Imperial Car Sales, Southampton

We went from birmingham yesterday to see a bmw 330d m sport reg no RE13BXM In white.

Got there to find the whole front end had been resprayed to a very poor standard over spray eveywhere and to top it off different shade of white.

1 alloy had been refurbished which did not match the old ones.

Was told they will re-spary if we wanted it priced at over 20k! We might aswell buy from a slavage yard the way they where going.

Looked at there other cars quite a few had poorly painted panels.

Refused to regund our travel costs they said it was our choice not to buy. Poor service sales staff dont know how to talk to customers basically just chavs in suits!

Great company and service, they took the time to help resolve my personalised plate transfer that got into a mess through no fault of the dealership due to the DVLA shutting the Vehicle Registration Office.

I made a trip to their flagship site in southampton, please steer very clear of these guys, i watched their video and they are full of total rubbish, everything they said on their video, they never did, wasn't greeted, was never approached, wasn't a sales person around to help me, a lot of people running around, but i got no help, i turned up because i was impressed with what he had said on his company video, well that was a mistake, total waste of time. As i was walking out, I even over heard one of the managers saying, tell the customer tough, she has purchased a used car, used cars go wrong, I remember the salesman, which looked abit like tintin, he mention his managers name....Russell, if you go there, you can't miss him.....Do not go and waste your time with these guys, and after hearing what that russell guy said, i would never ever purchase a car from Imperials and never ever recommend these to any of my friends and family, I am an ex-serving soldier, and trust me, I am going to let the world know how rubbish imperial cars are.

Having researched and found the car I wanted, I phoned and checked it was still available (note for those who expect their choice to be there waiting, it's a car supermarket and they sell cars!). On arrival I was met and greeted by Ali who was polite and courteous throughout the process as were his colleagues. I test drove the car of my choice and came away with the car the same day having agreed a trade in on mine. Couldn't be simpler. I've since received two follow up calls to check I'm happy.

The car is a BMW, it's been very well prepared and I'm very happy with it so far. Having bought BMWs before I know the main dealers would have charged a lot more and it wouldn't necessarily have been prepared to the same standard.

So if you are level headed and want a reasonable deal, take your time, research the cars, have a couple lined up to view and you can't really go wrong.

Where do i start with this lot?

Car i went to see was sold ( then bombarded to buy another more expensive one )

Was promised £4200 for my part exchange, and turns out i was actually given £3200

I had cash-back which was due to me after the deal was done, i had to chase them to get it (9.5k) of my money

Car i bought wasn't valeted and smelled of cigarettes, also has another problem which i again had to chase up.

Car had no fuel or oil (yes really) on handover (again promised some fuel which never happened)

There was damp mould spores on the seat-belts

The Financial dept and sales obviously dont speak to each other, so your constantly re explaining to different people what the issue is, and being "promised" a call back that never happens

This lot seem to be an ever expanding multi site business, personally i have no idea why, they are no better than a a dodgy one man band in a porta kabin selling cut and shuts

NEVER AGAIN

We arranged a test drive at Southampton. Explained that we were travelling a long way and would the car be ready. We were assured that the car would be ready and we had a phone call to confirm our appointment the night before the date arranged. We arrived and was amazed at the level of staff, what seemed like at least two dozen people milling about. We were interviewed by a lad who went through a questionnaire of tickbox questions but was completely oblivious to the "appointment" to test drive a specific car. After about twenty minutes and us stressing we were there to test a particular car, showed a print out of details, he left us. He returned with a older salesman who had a print out of another vehicle. This sales man said the car we had arranged to drive had been sold at another branch only half an hour ago. He then proceeded to try to persuade us to take the alternative car, different model, different engine size, different fuel. We said we weren't interested in "any" car but had arranged to see a specific car. A £13k car that we should believe somebody bought sight unseen 50miles away.

Three days latter and the "sold" car is still on their website, Autotrader and ebay. They are liars and shisters

We were £70 travel and expenses down and a whole day of our time wasted. If you live next door to one of there sites and you don't mind heavy hand tactics to extract as much money from you as possible for a car you weren't initially interested in then ICS might be for you. If not a jupe, then AVOID AVOID AVOID.

Saw car in Autotrader, called and booked appointment to see it the next day. As we were travelling over 100 miles I wanted to make sure if we liked it we could drive it home. Got there the next day and the car was nowhere to be seen and they tried to get us to buy a more expensive car. Wasted most of Sunday and a considerable amount of fuel which they didn't care about.

Avoid at all costs!!

We went to see a car having seen it on auto trader. I booked an appointment for the weekend and Imperial called me at 10.00 am on Saturday morning to confirm that I was coming. On arrival at 12.00 and after a 50 mile drive it turns out they didn't have the car. It had been sold some time ago.

The sales person then started a high pressure patter and explained that they would "look after us".

We left with a different car, at a higher price and a warranty that was completely mis sold as it cost £350 and unknown to us only covers £1000 of repairs on certain parts. This was the complete opposite from what was sold by the sales person.

The whole process took 6 hours. We ended up paying £14k for a car and taking £3k on finance. The finance took 2 hours to come through but they had already taken £11k in cash on my debit card.

These guys are really clever and by getting the money from the debit card kept us waiting for hours while the finance was sorted and in their bank account.

I now think that the whole process was a set up and I would warn anyone against taking anything they say at face value.

They are in my opinion complete sharks. Please go elsewhere.

Called me out of the blue as I was a previous customer to say they were opening a new supersite in Millbrook and had vetted my car as ideal stock as they were needing 400 cars. Asked specifically whether their purchase was contingent on me buying another car from them and was told emphatically that they would appraise and buy at a fair market price with no strings attached.

Fast forward 2 weeks, got the car valeted, drove 20 miles to their nearest site for appraisal. Sales rep made all good noises about my car which is a very good one (only selling as I've had a car restored to use and it is now ready). Even printed off an independent Glass's Guide valuation for it at £4,200 and this is for a low mileage car.

Despite their assurances that pulling me in was not a scam when they tricked me in there, surprise, surprise they suddenly lost 100% interest as soon as the rep told his boss that it was a straight sale (of a good quality car sold to me by them just 18 months beforehand!).

They obviously had a little procedure then to deceive their customer's by, in addition to the usual chin-rubbing over giving anywhere near the Glass's Guide (nb. the guide their Trade swears by when selling cars) value for my car, then refusing to give me any offer for my car at all!

Clearly my lack of interest in buying a new car from them had suddenly evaporated all their feined interest. They wouldn't even risk me considering an offer whether it was 1p or less.

Suddenly I was made to feel very foolish and my view of this company (before that I would have considered going back there but now would not touch them with a barge-poll and will be passing my experience onto many people as a result. You have been warned! (a no longer Imperial Car Supermarket customer).

As would be expected the sales staff were friendly and I purchased car (Audi A4) which I am happy with. Good clean ex-company car.

However their after sales customer service is very poor.

Been trying to get refund on Williams Ceramic Coat which Fleet centre cancelled application to car on me 3 times since January but I cannot get them to respond never mind confirm they will issue refund. Keep getting passed between staff members and they never respond when they say they will. They offered me £50 rebate and to send me the kit to undertake application myself saying they could not offer full refund as I had bought it. I explained that they advised this needed to be done in sheltered weather free environment and I live on street and that given cost I would expect it to be done professionally. They said they would get back to me after looking into issue but nothing so far. So I'll keep chasing. Letter to the MD next I think.