Awful experince at Benfield of Newcastle

bazves · Jul 23, 2012

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Long post incoming, but I feel obliged to share with you the
experience that I've just had with Benfield Volkswagen of Silverlink, Newcastle
that unfortunately left me walking out of the showroom in amazement and
disgust.

Posted on here a whiles ago, but to cut a long story short I'd
narrowed the choice of my new car down to either an up! or a Fiat 500. I test drove the Fiat on Saturday and was
quite disappointed. Didn't like it at
all. Test drove the up! on Sunday
morning and pretty much liked it straight away.
Great little car! So talked numbers and looked over my trade in (Smart 42)
and put together a deal on PCP finance on a High up with pretty much every
option box ticked. The ""˜only' freebie I
got was the Service package (with I would have gotten for £149 anyway as a
result of the taking the PCP) ""“ so basically £150 off the deal.

I took Sunday night to check the numbers and decided that
the finance deal was fair, the trade value against my car was ok, so I was
happy and ready to go

Popped into the showroom this afternoon after work to
effectively place the order. There were
only a couple of minor points I wanted to sort. Firstly the invoice had £20
added for petrol (dealership policy apparently). I asked for that charge to be
removed and requested that they please put a ""˜reasonable' amount in the car
gratis. Fine, point agreed.

The second point (which would you believe it blew the
deal!) was ""˜Black centre caps'. I wanted the sports pack, so triangle alloys,
and based upon what I've seen on here (and what displays on the configurator)
the caps would be white. Which I think
looks a bit daft. So I requested black
caps instead (as per the accessories brochure).
Got told dunno it we can specify that blah blah etc. So again based upon the info on here I pointed
out that black caps were available are £45 a set (and those would be what I
would have gotten had I ordered the wheels from the dealer after buying the car).
Tried to explain that I didn't want the black in addition, but instead of the
white. Basically got told that they
could fund the extra cost out the deal.
At which point I lost patience and left in a polite a manner as I could.

I don't feel like I'm being demanding or unreasonable, I
just felt through the whole experience that they weren't really bothered about getting
my business. Well now they won't

Rant over""¦

ZumbaQueen · Jul 23, 2012

No I don't think you are being unreasonable, they've thrown a sale away for 45 quid.

Mine paid for mine as quite frankly said whichever person thought it was fine to put white caps on a completely black car must have needed medication, the dealership agreed. If you can take your business elsewhere and tell them what happened they I'm sure would accommodate. It they cost us 45 quid quite frankly it'll cost them peanuts.

As for the petrol...... how ridiculas!!

clowesa · Jul 23, 2012

Yep, totally agree. First off, can't believe they'd charge you for the petrol and then to throw away the whole deal for the sake of a set of £45 caps which, when all's said and done, should be a choice of white or black anyway, is just utterly stupid.

I'm sure you'll find another, more reasonable dealer elsewhere but might be worth a rant to VW UK too, see what they have to say about it.

yapmaul · Jul 23, 2012

Agree with the comments above. You know exactly what you want and I bet you'll find another dealer not too far away who'll want the business. Don't let the experience put you off the car though - it's great!

bugbabe34 · Jul 23, 2012

Totally agree, go to another dealer, tell them what you want and for how much and that you will signEdited by: bugbabe34

Rednaxela · Jul 23, 2012

If your buying a car, the least they can do is put some fuel in it. The days of "batteries not included" should be long gone!

Privatedoc · Jul 23, 2012

Agree 100%....take the figures you got and the reason you walked and any DECENT dealer will grab the sale and hopefully begin a long term relationship......good luck, you did exactly the right thing!.....I'd also let the general manager of Benfield know how his monkey lost the sale!

Name and shame.... BENFIELD

Upmeister · Jul 23, 2012

Name and shame? Why?

We all like to feel we've 'done a good deal' but if the dealer is good in other respects - why would you risk going elsewhere for £45?

Being a decent dealer is not about offering the biggest discount but the best buying and aftersales experience.

My dealer didn't offer a big discount, but I have been getting regular emails and postcards from them the update me on the progress of my order. They have made a good start at looking after me and my order, which I'm hopeful will continue for the whole warranty period - remembering the 3rd year is provided by the dealer.

Privatedoc · Jul 23, 2012

Exactly, it's all about dealer relationship and here bazves clearly lost all confidence in them....I too went to the best dealer, not the cheapest.

VWXYZ · Jul 24, 2012

Bazves - I would have done the same as you and walked.

You were not asking for anything extra - just a simple change was all you wanted. And tbh it is a change that you should not even have had to ask for as those white centre caps on anything but a white and possibly the light blue cars should never have got off the drawing board. As for the ones I have seen on the Dairylea wheels well they look atrocious imo.

Any business that can wave goodbye to £10k of top line for £45 is frankly nuts in this day and age.

Go elsewhere and get your up! from somewhere that understands service.

bugbabe34 · Jul 24, 2012

When I was enquiring to buy a set of triangular alloys (so a purchase of less than £500) I was guaranteed that if they didn't come with black centres, they would provide them FOC.

bazves · Jul 24, 2012

Thanks for the feedback all. I won't be going back to the original dealer and as of yet have not heard anything back from them (they have my phone number). So things have moved on a little in the meantime I've been considering other options.

Testing driving a Renault Twingo tomorrow. Sat in one this afternoon, was pretty nice, they have good warranty/finance deals and lots of customisation options. Had a look at the Pug 107 but it just seemed too spartan inside (imagine the toyota/citroen would be the same) Popped to see the Seat dealer who seems like a nice chap and have an extended test drive of the Mii Sport (Vibora Negra edition

) booked for Sataurday morning. He also indicated that he could source a Mii in 8 weeks tops. Will pop to Skoda Saturday afternoon and have a run out in the Citigo, then an alternative VW dealer Sunday morning to put together a deal on the Up! This will hopefully put me in a position with 4 offers on the table, then I'll likely go foward with one of them. Let battle commence!

Markmod1 · Jul 24, 2012

Yes I like the Vibora Negra edition, it caught my eye with it's sporty styling, stripes and black wheels! Lush.

Privatedoc · Jul 24, 2012

I like the dash stickers.... Enjoy your test drives

Markmod1 · Jul 24, 2012

Seat looks very cool, on a par with up! for cool I would say, see hereEdited by: Markmod1

ccup · Jul 24, 2012

Try Pulman Durham. I found them excellent!

SiJ2000 · Jul 25, 2012

When done, you should create a new topic on the Mii. think a lot of people would be interested in some kind of comparison...

tizer · Jul 25, 2012

I changed my order from one dealer to another because they would not give me an extra £50 on my part ex, the VW dealer in Preston, so I went to Corkhills in Southport who got my order because they were willing to give me what I wanted.Fancy losing a new car sale for £50.
Good Luck.

Awful experince at Benfield of Newcastle

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