit, exemplary. We were the only customers in the shop on a dark stormy night and interested in purchasing a Mini Cherished (read: secondhand as I can’t afford a new one!). They brought the car I was interested in into the showroom so I could look at it under better lights. The salesman walked us through the car details, and even explained how older Minis were not complete BMW builds (a Toyota engine of all things!). Anyway, I digress.
By the end of the evening, I was convinced this was the car for me. By the next day, I had put a deposit on the car to hold it to the weekend when I could perform a test drive (deposit was refundable). I couldn’t wait!
The appointment was at 1pm on Saturday. We shot up there and appeared in the showroom like little kids on Christmas. Our salesguy was handling another customer so we were asked to have a seat and a coffee while we waited. 40mins passed by. I would lie if I said that this normally wouldn’t bother me, as it would — pretty much infuriate me, to be honest, and as I had tickets for the rugby and had errands to run, I really didn’t have time to waste sitting in a showroom while our salesguy chased someone elses commission. So I broke, snapped at the manager and as if by magic, we were ready to take our test drive. Why this couldn’t have happened at the agreed appointment time, I am a little lost to say why.
Test drive happened, I calmed down, and decided to buy the car. We were promised 7 days free MINI insurance which we were refused because I didn’t have any NCD (sucks to have been out the country for 3 years). No replacement for the insurance was offered as the dealership wasn’t affiliated with the insurance company. Hmph. We did get 125 quid off the cost of the car (either that or an ipod lead — as I don’t own an ipod wasn’t really going to happen) after some bargaining by my boyfriend.
The last thing, and the reason we slump to a 2 star review, is the promise of a follow up call as the car is indicating that the MOT is due in January. There is a way to reset this apparently, and we were promised a followup call to explain how to reset the system. No call and I’ve had the car over a week now. I’m not really interested in doing the chasing here but it does feel like we were expected to do all the work to give someone else some commission and once out the door, out of mind.