Had mine done recently at Arnold Clark in Kirkcaldy, also had what was supposed to be a new
spark plugs service. Had been booked in for weeks (had been told it would be done on the day), and the afternoon of the day before it was due in on the Friday morning, I had a call from them to advise that they wouldn't get the recall and the service done on the Friday, they would need to keep the car until Tuesday morning because the techs didn't work weekends. Fine says I, I'll need a courtesy car then (I hadn't asked for one as it was supposed to be done on the day, I work from home a lot and I can walk to the dealership in 10 mins. Also my other half has a car). They replied, oh sorry don't have any available. I replied, well if you'd told me this in the first place, I would have booked a courtesy car when I booked my car in. No answer for that.
The recall work they did seems fine, though they did say to keep an eye on the coolant level and bring it back if it needed topped up. Are they not supposed to have the correct software to bleed the thing?
The servicing was another matter. I'd paid over £600 to have a new plugs service, but it wasn't until I got the car home and had a good look through the paperwork that I realised they had not done the plugs. I drove back there and asked what was going on. They replied that the plugs should have been done on the previous service so they didn't need doing this time. Right says I, but you were happy to have me pay for the plugs and rip me off for £250 then? They replied well we can refund you? Nope says I, I want the plugs done so I'm sure they have been. So the car was booked in again. No admission of fault or error from them for all this. They're obviously too used to dealing with the probably 99% of people who turn up there who've never done any work on their own cars, so think they can do or say whatever they please and expect to be taken at their word.
I would never call myself an expert, but I've done most of the repairs and almost all the servicing of my own cars for the last 40 odd years, and I would normally avoid a main stealer like the plague- this lot have only reinforced this reasoning. I only took the car there because it's just round the corner, and obviously I want to keep the warranty up (We get a 7 year warranty in the UK which is transferable)
I had also mentioned at this point that I wanted the plastic trim behind the rear view mirror replaced as it was broken and kept coming away and dangling at the back of the mirror. They checked and advised that this was not separately available from Kia, but only with the mirror and the sensors as a package at over £900. 900 quid for a piece of plastic... feck sake.
So back the car went and (allegedly) the plugs were changed and they have supposedly fixed the plastic trim. They didn't replace anything, told me the trim wasn't covered under warranty and charged me 40 quid, so they've obviously just glued it up. Didn't get a service sheet either, was told it could take a while for it to come through (load of bollocks) so I asked that it be emailed to me. Needless to say that didn't happen, had to call them again and they sent it through. What a joke, they sent me the same sheet as they'd given me for the service previously, and had just written "
Spark plugs" in pen on the bottom. so I'm pretty sure they haven't done them. Haven't had time to remove one and check, plus had to go on a couple of trips so would be difficult to prove now. Sick of these people, they think they can do whatever they like and get away with it.
All this has just confirmed my opinion of main dealers. Never again.
