[Azzaaaaaaa]

Good old motor ombudsman.

No really I'm lying, they've had this case for months, nothing, not even a hi this is where we're up to - and when you call, you're on hold for 5 minutes before the phone is put down -_-

I need to review all the phone recordings I've got from the finance company - I'm hoping there's another silver bullet in there I can add to the case.

 

[Azzaaaaaaa]

Over 36000 views of both the reviews I've made and evidence I've put up online now, it's good to see people are making more informed choices based on my experience !

 

[Kremmen]

Actually 3,600+

But I agree with you, bad service needs publishing in a name and shame manner.

 

[Azzaaaaaaa]

Stilllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll waiting on the ombudsman...

On the plus side, I've been informed Holdcroft is losing a branch - the crewe one formerly known as Stuart Graham Honda.

Being purchased by Robert Eardley Skoda.

Hopefully that means better management if problems occur - I'll definitely be dropping them a letter about my experience just so they can be made aware of how Holdcroft treated other (and former) owners.

 

[Kidda]

I found it amazing how different your experience with dealers from the same brand can be. I've interacted with 3 Honda dealers in my time. 2 I could not fault, the other however....

I was a bit of a latecomer to car ownership, having never needed one (especially when living in London). However, not long before I was due to make an honest woman of t'other half, I done gone and knocked her up, so all of a sudden, a car was needed. We asked our wedding guests for a contribution towards a car instead of more conventional presents, and thanks to very generous parental units, we were flush with cash. After a bit of research, I had decided that a Mk 8 Civic was the car for me. So I toddled into our nearest dealer (Thames Ditton), and confidently told them I was looking for a 1.8 Auto Civic, not too many miles and not too old, and how much cash I had to spend. Now, I will freely admit, I was being ambitious with my demands, but all I got in return was: "sorry, can't help you."

Now this took me aback. Maybe if they had told me I was being a bit ambitious, and with the cash I had I would need to compromise with one that was a little older or higher mileage, I would understand it. But to simply get palmed off with "sorry, can't help you" - seriously? Isn't your job to sell people cars? No how about this alternative, no I'll see what I could find. Just abject disinterest.

Anyway, I spotted a car of interest located at Chiswick Honda, so roped my dad (who is the family font of knowledge for things mechanical) and 'Er indoors to have a look. We were having a look at the car outside when a friendly saleslady sidled up. The instant I mentioned interest and the availability of money, we were pretty much dragged into dealership and plied with tea, coffee and buscuits while they worked out how best to separate me from cash. Suffice to say, we left after signing on the dotted line.

The contrast with the treatment from Thames Ditton was remarkable. This was made more evident later on, when, before making my first drive to deepest, darkest Cornwall, I returned to TD Honda for a space saver tire (mainly due to proximity). When I asked for one, I was told none were in stock, and I would have to order it, with a week wait. I duly did so. Two weeks later, after hearing nothing, I went back and asked about my tire. They could not find any evidence of an order...... I duly reorder (waiting time 1 week). 2 Weeks later, nothing still had been heard. Suffice to say, I have not been back to TD Honda again.

After several years of happy motoring, my good lady expressed an interest in a newer car. Flush once more after securing a higher paid job, we approached Blade Honda in Gloucester as I had my heart set on a new Mk 10. Again, the moment they knew we were not only looking to buy, but looking to by new, we were treated like Royalty (more tea, coffee and biscuits). The upshot, we are now the proud owners of a 1.5 Sport CVT. I like to think I drove a hard bargain, Blade Honda may well laugh at my presumption. But we both came out of the transaction happy.

So, three dealers, 2 good experiences and 1 miserable one.

 

[Azzaaaaaaa]

reply

Sorry for the delay I didn't see your post till now.

Yeah it's a funny one that some dealers are great and others like Holdcroft are shockingly bad, and according to the dealings I've had with Honda UK that's because they're all franchised, so they're all separate businesses that pay to use the Honda name, however when you have an issue and go to Honda UK, their stance is that they are Honda in name only - i.e it's not their problem.

Which is a bit of a daft response really, by allowing someone to licence your name they should be held to account for any failings that bring the brand name into disrepute!

I mean I've had an update to my case, it's FINALLLLYYYY been received by the ombudsman, and an adjudicator has looked at it and found that Holdcroft are in breach of their codes of practice - like I've been saying for nearly 12 months!

When we went in to buy both cars everyone was really nice and it was all pleasant, until we had issues with the accord over and over and over and over again, then the civic we found faults with and the dealerships response was to basically sod off when I posted a review of them online via google reviews saying I've had two cars from them and SIX MONTHS later I was still having things repaired that should have been done before I picked up the cars, not to mention the complete balls up on fitting proper heated seats and dual controls that didn't try and kill you off.

On the plus side the Ombudsman has found fault with Holdcroft, though not to the degree I would agree with so I've gone back to challenge their decision from the adjudicator, hopefully this spurs things along and they are more in line with my thinking, if not it's then down to the ombudsman to have the final review, but they received another 30-40 pages of evidence this week to go through so I can't see them changing the ruling overnight, it's going to take time to investigate and query my evidence

Safe to say one of the things I've since found out is the Accord I had was returned by a prior customer before I purchased it, it was a known problem car...

And they sold it as an approved used Honda? Of which I've since found out it didn't meet the requirements of, it was over 8 years old when sold and therefore unable to be sold as such, therefore in law the car was miss-sold and due to refusing to repair the vehicles in law I believe I'm entitled to a full and frank refund as Holdcroft are in breach of the consumer rights act 2015.

I do have to stay positive though, the message is spreading, I had an email this morning saying the review images I put up to accompany my google reviews of Holdcroft (as Holdcroft deny any wrong doing therefore I put picture evidence up to validate what I was saying), has now got over 100 THOUSAND views, so obviously people are looking and seeing what shoddy service Holdcroft offer customers when things go wrong.

 

[Azzaaaaaaa]

The Ombudsman Process is exhausting, it really is.

It's the delay between submitting anything and then it being picked up, or them picking it up and getting back to you.

I suppose it's a great service considering it's free but the time delays are just hell.

Anyway. The Ombudsman has been after more evidence on specifics of the case, which I've been happy to submit - I'm awaiting their review of that now to see how this affects my case going forward.

I'm feeling positive to be honest. I've covered every base with evidence and clearly explained a full timeline of what's happened - the business in reply have so far submitted one paragraph saying next to nothing, there's no evidence or anything to support their viewpoint which has been provided.

On a slight sub note - I figured as they have been trying to supress me forewarning other customers by blocking me on most of their social media sites that It would be prudent to set up a quick area which keeps track of their negative reviews.

Nothing hateful or anything like that, just somewhere people can bring complaints to if they've had issues, people can share their own reviews of the dealerships alongside it being a place to forewarn potential customers looking at their reputation assuming it's all positive, when it's clearly not.

This isn't to say it's completely bad, it's just when something goes wrong they're really bad at issue resolution as we've all seen with me, and I'm seeing in a growing list of people should you check out their reviews online!

Anyway I digress. So I made something to do just that. The Holdcroft Complaints Group!

Holdcroft Complaints Group

Had a problem with a purchase? Maybe you're still in dispute - we've usually dealt with those you're in conflict with and can share our collective experiences to help you negotiate your complaint to...

www.facebook.com

I've been tracking their reviews for some time now and just sharing them in there to keep people informed as needs be. The idea came about from advice I'd seen in another group where someone had reported issues with a product from a business and the experts had informed this person to make a group and log what happens because you've a lot more power as a collective than you have on your own.

I noticed the other week that the dealer principal of the Cobridge site had left the dealership - so I thought it worth sharing into the group, turns out someone took offence to that and reported the image (see image attached).



Well I thought, it's not an offensive post, what I've posted was true and genuine and of my own opinion and that of former staff - so I challenged their decision.
Cue this one:


Justice prevails maybe? They reversed the decision and the post went back up.

Cue the more recent image showing the dealer principal in question putting love hearts against my comments - a bit of an odd thing to do if you're claiming you're being bullied?

The comment to Ben is to say he's left the firm as Ben is another person who was completely left in the lurch by the company by being sold a broken Type R.



Then hey presto - this morning I get another support message saying your post has been taken down again!

I suppose it's all somewhat irrelevant but it's worth showcasing what they're like to you guys as potential customers.

I'm not getting too hung up on this as I know ultimately it's down to how the ombudsman rules, and they've already admitted the business is in breach of the Motor Ombudsman codes of practice of which the business is signed up to and must uphold.

I know some may look at this and think it's a bit petty - but I'm conscious of this happening again to others and them not being in a position to do anything about it, I'm fairly savvy in the way I'll attempt to seek a resolution but others may not be, and if there's a quick way of collating all these reviews to help others I figured it's worth doing.

If it helps one person to be more careful in buying, maybe they double check the paperwork or ensure everything is iron clad etc. then I've succeeded