Stroud Motors Review

Comments (4)

1. Firstly, if I could have selected the option for zero stars I would have, please read, this is factual and not a rant. Went there with my partners daughter to look at potentially buying a car. It was a Grey Ford Fiesta 2014 with 38,000 miles MJ64 EKH. When we asked anything about that car the person I dealt with didn’t know the answers, such as how many owners, last serviced etc which was odd. I asked if it had had any paint or repairs as I’d already detected it had as nearside rear door had been painted and the rear bumper didn’t align properly and no direct answer was given. In fact at no time did he really try to sell us the car, what he was most interested in was selling the so called ‘Care Package’. The care package consisted of replacing a boot floor/carpet and a dash vent that were missing, a service but no detail as to what the service Included and an MOT which the car currently didn’t have. We made him aware on several occasions we would not be interested in the care package at all, but he still insisted throughout our conversation that he would continue go sell the virtues of it. At no point did he try to sell us the car, no mention of any features, advantages or benefits of the product we wanted to buy, just of the “Care Package” we said we would want to buy the car but needed to make a few calls to allow my partners daughter to source some extra funds in order to achieve the asking price of £6475, so we said to him, we’re popping for a coffee down the road while this happened. He then said he could sell us the care without the care package but we would have to fill in a disclaimer, with that he produced a large sheet with loads of scary small print, to which I said was absolutely fine and we left. 20 mins later, he asked boldly, “so what do you think” we replied we’ve got the cash and would like to buy the car, he looked delighted until we then said without the care package! He then said his colleague has got someone on the phone right now coming to see the car which is really awkward. I said why is it awkward, just call them and tell them its sold, he then went in to say about he can’t have battles with other salesmen, to which I said that was not my concern I was there to buy the car. He then said it’s just not fair to waste the other customers time in coming to see it, but he failed to realise he’d just wasted our entire time, speaking to him on the phone the day before, driving all the way there to view the car and test driving, then spending time on the phone arranging the funds to buy the car. He was talking utter BS! My partner called his bluff at this point and said, so what if we’ll take the car and with the care package, of which having a very awkward look on his face he said no, how would we like being messed about. if he had agreed to that it would have proven him a liar, my partners daughter was so noticeably upset and in tears which he totally ignored. He said look, let me help you out, as soon as this other guy has seen the car I will call you back. He called 2 hours later to say the other viewer wanted to buy the car, but he needed to trade-in a car but SMC wasn’t interested in his car. So the good news my partners daughter could buy the car, but she had to buy the care package and if she didn’t he would not sell her the car. Not only that but he gave her 1 hour to respond with her decision. So I will leave it up to you good people to make your own minds up, but I will strongly urge you to read all the reviews available on the interwebs, then you’ll find out what we did and that there are far more skeletons in Strood Motor Centres closet than meets the friendly salesmen’s eye!!! I’m not telling you not to buy from them, I’m just sharpening your senses before you go to view and potentially buy a car from them, so you know what to expect.

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2. I was interested in a car that was only one year old and apparently belonged to the owner of the business. It had apparently been lovingly cherished and he was the only owner. We had almost agreed a sale, when the rude salesman told me I had to pay an additional £550 indemnity insurance. I queried this and was told it was to cover the cost of the warranty. When I pointed out it was still covered by it’s manufacturer’s warranty, he checked and said yes it would only be an extra £150, this was to confirm there was no finance outstanding, the mileage was correct etc. I said I could HPI check it for a lot less, but he was rude and arrogant, insisting I had to pay this, as they had already paid it. There was nothing stated anywhere on their website about this payment and I was told it was on the invoice. I said this extra cost should be shown up front, as I wasn’t likely to see the invoice until the time of payment. He got very rude and angry and just said that is the price of the car, you can either pay it or go away. You can imagine what I chose to do!!

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3. I have just got back from visiting Strood Motor Company after seeing a vehicle on Autotrader I was interested in. Once I looked around the car I was then told I would need to pay an extra £150 for the warranty then another £300 for the care package. He said that he will not sell the car to me unless I pay these extra costs because he did not want to the garage to have a bad name if anything goes wrong with the car. Absolutely ridiculous. I do not recommend this garage at all stay clear!!

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4. I’ve worked as a Business Sales manager for a number of years in the past and this was genuinely the most shocking display of customer service I’ve experienced! I called in advance to ask if they still had the particular car I was looking for, which was abruptly confirmed on the phone …after the 70 mile journey I was greeted by a seemingly friendly salesperson who told me to take my time and look over the car. Once I had spent 5minutes looking at it he sauntered back over and started the most patronising sales patter that came straight out of the 80’s. Literally zero questions were asked about what I was looking for in a car or even basic pleasantaries, it was as if he wanted this conversation over as quickly as humanly possible. He kept calling me by the wrong name, which I had to correct him 3 times. At the end of the spiel he refused to let me test drive the car as he irrationally and erroneously didn’t believe that I was serious about buying it…I just travelled 70miles?!! He tried to ask me to trust him and that he had already driven it and that it was fine, like I was supposed to say ‘oh you’ve got a point, just have a load of cash, I don’t need to see what it drives like’. “We’ve failed at the first hurdle haven’t we?” He exclaimed as he shook his head and walked away from me…I was furious.

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