David Gray in response to BEWARE BEWARE BEWARE !!!!!!!!

Sadly, I had a similar very bad experience with Richard Barnes Cars.

Richard Barnes from Richard Barnes Cars in response to BEWARE BEWARE BEWARE !!!!!!!!

*****PLEASE READ*****. Firstly we have complained to this website provider and trading standards. This customer purchased the vehicle and drove back to Ireland, it was 3 weeks later that he "popped the car in for a check over" at his mates garage who then sent it to his BMW specialist mates garage who then scared the life out the customer and insisted he carry out repairs immediately even though he is closed due to the lock down. The first time I was contacted was a few days later when I was told repairs are £1600. I offered to fly a BMW mechanic to Ireland to inspect and fix which was refused, I then offered to collect the car which was again refused. We not only have no proof of fault with the vehicle we are not allowed to see it either. It appears the chain was "badly fitted and needed immediate replacement" We put the new owner in touch with the previous who provided proof that the chain was replaced 45000 miles ago by a qualified mechanic and he had suffered no problems. Since writing his review the new owner of the car is now fighting his 'mates' garage regarding the repairs as they have now asked for a further amount to replace the ECU which has made him realise what they are about. I think this review highlights how flawed the whole reviewing system is, it is not uncommon for some mechanics when they know the car is warrantied and the dealer is miles away to invent repairs or increase charges, the customer will always believe (at first) the repairer and automatically attack the supplying car dealer, You can see this on the previous review where another mates garage sent us a bill initially for over £600 for a non starting problem on a classic car. The actual fault was down to an £8.00 relay in the fuse box. Result as usual garage would not give car back till paid, IN THIS CASE OVER £500 LABOUR TO REPLACE A FUSE!. customer expects dealer to pay full amount which obviously cannot happen, outcome angry customer pays ridiculous amount to mechanic, mechanic walks away with no come back, dealer gets bad review for not bailing customer out. Please if you are the type of person who writes reviews remember that their is another person and business on the receiving end. Your review can have serious effects. Thank you for reading. Richard Barnes

David Gray in response to BEWARE BEWARE BEWARE !!!!!!!!

It is incorrect to say the fault was a faulty fuse or relay, it was actually a faulty engine starter ECU and to change this with reprogramming would have cost a lot more than fitting the starter bypass switch that that mechanic fitted at the cost of just over £300. This involved a considerable amount of diagnostic and fitting work for the mechanic (who is well respected with 5 star ratings and only charges £60 per hour). I am not trying to damage the reputation of any business, just letting other potential car buyers know that I had a very bad experience with this particular dealer- who refused to offer any help whatsoever with the faulty car that was sold to me.

David Gray in response to Very Poor after sales service

Thanks for your response Alan and I am sorry, but not at all surprised that you sadly had a bad experience with Richard Barnes Cars, you know there is a phrase- what goes round comes round! He will get caught out eventually if he chooses to treat customers like this and think that consumer law does not apply to him.

Richard Barnes from Richard Barnes Cars in response to Very Poor after sales service

Hello David and Alan. Whilst I am really sorry you both still feel this way, I must point out the following 1. You both live hundreds of miles away, Northern Scotland & Ireland. 2 You both went in to a BMW specialist garage, neither of you attempted to contact me before hand. 3 You both then contacted me with requests for huge amounts of money after the garage had had to immediately start work. 4 You both then constantly bombarded me with calls requesting I send just money. Alan you hounded me for £600 initially then sent an invoice from your garage for just over £300. The fault on your car was a RELAY it is just a FUSE and costs me £8.00 for which your trusted garage charged £27.00 + VAT. Also as we discussed its a classic car and has mechanical warranty only. David you hounded me for £1600 to repair a car that was driving perfectly. The management light came on then went off on your trip home, I contact you several times over the following week to make sure all was ok and you said it was great and your wife loves the car. Then suddenly after a trip to a garage the car is diagnosed as (just about to break) and needs to have work carried out immediately. As I have proved this was not the case and I know from our last conversation the garage are now trying to get more work from the car and you are fighting them. PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, understand how damaging these reviews can be. Neither of you phoned to say you had an issue can i help fix it, neither of you believed what I was telling you when you had your diagnosis from your garages, neither of you questioned the amounts the garages wanted to charge and at no time was I allowed to inspect the cars. If the situation was reversed would you simply send me a cheque?. I would also point out that eventually particularly in your case Alan you realise that perhaps things were not all as they seemed at your garage, once everything is straightened out you will have forgotten this review, however it will remain against my company from now on, Perhaps both of you should review your repairers and add a link to your reviews on here...but I bet you won't.

David Gray from Richard Barnes Cars in response to Very Poor after sales service

Richard, you are not being truthful or honest. I tried about 6 times to contact you by phone and twice by polite email, you never answered my emails and you never phoned my back to resolve the serious non stating issue, so I tried my utmost to resolve the faulty BMW you sold to me, by contacting you, but you refused to contact me and therefore I had no option but to sort the problem out myself. I never hounded you at all, I actually sent you a letter requesting that you help to settle the independent specialist garage’s bill - who charges a very reasonable £60 per hour and by the way has 5 star reviews (proof on file). You are correct that the parts cost £27 (relay and switch) but fail to point out that this needed to be fitted which was quite a complex job, requiring 4 hours of labour. You did not offer to take the faulty car back or inspect it, nor did you offer to pay the very reasonable repair bill or even offer to help with the repair in any way. The bottom line Richard, is that you sold me a vehicle with a serious fault and despite repeated polite requests did nothing to help resolve the issue, which trading as a car dealer you have a legal responsibility to do.

richard barnes cars from Richard Barnes Cars in response to Appalling. Deadful.

I have no idea who you are. According to my records no BMW has been sold to anyone called 'Tom' and I have no complaints at all regarding a fault on a BMW. Please check to see if you have recorded this review against the right dealership. I have contacted the review body for your details in the mean time in order to find out why this has been left.

Richard Barnes cars from Richard Barnes Cars in response to Appalling. Deadful.

**UPDATE** We have at last found the details on this vehicle. We had you down as Mr ****** and no first name. We found you had left another review for us under a different first name for some reason and could not link the paperwork until now. If you remember Tom/Andrew you purchased the car in May 2017 and the fault occurred over 7 months later, we spoke and due to your younger age even though it was out of warranty we agreed to help fix the car by way of free labour. However because you were unable to reach me by phone the following day as I was with a customer you had your friends constantly phone me, when I became free and phoned all the missed numbers I was either swore at, laughed at or had the phone put down. I understand if a car develops problems people become upset but a dealer can only warranty a car for a certain time, we agreed to help and would of happily done so but need to be able to work effectively without having our phone lines blocked in order to be able to afford to offer that help. I hope you understand why we could not continue and really do hope everything has been sorted with the car.