Carbase.biz

Purchased my car from them. It has been back to them 26 times and still has problems. Give them their due they have never refused to look at my car but at what point do you say enough is enough? It's put me off of ever using them again or recommending them. The car was a dud from day one and still is! Avoid them if you know what's good for you!

We stupidly paid a 'holding deposit' of £250 to make sure they didn't sell the car we were interested in before we went to look at it, but they assured us repeatedly that it was fully refundable in the event we didn't like the car. However, when we said we didn't like the car, they wouldn't give us the money back. I AM REPORTING THEM TO TRADING STANDARDS - BUYER BEWARE

DON'T BUY A CAR FROM THESE PEOPLE. We saw an Astra on autotrader we were interested in and I telephoned a salesman at the Lympsham branch to enquire about it. He said if I wanted to view the car I should pay a 'holding deposit' of £250 to ensure they didn't sell it before I came to view it 2 days later. He assured me, several times, that if I didn't like the car I would get my money refunded in full because 'it was illegal to withhold it'. He said the deposit was to make sure we came to view it, and in the event that we didn't, they would keep the deposit as compensation for taking the car off the forecourt for a few days. My husband also rang the salesman, Phil, and spoke to him about this because we don't like paying deposits in case we don't get them back - we should have followed our gut feeling!! We paid the holding deposit in good faith because they were a 'reputable' dealer. We went to view the car on Saturday, but popped into another dealership on the way there and test drove another car. We went to the appointment at carbase as promised and test drove the Astra. It wasn't in as good a condition as the other car we viewed and the mileage was higher, so we decided to buy the car we viewed first, not the one at carbase. When we told the salesman we didn't want the car, so we wanted our 'holding deposit' refunded, that is when the fun and games started and they said they wouldn't refund our money. They got very aggressive, shouting and swearing at us (and I have an 8 month old baby who was crying her eyes out by this point), and threatened to physically escort us off the premises if we didn't leave quietly. I tried to reason with them, explained the conversation I had had with Phil about refunding our deposit if we didn't like the car, and the General Manager said that because we looked at another car first and decided we preferred that one and therefore carbase didn't make a sale, he wasn't going to refund the money. He also said that he couldn't refund it anyway, only the accounts department could do that because he didn't have the authority - so it begs the question if that is the case, did they ever intend to refund it?? It seemed that if you bought a car from them then everything was OK, if you walked away empty handed they didn't want to know.

Very dissapointed. The car has developed numerious faults. Aftersales service uninterested and unhelpful. Nothing has been fixed under the extended 3 year 'premium' warranty. Regret buying from them.