evans halshaw

[owieprone]

right! bit of a slating coming up for this garage.

bought my t reg 85k lupo 3.5 weeks ago, noticed a second of power loss, my fast wipe doesn't work (noticed this in torrential rain) drivers side leccy window decided it had had enough.

spoke to sales boy and took my car back last sat, left it there for them to take it to their prefered garage (evans is a ford dealer so no vagcom) to be vagged and sorted on Monday. that's fine i've got my golf to drive in the mean time.

phone sales boy yesterday to ask what was going on as i'd heard nothing, parts on order, should be ready today to pickup. just phoned just now to find out whats going on as i work in DIDCOT and will have to drive all the way to bicester to get the bf to take me to the garage to pick the car up. sales boy is having a holiday today... handy. speak to another used car manny who says he'll find out whats going on with prefered garage and sticks me on hold....phone starts ringing seconds later....'rapidfit how can i help'

ARRRRRRRGGG!!!!!

explain myself for the 3rd time.....

rapidman says.... right your cars somewhere else *smack head off desk* i'll give them a phone and see where we're at and give you a call back.

i'm currently awaiting the call back.

is this something i should get used to with English garages? not phoning me to tell me what's going on with my car, cos this is the SECOND english garage that's been this SODDING USELESS since i moved here. Evans only saving grace is that i'm not paying for this work, as it was there before i bought her....having said that their saving grace is moot as the faults were there BEFORE i bought her and should have been noticed and sorted (the leccy window was and supposedly sorted).

anyone else had problems with these guys?

The other garage i had problems with were HEATHROW ENGINES... do not ever ever every send your car to these "GEAR BOX SPECIALISTS" as imho that is not their SPECIAL ability.

[deewhy]

a good mate of mines works in the sales department in our local branch. he says its sick as **** the way they treat customers. tells us horror stories all the time, and how they "bump" folk.

everyone i know who's into car will always swerve Evans Halshaw.

[owieprone]

mc update...

rapidfit has phoned back.... part of the power issue is fixed, couldn't actually understand what the boy was saying cos my signal here's pants, sounded like crankshaft... but could have said elephant farts for all i know. stilltheyr'e sorting it and he will phone me later to let me know the deal.

looks like i'll be picking it up tmorn at this rate.

the saga continues....

[lunalupi]

My mum did something which might help you out.

She had a years warranty on her car with the garage she bought it from - only problem was it was rather a lot of miles away. So when it had some issues and had to be towed in, she had it taken to our local garage. She then phoned the original garage and told them, either they pick up her car and deliver a courtesy car to her house, or she leaves it to our local preferred garage and they pay for the repairs.

They let us take it to our local garage and paid up for repairs! Must have been easier for them to do that, than send a tow truck to fetch the car, and get someone to provide and deliver the courtesy car...

Edited June 4, 2008 by lunalupi

[owieprone]

a good mate of mines works in the sales department in our local branch. he says its sick as **** the way they treat customers. tells us horror stories all the time, and how they "bump" folk.

everyone i know who's into car will always swerve Evans Halshaw.

i always hear this AFTER i've dealt with a garage!!! *smacks head off desk again*

They'll be having me shouting in their faces if they don't sort their stuff out, i might be a girl but i'm not a moron when it comes to cars, and don't EVER give me bad customer service if you want to keep your looks and not have a multi forum/ facebook et al rant about service from me. evans halshaw better get the stab vests on.

[owieprone]

My mum did something which might help you out.

She had a years warranty on her car with the garage she bought it from - only problem was it was rather a lot of miles away. So when it had some issues and had to be towed in, she had it taken to our local garage. She then phoned the original garage and told them, either they pick up her car and deliver a courtesy car to her house, or she leaves it to our local preferred garage and they pay for the repairs.

They let us take it to our local garage and paid up for repairs! Must have been easier for them to do that, than send a tow truck to fetch the car, and get someone to provide and deliver the courtesy car...

there can only be one lunalupi, you going to the meet tnite? i'm blatantly not lol, jim should be there tho.

i asked about a courtesy car but they said the didn't have one, luckily i wasn't that bothered cos i hadn't sorned grubs yet. however, they will be getting a b*ll*king from me about their lack of customer service and for sending my car to rapidfit instead of the lovely and much vaulted APS round the corner. or at least the seat garage round the corner. i might even ask for them to repay my phone costs seeing as i've been calling them all the time.

[lunalupi]

You know me.....who are you??

You can always use my mums method if anything else goes wrong, or if they keep mucking up demand it's taken to another garage to be fixed.

[owieprone]

You know me.....who are you??

You can always use my mums method if anything else goes wrong, or if they keep mucking up demand it's taken to another garage to be fixed.

Lesley, jims girlfriend.

My main problem is with evans halshaw, they will be paying for everything, so as long as it's fixed i ain't bothered who it's done by. i reckon the electric window problem will be an on going on as this seems to be the second time it's died, however, theres always the passenger side window to put down so i'm not fussed about that. the window wipers and the engine however will be fixed to my liking or hell will ensue. and evans halshaw will still get a flea in their ear about not phoning me back and their poor customer service, no-one was looking after sales boys stuff while he was off, so i reckon if i'd not phoned them myself i'd not have heard anything till he was back at work. i will wait until i am standing next to my fixed car before i complain however.

[lunalupi]

Asked my mum how she did it - apparently what she did was get our garage in touch with the company providing the warranty, and they had a good chat and once they were happy they would be paid they were able to start work.

Her advice is, wait until you get the car back, fixed or not. If it's not fixed to your liking, that's the point you dig your heels in and refuse to have it taken back to the garage and have it instead taken to a garage you do trust.

[owieprone]

Asked my mum how she did it - apparently what she did was get our garage in touch with the company providing the warranty, and they had a good chat and once they were happy they would be paid they were able to start work.

Her advice is, wait until you get the car back, fixed or not. If it's not fixed to your liking, that's the point you dig your heels in and refuse to have it taken back to the garage and have it instead taken to a garage you do trust.

I'd do that anyway, i've got no trust for garages i don't know, especially generic ones like rapidfit, i dunno who they've sent the car to for vw diagnostics, but i doubt it's a dealer associated one. all slagging of rapidfit however, will be curtailed until i get the car back and see what the workmanship is like. you never know i might be pleasantly surprised.

what annoys me most is that I'M dealing with rapidfit, which i shouldn't be, i should be dealing with evans as that's who i've bought the car from and that's who my 'contract' is with. the warranty is evans halshaws own, so all the problems should be dealt with by them and paid for by them. anyhoo, no new news yet so i'm sure the saga will continue tmorn! bleh!

[owieprone]

update..

spoke to sales boy yesterday (i phoned him again!) asked what was going on, he didn't know, gleaned from him that it was back from rapidfit and that they had fitted a new part, it didn't sort the power problems so they refitted with another one, still doesn't work, he would phone me back before 6 to let me know what was going on.

its now 4 15 on friday and i'm still waiting for a phone call... i'll be going round in person on saturday morning to find out face to face what's going on... and they really won't be happy to hear me i'm sure, not with other potential customers in earshot.

I'm really annoyed cos i was supposed to be playing netball both this and last saturday but having to sort my 'new used' car out instead! *mutter mutter*

If it's not sorted by the time i get to them tmorn, they WILL be taking it to APS or the Seat garage round the corner to get it vagcom'd, cos they obviously can't figure it out the old fashioned way (which as it's not an old fashioned car i'm not surprised).

I'm pretty sure i'm out of credit on my phone from phoning them so bloody much! grrrrrr!!!!

[owieprone]

update,

last thursday phoned sales boy again, he didn't know what was going on with the car so gave me a call back 2 hrs later to let me know that they were still trying to figure out what was wrong with it that he'd phone me back before 6pm (when he leaves work) to let me know what was happening.

SATURDAY morning 11am i phone them up, sales boy's busy, leave a message for him to call me back, i phone a further 3 times and ask for the manager...4.30 i phone again and finally get the manager who think's it's funny that he's just had a message put on his desk to ring me (1 message just seconds before i called him, it's over an hour after i last called!! aye f'in hilarous) he says that he has to wait for big manager to call him to let him know what the deal is with the car... he actually calls me back! at 7ish to let me know that big manager's wanting to check somethings out first and he will call me back to let me know what big boss says ....YESTERDAY.

i'm still waiting for someone to call me.

picture my face looking very unimpressed. AGAIN.

I WILL phone them up later to see what's going on. i'm having to use my work phone tho cos my mobile IS out of credit cos i've phoned them so much, AND i'll be bloody telling them that too.

they have the right phone number for me they've called me on it, i know it off by heart, it has charge, i have signal, they must have a phone phobia, it's the ONLY thing i can think of other than sheer and utter incompetance.

[owieprone]

the sage continues...

My car has finally been taken to a vw specialist on thursday, the same day that my mk1 golf's passengerside front cv joint disintegrates on the way to work, had to be towed home and was off work yesterday because of it.

phoned evans friday to find out if my car was fixed, it's not, parts are on order and they will be fitted monday which means i'm carless. so i told them that i need a courtesy car. today when i phoned them to find out about the courtesay car, i had to phone up MY insurance to put the car on it, luckily they couldn't because it cost 15,000 my cars combined are only 6000. so they are now figureing out what they can do for me...i'm ready to flatten someone and i've got 2 folk in that dealership to choose from so far!

i'm also writing to the dealer principle about the customer service i've received so we'll see what that brings about, i'm not expecting to even get an answer to be perfectly honest as they don't seem to be able to pick up a phone, i'm going to assume that the art of writing is far beyond their ken.

so i've now had 2 saturdays completely wasted by trying to find out what the hells going on with my car, and when i'll get it back, i'm very unimpressed to say the least. they'd better sort me out a courtesy car by tmorn or i'll be going in and getting my money back.

[owieprone]

OMG!!!

right I, yep that's right me!, I phoned them up on saturday despite being promised to be called back, leave a message for idiot manager to call me back or else... he does! blimey! someone must have dialled for him.

he says that he can offer me a ford focus (jesus!) worth £15000 07 plate as my courtesy car, I have to insure it... eh? thinks me? why am I insuring a courtesy car...anyway i phone my insurers who say i can't cos it has to be a like for like £. my mk1's only worth 4k, my lupos 2.5k lol. i call him back he says that he'll see what he can do... 3 hours later i call again, his boss (who's got a day off and no one else can make decisions apart from him.. we'll have to assume he has a working brain then) hasn't called him back to give him options.

this is where i totally lose my rag....i rant for about 15 mins about their customer service their lack of car knowledge or diagnostic knowledge... i don't expect them to be mechanics but i don't expect to hear " i think they call it a diagnostic check"!!!!! aaaaarrrggghhhhh numpties ahoy!!! i tell him he's a manager to act like one and follow up on things he gives his minions to do etc etc etc... he's very appologetic "all i can do is appologise miss clarkson"

NO MATE ALL YOU CAN DO IS YOUR JOB, have some pride in it and sort me out cos your fannying about has cost me time and money...

anyway... he called back with a 6k ford Ka (dear god! a Ka?) no moron it's 2k over my golf, it's not like for like is it? he asked if my other half could insure the car... how f'in cheeky is that? so i say we will call his insurers and call them back on sunday. he didn't actually know that ford ka's only come in 1.3 either! hello? DONG! :|

we don't do either. they should insure me on their policy or rent me a car, which they won't do either of, infact manager boy was adamant that no other dealership ANYWHERE does this. considering i've never heard of ANYONE putting a courtesy car on their own insurance i was abit amazed. Especially amazed when he insisted that perrys aylesbury make you insure on your on policy, he didn't quite believe me when i told him we were customers of theirs and they give you the option of their or your own policy.

anyhoo......they didn't call me to ask if i was picking the ka up or what. absolutely no clue this lot.

so today i will no doubt have to call them up to see if my car's ready, the part should have arrived today and should be fitted. i will also be asking what garage my car is with so i can talk to them myself, cos as a vw specialist garage i should get someone with a clue on the end of the phone.

how can one garage be this PANTS?

[jcarroll]

Evans Halshaw Said fords....doesnt that telly you something lol. Always seems that once the cash is in there till they think there work is done. Threaten them with the sale of goods act and the sale of goods and services act as they both protect you.

Id only ever buy from a VAG dealer or Alfa romeo (as Alfa are that used to cars breaking down they could build the next space station on an episode of Scrapheap challenge.)

Hope your situation improves though

[lunalupi]

The only time I've ever had to put a courtesy car on my own insurance was when I crashed mine and it was a car from the repair garage - the insurance company simply put my insurance on the courtesy car until I got mine back.

Other than that, I would expect the garage to cover the insurance except in certain circumstances (a very young driver perhaps, as sometimes they are excluded from policies).

Sounds like they need a cuff round the ear!

[owieprone]

ah threatening folk with trading standards etc doesn't work cos trading standards to f'all, they can basically only give you advice, which i already know cos i've spoken to them before when i was done over by another garage doing my mk1 clutch refurb.

anyway i've shouted at the manager, my cars with vw specialist at the moment and i'll be phoning them later.

i am tempted to get my mobile phone statement and send it to evans and tell them i expect to be refunded the money i spent calling their useless asses.

i've just posted my letter to their dealer principle it's 4 pages long with exactly what's gone on since day one up till yesterday.

but disaster has struck again, i'm currently driving the boyfriends car and he's driving his track car which has a busted gasketseal so doesn't want to drive it anymore understandably, so unless i get my car back tnite, i will have to get up at 5am to drive him to work anduse my lunch hour to pick him up after his shift to take him home then come all the way back to work.... joy!

so i will also be shouting at evans for making me wait 2 AND A HALF WEEKS for a problemthat could have been solved in 1.

MK evans is a ford but they do have other dealerships that sell vw. so they should have the software available to them if there is a vw dealer of theirs nearby. besides that there are plenty of vag specialists around mk for them to use, they just took 1.5 weeks to bloody send my car to them. deserves a passage any a sequel to robert grants 'incompetance' novel.

will probaly post the next instalment of Evans Halshaw, the little garage that couldn't give a f... tmorn.

[owieprone]

next installment... you lucky lot!

phoned up D & A Autos in MK yesterday, who evans have sent my car to to be fixed, they have vag.com or it's predecessor. spoke to Darrell who is very pleasant, receptionist karen also very pleasant and helpful.

he told me exactly what was going on, parts on order, what he's going to do, that it might take a while cos it's fiddly etc etc. i bemoaned about evans uselessness and lack of car as boyfriends gasket seal has probably gone on his track car. Darrell offered me one of their courtesy cars! HOW NICE IS THAT?

so panic stricken (it's now 4 pm) i phone up my insurers and get insured, took me over 20 mins!!!! apparently a 206 1.4 lx is higher spec'd than a lupo! i beg to differ but insurance lady is adamant. i have to insure it on my mk1's cover instead and i had to fight for that! this takes me to 20 to 5!!! i run out the door drive home and make it there by 5.15, frantically call the D&A to see if someones still there, luckily catch karen as she's walking out the door to go home. They were going to leave the keys in a strategic place for me to pick up and put the forms for me to fill in in the car!! UNBELIEVABLE SERVICE, they've not even met me!

boyfriend and i get there at 6.15 and one of the mechanics is there waiting for me with the keys, fill in forms and away in 5 mins.

I cannot say enough just how much i am loving D&A Autos right now, i have the car till they fix mine, which will hopefully be saturday latest.

why didn't Steve at evans think to ask this? Evans will be paying for my extra insurance fee or else!

I'll be dealing with D&A from now on until i have to pick my car up from EVans, where i will then verbally complain loudly about shoddy service. Apart from anything else, Roy who is the only one with a brain at Evans, doesn't know tech speak so can't relay what's going on very well, so i may as well hear it from the horses mouth, and i've had enough of speaking to the other cretins at evans.

why didn't evans just give my car to D&A to begin with instead of rapidfit and their subsidiary and then trying to fix it themselves? tards!

[torii]

i actually cant believe it

check out my post

http://www.golfgtiforum.co.uk/index.php?topic=86811.0

basicallly ive had the same situation

i bought a car from evans halshaw batley (FORD)

and i live in stoke

so its like 50 odd miles away

the dealer principal does f*ck all trust me

i'm still dealing with the area manager

cos im still not happy

they fixed some of the things

but the trip computers still faulty

and the starter motor squeels like hell when turning on the ignition

it made me so angry

i took the car to evans halshaw stoke (CITROEN)

who have fixed some of the problems... but their coutesy car was actually worse than the one youve been offered

it was a 2008 citroen picasso c4

so a big fat people carrier

if youre still stuck. ring your insurance and they should put a temporary insurance for 7 days

even though the car was work 20k, and my golf was worth 4200 they only charged me £20 for 7 days

but yeah i put that on the bill too. so im not left out of pocket

they had my car for over 2 weeks. and its still not right. the dealer prinicpal had me in tears cos he was being horrible

speak to consumer direct.. they are good with advice

and then log it with them

if they still piss around and you want compensation take it up with trading standards

my issues still not ressolved. but we should keep in contact because we've both got the same issue

and theres me thinking evans halshaw were a reputable dealer EH?!!!

[cardaft]

Such bad luck your having!

I hate dealers, ive had more than my fair share of greif from them, so i try avoid them now.

I hope you get it all sorted soon!

[owieprone]

hey tori, good to know (bad for you) that someone else is having problems with them, I may mention you (not by name, cos i don't know it lol) in my next rant to the dealership.

Your warranty covers new things that go wrong, not things that have been faulty before you were sold the car, also once they've started repairing something under warranty, they have to fix it no matter how long it takes, if it's a recurring fault they still have to fix it because they acknowledged it and started while under warranty.

the courtesy car i've got is from the 3rd party garage that has vagcom, who are fixing my car, i phoned them up today, i do love them they can use phones and GO and get answers, often taking the phone with them, while your waiting, none of this, ill call you back in 5 days rubbish evans hands out.

anyway, they said that my car is being put back together as we speak and they will try and get it ready for tmorn, hopefully this will fix it as the insurance on the courtesy car runs out on weds midnite. so fingers crossed.

I definately can't be off work anymore now as my counterpart at work has broken his arm! arg i'll be alone here with 3/4 folk to look after for at least 3 weeks! nightmare!

i've already got a stack of work behind me!

I've not heard from evans since last weds was it? They've not called to give me an update on my car, whether i'm talking to D&A or not in my opinion they should still phone me at least once. i know if i call them up they won't have a clue what's going on with my car. I think if i do phone up again i'll be asking for the principle straight off, no talking to the monkeys.

[owieprone]

I HAS MY CARS BACK! yay! works, slighly more power now the cam sensors sending right and the wiring looms taking all the info and the ecu is picking up the info right! yay!!

now all i have to do is bill evans, A-crevices that they are, for the petrol they've used up fannying around, (half a tank) the multitude of phone calls, and the extra insurance fee for the courtesy car from D&A.

so loving having her back, but forgot how much rooooollll she had on corners, will be looking up new sus for a drop of 40 me thinks. after seeing a mates drop of 46 it can definately take it and not even be close to LOOKING lowered let alone having any arch problems.

its sunny, and warm and i have my car back, I'S HAPPY.

i can only hope evans is sad cos i've cost them lots of dosh good, basts.

[torii]

oh i wish it was that simple for me

its cost me £400 nearly because the car went down just as i was in the middle of a training course 40 miles from home

train and taxi fares

that which the taxis dont have a decent reciepts so i cant get refunds

evans halshaw are getting bad mouthed all over the internet. il make sure of it

im gutted

they supposedly fixed the rear bushes

ohhh but no

i hear some clunking

did they boot

so they billed EH batley for work they didnt do

im either getting a refund or gettin the car looked at by a specialist to make sure its ok

il never buy from a dealer again

[owieprone]

jesus, that's rubbish!!

have you spoken to the garage they sent your car to be fixed to? (i think that sentace makes sense lol) i would get their written confirmation on what they fixed and how much it cost them, ask for copies of any written correspondance between them and evans (not sure they'll be any like but just in case). ask evans for a written confirmation of what they asked the other garage to fix, what they fixed themselves.

don't let evans get away with not doing stuff to your car.

as for taxi receipts it doesn't matter whats on it as long as the taxi companys name date and amount are on it they are valid receipts. if evans argue that they aren't valid then it's up to them to verify with the taxi firm that they did or didn't drive you about, using the reciepts details. the cabbies will have a record of who took you and where.

I've not heard back from the dealer principle yet. i'm not in the least bit surprised tbh, bet he's as much of a chocolate teapot as the rest of them.

[owieprone]

just got THE MOST RUBBISH letter from the dealer princple at evans.

'Firstly i would like to apologise for the lack of customer service that you received from us and any inconvenience that has been caused by this.I can assure you we take customer care very seriously and we therefore appreciate you taking the time to write to us so we can make sure that this does not happen to anyone else!

I understand you now have the vehicle and hope everything is as it should have been. We would be more than happy to arrange for your car to be re valeted properly as it Should have been when you collected.

Finally i would again like to apologise for the poor service you received from us."

exactly as the letter is! no punctuation, and typing errors ahoy! pants. says it all really.

oh and my electric window has stopped working again.

i'm not taking them up on their offer of re-valeting as me and jamie took 4 hours to do it properly and they wouldn't give it half that time, and of course it now doesn't need it! retards. i did say that in my 4 page letter.