Arnold Clark, Stirling, Stirlingshire

We have purchased 3 new vehicles from the Stirling location. But try to get a reply from their service department is impossible. I have left countless messages, spoke to different reception staff without any response. They are happy to take your money but give zero service in return. Run away from this location as fast as you can.

Had car serviced by them on 27th April 2020. Cost £179 as agreed, but tried to make us anxious about the tyres and brakes to generate work that was unnecessary. Car had done less than 6000 miles since the last service and front brake pads and discs had been fitted then. AC tried suggested both back and front brakes needed cleaning though both sets worked perfectly. More exploitative was their saying that two rear tyres needed replacing because they were five years old, even though they had plenty of tread. This is a new ploy, especially when they suggest that the structure of the tyre is affected by tiny cracks that were not visible on the video. They did not give us paperwork, or even a receipt and said they would be mailed on. The check sheet - with no Advisories was mailed as an upside-down, squeegee photocopy and there was no receipt.Had we been taken in by their extra-work advice the service would have cost over twice as much. They also wanted around £80 to replace an exhaust clamp.

Not all Arnold Clark garages are like this. Some are good and put the customer first. And get more business. This one puts money first and tries to charge for things that do not need doing or replacing.

Because of Covid-19 there doing all paperwork online. After agreeing my trade in price and filling in all forms they then lied about what they offered me for my trade in saying they offered £250 less than they stated. I then see they sold my car for £1500 more than my trade in. I did not haggle for the price of my car I bought. They said they had recorded the phone call offering me £7500 when we agreed £7750. But wouldn’t let me hear the call. This was from the Stirling Hyundai branch. Total disgusted with there sales tactics and using Covid-19 to cheat there customers

ying a car from Arnold Clark was more stressful than anything I’ve experienced and I have 3 children under 5! And still no car!

Not only did they sell me a faulty car they took over 2 months to pay the outstanding finance on the car I traded in. They never get back to you, I rang nearly ever hour one Saturday to ask what was happening with my curtsy car they took my car in on the Monday by Saturday they still hadn’t authorised a curtsy car. We are still waiting for somebody to get back to us on when our new car which we purchased first week of December would be fixed

The communication between other branches and customers is horrific and I would not recommend ever buying a car from them! Not only are they incompetent the customer service is shocking. I’ve been left paying for a car Unsafe to drive waiting for parts that they don’t know when is going to arrive And for a curtesy car for over a week.

Do not buy a car from Arnold clark is my advise

I offer a warning to all those interested in purchasing a new car; do not go to Arnold Clark’s. My poor customer experience began when purchasing a Citroen Picasso C4 which only had 7,000 miles on the clock. The garage haggled with me over the price charging me £15 for a small amount of fuel in the tank, the description of the vehicle’s mileage online was incorrect, the parcel shelve was missing and they tried to palm me off with a much older and dirtier parcel shelve, then after the 8,000 miles I did in the vehicle within the first 5 months the electrical system failed costing me a further £538 in repairs, then when the car was meant to be repaired they were scaremongering me by sending videos to my email of the tread on my tyres, then I was promised the car back washed with a screen wash top up but that wasn’t the case either. So I would strongly urge car buyers to look elsewhere.

The service department is a joke! Engine management light has come on and they are unable to even look at my car (not repair) for 2 weeks! Asked me if wanted to leave the car with them and they might be able to look at it before the 2 weeks but they can't guarantee this! Five year warrenty but unable to look at or repair any problems.

I purchased a car from this dealership in August'16 & have nothing but praise for the whole experience. On arrival, no less than 3 people came to see if I was being attended to. The staff were very attentive & knowledgeable. The salesman that dealt with my purchase had only been in the role for a week & handled it as though he had been doing it forever. All in all, a good experience.

I bought a brand new Vivaro van to start up my own business in October 2015. It's obviously under warranty & I was assured by salesman that in the unlikely event that my new van ever broke down he would ensure I would have a cover vehicle. Well, my van did break down. It broke down on a Thursday. I called the garage and was told to make my own way to Stirling from Glasgow. Once there I asked how I was supposed to get home. The service manager just shrugged his shoulders. I was told my van would be diagnostically on Friday and that they'd call me. At 4.30pm on Friday I was still waiting. I had to call the garage. They said they were waiting for a part, which wouldn't arrive until Saturday morning at 10.00am, and that they'd call me. They didn't. I had to call at 11.30am. I was informed that the diagnostic test was wrong and that a computer had got the test wrong! Isn't it strange how the motor industry don't work after 12pm on a Saturday and not at all on a Sunday? I was told a part would arrive on Monday. I did receive a call on Monday stating my van was ready for pick up. When I asked if they could bring it too me I was hit with another feeble excuse. So, I was 5 days without my van, 5 days without income. I called customer services = polite but useless. Code of practice? It doesn't really exist once they have your money. I was told on three occasions that I would receive a goodwill gesture ( I had lost £605 income) and they reneged on that. I wrote to new CEO Mr Hawthorne, who got one of his minions to reply and deal with me. He never had the decency to reply to my message. So much for valuing customers. Sir Arnold Clark himself would not have treated a customer like this. I feel truly let down by the brand Arnold Clark. I will not recommend them to anyone in future and will not purchase any Arnold Clark vehicle in the future. I shall relay this to family and friends, and work colleagues (of whom there are many). It's amazing how word of mouth spreads. Be careful when purchasing. Admittedly this may be an isolated incident of sheer contempt of the service manager's part, but if one customer is unhappy then it's one too many.

i recently purchased a Mercedes from Stirling citroen, took first of all the best part of two weeks to receive from them,due to a broken speaker cover,,,sales staff obviously believed that I actually believed this,I did forget to mention i was employed by merc parts several years ago,so i know how things work and certainly not two weeks for a part.

anyway, took the car home, all tyres were at different psi, one was 10psi,this straight away points to no pdi being carried out...alarm bells sounded, heard and felt noise from n/s rear, took wheels off,all discs goosed, the centre cap on my wheels had been stuck on with no more nails, it fell off about 5miles from the garage on first day, contacted salesman asked to call a garage nearer my home / work, told he would call me the following night to check everything ok,,he obviously had better things to do as i never got a call..i have purchased 5 cars from ac, my advice to all is give citroen stirling a wide berth, i have no grievance with ac, but cs is non existant and certainly no pre delivery inspection in my opinion was carried out on my car.

My mum and I have been looking for a specific make/model car for the past 10 weeks and upon finding a suitably priced vehicle matching our criteria we phoned the dealership to arrange a test drive and place a reserve as these cars seem to get scooped up very quickly. When we arrived we were advised the dealership had only just received the car the previous evening and as such it had not yet been valeted or checked. We were fine with this, completed the test drive where we noticed the brakes seemed very soft and required your foot completely down to come to a stop. We mentioned this to the salesman and were assured the car would undergo full valeting, health check and MOT as it was due soon. We agreed to the sale and called back the next day having realised we hadn't seen the retractable tonneau cargo cover in the vehicle. The salesman we had dealt with was not in but his colleague confirmed they had the cargo cover and it would be in the vehicle when we collected it.

The following week we went down to collect the car, asked to take it for a further test drive to check the brakes, found them to be still soft and the tonneau cargo cover missing. We mentioned the brakes to the salesman who assured they had been fully checked, that he had mentioned them specifically to the service department to be looked over during the MOT. The MOT certificate was new and with no advisories, he said the mechanics had said this was how the brakes felt in this type of vehicle. Having had no experience with this specific type of car we took his word and the new MOT, though we were sceptical. At the mention of the still missing cargo cover he said "Really? It should be in the car". We followed him out to check and confirm again that it was still missing. He asked who we spoke to on the phone about it, we couldn't really remember just that it was a member of the sales team and he had confirmed they had it. He went around the dealership asking about it but said "none of them are owning up to it". Once we were all sat around his desk again he said that actually he had ordered a new one two days after our test drive and it would take some time coming from the manufacturer directly. My mum and I looked at each other and tried not to laugh as it was clear this was a total fabrication! Whatever, it didn't matter in the scheme of things as long as we were going to be provided with a cargo cover. The sale was put through, paperwork completed. Got the car home, excitedly showed it to the rest of the family only to discover the car was filthy with splashes/marks to the interior all across the backseat and boot. There were chewed up sweeties under the passenger seat, clearly visible while sitting in the drivers seat. Disappointing for a supposedly freshly valeted car.

The next morning I took the car to work and could hear a quiet whining/whistling sound while the car was moving, but not while stationary with the engine running. When I got home at the end of the day we rolled the window down and by this point (after a grand total of less than 24hrs ownership, and something like 60 miles including the trip home from the dealership) the noise had become a loud screeching of metal on metal. My mum correctly worked out this was coming from the brakes and they must have been so worn down that there was metal grinding metal. We called the dealership (open til 8pm) who acted surprised despite our previous comments about the brakes - they said they could get the service department to phone us tomorrow and arrange an appointment. We couldn't drive the car without fearing further damage to the brakes/rotor and asked if there was any benefit to taking it straight down. We did and when we dropped it off with the sales team our salesman was strangely absent yet again. We spoke to the general manager who told us it was probably just dirt on the brakes. No - but nice try. I queried how the car could have been sold with a supposed clean bill of health and a new MOT with no advisories when clearly the front driver's side brakes (at least) were worn right down. They had nothing to say for themselves other than "we don't sell unsafe cars". I dread to think what could have happened had a sudden full stop brake been necessary. The next morning the service department phoned first thing to ask why the car was back with them, which we explained (though would have expected the general manager's notes to be passed on) and were advised it would be end of day before it was seen which was fine. Around 3pm our salesman called my mum who was given a rambling story about the car having been checked before we collected it, but that since we'd had it (less than 24hrs) the metal tab on the brake had snapped off but the brakes were fine. He'd rambled that he couldn't explain it well because he wasn't a mechanic, but that he was relaying what they had told him. He also informed us the cargo cover had arrived - a bit of good news. About 4.30pm we got a call from the service department to say the car would be ready for collection soon and that both front brake pads were worn and had been replaced. A good lesson for Arnold Clark in being honest. That or inform all your colleagues of what the story is going to be. As we live 45mins drive away we asked for the key to be left with the salesteam as the service department would likely be closed before we made it down.

We were met by our salesman and he read over the invoice enclosed with the keys. There was no charge for the work as I would expect. He said "the metal tab had snapped off and the guys called me around and showed me the brakes so I could see and tell you what happened. I told my manager and he said just replace the brake pads too." I'm sorry but why can't these guys just be honest. I wouldn't have been so frustrated had they just admitted they'd made a mistake in checking the car initially instead of this whole farce of making up stories. The invoice itself says on it "front brake pads found to be worn - replaced". Not impressed, sorry. He took us around to the service lot to collect the car and to check the cargo cover was in place. It was sitting in the boot and was visible marked/scratched. Comically he stared at it for a long moment before turning and saying "oh yeah the guys actually managed to find the original cover, it was with the valeters, we phoned them and they still had it. But I ordered a new one, so I'll try to cancel that..." Jeez. Just give it up. We shook our heads, he kindly fitted the cover at our request (we wanted to make sure it belonged to the car). Mum mentioned the state/cleanliness of the interior and he did appear upset about this - offering to book us in for a further valeting appointment. We honestly weren't interested in another bad job and just wanted to take the car home. I'm not sure whether the salesteam or the service department are to blame really, but the dishonesty is shocking and disappointing and really makes you lose any bit of trust in the dealership. I get the feeling they try to get away with selling cars with minimum work done during their intake, hoping no one will notice. Reviews of other branches nationwide kind of confirm this suspicion. They did rectify the problem in the end despite the odd story and lies, just have to hope there isn't anything else wrong with it...

One last thing - if the cargo cover was missing at test drive when the car hadn't been valeted yet, but somehow the cargo cover had ended up with the valeters - how did it get there? Stop being dishonest Arnold Clark. You drive people mad.

Entirely put off from buying/hiring any vehicles with Arnold Clark again. Zero trust earned and would question how roadworthy the vehicles they are selling actually are.