David

Very Poor after sales service

This is a review of a BMW bought in early January from Richard Barnes Cars (I state this so that he can’t claim to not know who I am, as in some other reviews). Richard is quite amiable and helpful on first meeting, the problems arose when the vehicle developed a serious non-starting fault shortly after purchase, initially Richard appears quite helpful, suggesting some simple solutions, none of which sorted the problem; then the excuses begin and shortly afterwards he would not answer the phone at all or respond to several polite emails. At the point of sale I was promised a 3 month Warranty and was informed that I would receive the warranty details in the post and in the meantime if I had a problem then I was to phone him- but if he refuses to answer the phone- what is one meant to do, as I live hundreds of mile from his premises it was not an option to return the vehicle nor was this option offered, in fact Richard offered no help or guidance in resolving this issue at all and I ended up having no more comeback than if I had bought privately and yet he charges top dealer prices. The promised 3 month Warranty has never materialised and Richard also promised receipts for suspension work done on the vehicle which I have also not received (despite reminding him by polite email), so I suspect he was not truthful about this work having being carried out. To date the issue has cost over £600 to resolve and I have regrettably having to resort to litigation in order to recover this, under clearly defined rights through the Consumer Rights Act 2015. My honest and best advise would be to avoid buying a car from Richard Barnes Cars, unless you are very confident there are no faults with the vehicle; you are probably better off buying from a more reputable dealer from a trusted dealer scheme or something similar, so at least you will have some comeback if the car develops a fault shortly after purchase. I would like to be clear, that I gain no pleasure in posting a negative review, I wanted to give Richard a chance to help to repair the faulty car he sold to me, but as no help or even any goodwill gesture were offered I had no option but to give this review.