I don't normally use this blog for personal posts but as the purchase of this potential new car was for part business use I've decided to share my thoughts here.
No means No! Felt like pressure selling!!! I went on what I thought would be a quick and easy car viewing (and hopefully purchase). How wrong I was! Upon arrival I was greeted by a large amount of over familiar staff in the reception area and I was shown to the first of many seating areas! Because of covid I had to pay a £99 deposit to secure a test drive allocated time slot as the car had to be sanitised. I was then kept waiting while the sales assistant tried to locate the 2 cars I was there to view. Finally they were located and I was told I could only test drive one and not two as previously informed online. During my inspection of the car it was evident that the sales assistant knew very little about them as she could not answer my simple questions about previous owners, work carried out on its last service and when the MOT was due.
They made no attempt to sell me the car or to find out my requirements to see if they had other vehicles that may have been better suited to my needs.
After a successful test drive I decided I wanted to proceed with the purchase. This is where the sales assistant's training appears to really kick in and the CarShop make their extra money by trying to sell you all their added extras.
They began by trying to sell me some kind of policy similar to breakdown cover which included unlimited MOT’s for the life of the car. This seemed too good to be true so I politely declined. The sales assistant said they had to continue with their sales pitch as they had to make sure I understood what I was declining. This didn't fool me. I sat there for another 10 minutes repeatedly saying no thank you. Then they tried to sell me a protection spray for the interior and exterior of the car which again I declined and the saga continued.
At this point they moved me to seating area number two which was called the “relax” area. I was far from relaxed at this point.
There were still two more seating areas to go after this where according to the welcome pack I had been given I was going to be offered a range of car servicing plans, no doubt under the same pressure.
Thankfully I did not get to this point as things became worse when another employee came to tell me there was a problem with the vehicle. It needed new glow plugs and I would not be able to take away the same day. Why was this not checked prior to the test drive? They made lots of excuses and apologies but I said because of the bad service I no longer wanted to purchase the car and could I have my £99 deposit refunded. Again CarShop did not take no for an answer and made all these promises of how they could get the car to me. I was exhausted by now and well aware that this waiting process was some kind of selling technique to wear me down into purchasing their added extras.
So I decided enough was enough and walked out. I left feeling almost violated but glad that I had not handed over any of my money to this company. Be warned, if you go be prepared for something that fells like pressure selling and the fact they do not take no for an answer. Be sure to take food and drink with you as you will be there for quite sometime!
I do NOT recommend CarShop to anyone.