directcars.co.uk

Avoid at all costs!!!

I purchased a car from Direct Cars a few weeks ago. Me and my husband collected it one evening and got it home to find both the speakers on the offside weren’t working correctly (the sound was quiet and tinny). I rang Direct Cars the next morning to get my car booked in for them to look at (I told them I’d checked the balance and fade to no avail). I was told the car could take a couple of hours to be checked over as they’d have to have panels off and so offered a courtesy car. That way Direct Cars would keep my car if a part needed ordering and fit it the same day (or the following day if the part didn’t arrive on time).I declined the courtesy car (as I live half an hour away and it should have been a simple check, so courtesy car seemed pointless!) and told them I would wait (at my friends house who lives locally).I arrived on the day it was booked in, to find I was actually booked in for a windscreen repair?! This meant the electrical guy wasn’t available when I was booked, but half an hour after my arrival he spent five minutes (he didn’t take any panels off, didn’t even move my car from the carpark) with my car and said the front speaker needed replacing. When I asked the man on the desk about the rear speaker, he said the back one would be trying to compensate for the broken front one and when the front was fixed it would be fine! I’m no expert, but this sounded like nonsense to me, this is not how speakers work! This was the same person who (when I arrived and explained the problem) told me there was probably nothing wrong with the speakers and I’d just forgotten to check the balance - patronising, much?! I’m a woman, not an imbecile!Anyway, I waited while a new speaker was ordered and told they’d ring me when it had arrived. Unconvinced that this would solve my issue, I went away and received a phonecall at almost 5pm the following working day to state the speaker had arrived. I booked it in for this morning to be fitted. Granted it was done quickly (about an hour after my dropping it off) but low and behold, when I got in my car and checked before leaving, the rear speaker didn’t work!!! The man who’d fed me that nonsense wasn’t the one serving me today (instead it was Debbie who had booked me in for my windscreen repair!), but he was at the desk next to her. When I stated the back speaker wasn’t working, he said he’d only ordered the front one because that’s all he’d been told to do. Apparently the word of the customer in front of him telling him BOTH speakers weren’t working was meaningless, as she’s just a woman and doesn’t know any better!So I now have to go back a THIRD TIME to resolve this issue. Frankly it’s an issue you don’t really expect when spending the best part of ten grand on a car - something as simple as speakers should be checked before a car is sold, surely?! Oh and what’s more, the car’s log book was missing. Nick, the man who initially sold us the car, gave us an electronic print out (on one sheet of paper) of all of the services the car has had and told us that stamps in log books can be easily faked so all records are digital now?! However, unhappy with this we (my husband and me) asked that we be provided with an actual service log book. Not an unreasonable request surely?! Nick promised us that he would track down (at their own cost no less!) the service log book for the car and then “let us know” when he’d done that. Well it’s been over two weeks and I’m still waiting. Additionally, I had to push for the MOT to be carried out, as we were told by Nick that if a car has less than six months left on the MOT, that Direct Cars would get a new one done. This one was due to expire in June so Nick said that was outside of six months so they didn’t need to do it? When pushed, Nick agreed to carrying out the MOT. We did have to fork out for it to be taxed though! If DC are reading this - I would like compensating for the stress you’ve put me through, what a horrid experience!

Date of experience: Jan 31, 2020