Stratstone BMW, Harrogate, North Yorkshire

Used their service. Move your car closer. No communication at all from them. I did all the phoning. They didn't have me on file. My son wanted BMW for first car. With this experience with them, will never buy from them again. We both have BMW which are beautiful cars. They should be ashamed and give BMW a bad name. AVOID

just had my car serviced , great experience from friendly knowledgeable staff, car ready on time, washed and vacuumed.

We took our car here to het serviced and they told us 2 hours 6 and half hours later still waiting and wpuldnt give us a time for when it would ve done. Massively over priced. Just stat clear of this garage biggest waste of money amd time!

I bought my partner a second hand bmw for around the 10 grand mark the sales services was poor from start to finish , we finally got are car the following day it end up back at the garage with an oil problem that got sorted out and the car returned , then as we had it a few more days found more and more problems with it contacted harrogate once again to get these sorted after 3 monthes still had no luck with them and they dont come back to calls or emails , this is by far very poor service the car is not fit for the road as it veers off over 50mph

Absolutely terribly overall, made appointments, then the correct people were not there, had to re-arrange, calls not returned at all, txt feedback not responded to, promised warranty work on rotting poor quality panels with a car to use & went back on their word. A colleague of mine had his private plate put on the car by them but not on the V5, drove around uninsured for 3 weeks, till he got his V5 and found out registration on car was incorrect, incompetent, Do not recommend at all, go elsewhere buy different brand. Poor quality service & rotting brand!!

I too had a very experience with this company. Now I accept that things can sometimes go wrong but good businesses who value their customers work hard to put things right and retain happy or at least contented customers.

The details of my experience are too long and boring to go into but here's brief resume:

Price of vehicle had mysteriously increased from that agreed when checked paperwork. Was told by salesman that this was to obtain a better interest rate on the finance.

Then discovered I was being charged hundreds of pounds for "BMW seal and protect". This is an add on sale which the dealership makes a huge mark up on and the salesperson no doubt cops some commission. I never asked for it nor was offered it. It was simply added to the order without my knowledge.

The car I purchased was meant to be from the BMW approved used stock (loads of quality and safety checks etc). The salesman badgered me to come and pick it up. When I eventually went to get the car it was poorly valeted and presented, and within a couple of miles began to emit alarming banging noises from the front end. When these were investigated by the service dept the next day (another trip back to Harrogate) the car was found to be in a potentially dangerous condition and required two new front tyres and repalcement of some brake components which were damaged. So much for quality approved. It was obvious that no-one had checked this car at all.

They fixed it but no one offered me an apology. It was as if they didn't care less. (Service lad was very helpful though)

The car didn't even have an owners manual and the salesman ignored all my requests to get me one (eventually got one for a different model from a business manager).

The seal and protect products I was conned into buying were not provided (until more complaints to the business manager). Hundreds of pounds for a bag of cleaning products. The car was meant to have been given some extra protective coatings, but it didn't look to me as if anything had been done to it, and in fact I don't believe anything had.

The debacle around the finance issues is too long to go into but was horrific and involved a great deal of stress and worry, not to mention numerous phone calls and yet another trip to Harrogate.

The car was written off recently and following the accident, BMW rescue told me that the warranty and break down cover would expire this month (should have been September this year). When I called to speak to a business manager about this, I was told he was busy and would call me back. Needless to say.... no call. So I then responded to one of their promotional emails which advised me that the car needed an MOT test in June (again was told when buying the car that it came with a full 12 month MOT until September). No one came back to me about that either. So next I wrote to the dealer principle and gave him the opportunity to comment before I took things any further. I received a very polite and gushing email about how their customers are all important and customer service is paramount etc etc. He assured me that the car was sold with a full 12 month package. It wasn't.

I finally got a call from them a couple of weeks ago. Not to apologise. Not to offer me some recompense. It was call following up a lead from BMW finance because the agreement had been paid off following my insurance pay out. They wanted to sell me another car!

Needless to say I took some satisfaction in explaining my position.

I have now purchased another BMW with which I am very pleased, but it wasn't, and never will be from Stratstone Harrogate.

Be warned.

Below is the email I sent them.

To The Powers To Be,

I would like to start with that I have been in business for 25 years and have never been treated like this by the 100's of company's I have traded with or supplied me.

On Monday 1st July at approx 11.20pm, I noticed an X3 BMW M Sport (Reg YK09MKF) advertised on Autotrader for £15986 and stating in the advert quote "We Can Guarantee The Future Value Of This Car",see advert below . I clicked on the link to the dealers website and found it was a BMW approved dealership.

The first thing that striked me when looking at the site was the 5 day price promise guaranteeing that Stratstone would refund the difference if a cheaper similar car was found in 5 days, the second thing to catch my eye was the "Drive Away in 48 hours",third thing was "We aim to deliver first class customer service" and finally "Prices checked daily so you pay less"

Well, three out of the above four are total and utter rubbish and as for the 48 hour drive away, never found out if that would have worked ????

These four items above should have been as follows:-

1. The five day price promise guaranteeing that the car would increase in price in the 5 days, this is how Stratstone guarantee the future price of the vehicle !!!!!!!

2.Drive away in 48 hours if you want to pay £2600 more than the advertised price !!!!

3.We do not aim to deliver first class customer service as we have no customer service !!!!

4.Prices checked daily so you pay more !!!!!

Anyway I emailed the dealership from the advert that very evening and asked a few questions as to how many owners the vehicle had,was it accompanied by a FBMW service history, could I have some more pictures, were there any scratch's/chips to the bodywork/interior,scuff's to the wheels,tyre condition and was it taxed/MOT'D????. I Also stated that I lived in North London.

I received  an automated email  from the BMW Dealer, stating that someone would be contact in the morning.

Early the next morning I had a call from the Sales Executive for Stratstone BMW Harrogate , answering my questions and telling me a bit more about the vehicle. He said that he would send me a personal video showing me around the vehicle. The video was sent by email within a couple of hours, showing that the car had no marks anywhere and was also confirmed by him, the FBMW service history was also confirmed. He called me a few times during the day but I could not speak to him as I was on site.

He sent me a message by text, asking if I was still interested as someone else was interested.I replied back and said that I wanted to to show my wife the video and could only to this when I got home. He replied after a while and said not to worry as they were after a 3.0d. I requested the full spec to see what extra's the vehicle had and the size of the wheels (either 18 or 19").

He sent me an email the next morning with the spec attached, but when I opened the email nothing was attached,so I asked for it to be resent.Received the email with the full spec on Thursday 4th July at 9.26 am. Had a few missed calls again from him again during the day, but could not answer as was on site again.

He again called me approx 4 pm and asked if was interested, said the vehicle  came with a 12 month warranty,12 months MOT,still had a extended free service pack until next year and would be delivered to me free of charge.

As any normal person would ask, I asked for a slight reduction in price, he said no "already a good price, best I could offer was a full tank of fuel". I asked him to ask his seniors for a discount and call me back.

He called me back after 10 minutes and said that was the final price and it would go up tomorrow  ????????  First time I have ever heard that !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

He explained he would not be in the following day, so I confirmed with him then and there that i wished to proceed with buying the car. He accepted my instructions and asked that I provide a deposit to secure the vehicle so immediately texted him my c.card details having confirmed that he should debit £2,000. He then started to process the deposit as I waited on the phone but then told me that the system was showing an increased price for the vehicle, in fact the price increased to £18586????? An increase of £2600.

He told me to hold on as there must be a mistake, he called me back and said sorry the price had risen and will see if can speak to someone else in the morning of his day off. He sent me a message Friday 5th July in the morning saying sorry he can not sell me the vehicle for the original advertised price of £15986 as they had repriced it??????????????????? COULD NOT BELIEVE WHAT I WAS HEARING AND ESPECIALLY COMING FROM A MAIN BMW DEALERSHIP, it's something I don't even think a small time car dealer would try!!!!! Rouge Traders even at BMW dealerships now!!!!!   

I called Stratsone straight away and spoke to another man, he said he it's very strange and would call me back, he called me back later in the day and said sorry but have repriced it, I was very upset to be treated as if I had been given the run around all week. I told him that I couldn't understand that a main dealer has chased me for 4 days to buy a vehicle and when I agreed said sorry give us another £2600 and then you can have it . How is this possible after I was offered a car at a stated price for over a week, accepted that price following extensive discussions and agreed to buy the car and provided credit card details for a deposit?

Also, he finished  by saying "If the vehicle was repriced at £12000 would I have bought it?" Asked him to explain what he meant, replied " You would of bought it if the price had gone down?". I was being made to look as if I was the person in the wrong and he was taking the mick out of me!!!!!!!!!!!!

Even now while writing this email, I still can not believe that a BMW dealer has asked for more money once the agreed sum for a vehicle has been agreed.I was never told that the car was priced incorrectly in the advert when I first called or at any point during the 4 days of negotiations.

I would like to make a note, that the only person that seems to be working at Stratstone that cares about customer service is him, as he has been great from day one and has followed me up every day and chased me to close the deal in a very professional manner only to be let down by his seniors at the last hurdle.

I will be forwarding the outcome of this matter to BBC's Watchdog,Which and The Harrogate Advertiser and seems like a trip to a Mercedes dealer is required again as their service was outstanding in the past.

I bought a used 59 plate coupe from BMW Harrogate. I dealt with Becki Wilson from start to finish and she was absolutely amazing. She helped me find the perfect car and made what could have been a stressful situation much easier to deal with. No pressure just an honest desire to do right by me :)

Picking up the car was a smooth process, they even went to the trouble of making an occasion of it by unveiling the car from under a sheet. Very happy and looking forward to years of happy motoring with my beautiful BMW.

Stratstone BMW Harrogate

I've been looking for a used BMW 320d SE touring with the 177bhp engine for some time and saw one advertised at Stratstone BMW Harrogate, a 2007 (57) with 25000 miles on the clock. The 177 engine is 10% more powerful but also 10% more economical than its predecessor, with lower CO2 output & thus lower road tax.

I emailed Stratstone to make sure it was the 177, this was confirmed. Before making the 240 mile round trip to Harrogate, I rang them to confirm - "yes it was the 177"

I went to Harrogate, drove the car, liked it, was reassured again "yes it was the 177", so left £500 deposit and signed a contract.

On returning home with a copy of the reg. document I discovered that the car actually had a CO2 output greater than it should have. After some research I realised that either the document were wrong or Stratstone were wrong. Another email was answered with "We can assure you this is a 177 engine"

I spoke to a friend who works for another BMW dealer who advised that I discover when the car was built. If before Sept 2007 it was not the 117.

I rang again and only after some major pressure did they check BMW's database. The car was made in May 2007 - and was not the car they had offered me!!!

They offered me a £500 discount - the car would cost more than this extra to run with additional road tax & fuel costs. The only alternative was a refund. As I pointed out under the Sale of Goods Act they also need to meet my reasonable costs - they offered me £25 of petrol - but I would have to come to Harrogate to pick it up!!!

My advice: If you want to buy a BMW from these chaps - do your homework first or better still find a BMW dealer that knows what they are doing.

PS They're still advertising the car as a 177 on Autotrader!!!