DGW

Crawley Down Skoda
Snow Hill
Copthorne
West Sussex
RH10 3EQ


01342 713933



New Car Sales
Authorised Repairer

ncarring

Originally posted by 4x4Octavia - Sun Oct 3, 2004

I have just had a very bad experience with Crawley Down Motors (a newly appointed dealer). The letter I sent to Trading Standards and to Skoda Customer services (below) explains it all!


"I feel I must write and complain about the shameful and fraudulent business practices of Crawley Down Motors, Snow Hill, Copthorne, West Sussex RH10 3EQ.


I booked my Skoda Superb 1.9Pd in for a 20,000 mile service on 30 September, 2004 having first phoned for a quote which was given as £220. A comparison quote was obtained from Clarion Cars, Worthing at £180 but I opted for Crawley Down Motors on the basis that it is only a few miles up the road whereas it is a 70 mile round trip to Worthing.


On collecting the car, the first bill presented was for £276. When asked to justify this versus the original quote the bill was reworked to be £220. Included in this bill was a cost for screenwash which had not been changed as I had deliberately marked the levels and the bottle cap. The garage claimed that it was standard practice to drain and refill the system although it was obvious that the cap on the screenwash bottle had not been moved.


When challenged to produce the old parts that had been changed on the service (sump plug washer, pollen filter, oil filter) the garage refused and told me that if I wasn’t happy with the service, then I could go elsewhere."

ncarring

Originally posted by Moose - Thu Jun 30, 2005

The salesteam at Crawley Down are brilliant, they can always work to getting a good deal for you.


Sadly, their aftersales team let them down, they will not return calls, any problems they do not want to know, courtesy cars that you have booked are not always available and always check your invoices with them as they like to bill you for parts that they have not done, or bill you twice.


I bought my secondhand Fabia at a great price, but noticed 2 tyres were getting close, they replaced one. Also my spare wheel seems to have come from a mk4 Astra of all things (they are 4 stud, Fabia is 5) however they do not return calls and are always busy so I've had to source replacements myself.


My advice is go there to buy the car but get it looked after by a different dealer who specialise in Skoda.

Moose

Not happy with the service and thought I better let everyone know what has happened so as no-one else gets caught out by them. There are a few details in the Fabia section.

I recently had my 40k service. I took my own oil in and booked about a month in advance. I also requested a car for the day.

They have moved if anyone doesn't know. The sales is on the same site but the service and repair centre is now next to the Duke's Head roundabout. Basically, from the dealership, head towards Crawley/Horley and the first roundabout is the Duke's Head, its just before this.

Dropped the car off and was given a 1.2 Classic Fabia for the day. I pointed out that I would like my oil to be used and that was okay'd.

I got home and then received a phone call saying that several things need to be done to the car. Most important was the brake fluid needed changing. Was quoted at £25 +VAT. I agreed to this but only this repair.

Turned up to pick up the car later on, car had been put through a car wash and hoovered out, nice thought I guess.

Went inside and was told it would be £320.08

The service was quoted at £280 ish minus oil then plus brake fluid. I queried the amount straight away. Turned out they tried to charge me for their oil, they did correct this immediately. Brought it down to £286.59. It sounded about right so paid up on my VISA (knowing that I could claim the money back if they had done something wrong etc).

Got home ok. The next day at about 12.30pm I noticed that for the brake fluid change I was charged £34.75+VAT not £25+VAT as quoted. They were closed so left it until Monday.

Called on Monday and got told that the charge sounds about right but they would have a look and get back to me. They didn't.

Called back on Tuesday and got told they would look into it and if I was correct they would credit my card.

Today, Thursday, they have credited my card, so now the money is correct. But last night I noticed that I have a hissing noise. This has been indentified in the Fabia section as being a possible pollen filter or glovebox cooler. I know how to do the glovebox one and I'm sure I can figure out the pollen filter given a few minutes.

But why should I have to challenge any price at all? Surely they quote a price and stick to it?

Bottom line is, if you are going to use them, ensure you double-check the invoice before you pay and query on the spot anything thats not quite right. If you are still not convinced its the right price, don't pay at all for that particular item and just pay what you are happy with. The rest can be sorted another day.

Oh, I got a satisafaction survey through the post today (weekly post deliveries here now). I wonder how I will rate them? Would be honest but, the results just go back to Crawley Down and not Skoda Auto. So I have this strange feeling that if I don't put 'Brilliant' down, they will give a worse deal next time. Ho-hum. I'll try Station Garage next time.

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Sunlight Silver MX-5 1.8 Sport

dstev2000

I tried Crawley down for a new set of locking wheel nuts, the fleet company had given me the nod for them so I explained the situation and they told me no unless i got an authorisation number from them myself, then book it in via the service department to have them fitted, he totally refused to phone them to obtain the auth. number which would have taken two minutes, very unhlepful IMO.

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MY08 L&K: Black-Estate-Diesel-Sunset Glass-MFD2-W8 Interior light-Colour coded door strips-LED sidelights and Puddle lights-VAG-COM fettled-Lovely!
SWMBO's: MY08 vRS TDI - Standard

a1topdog

Do not use this garage - they are clueless and rip you off.

I got charged for parts that had nothing to do with my car - never got a refund.

I put my car in for specic fault code issues that they never solved - yet charge me for. Little did they know I have VAG-COM so could easily prove they were lying - they didn't care.

Also I paid for an aircon regas - but they failed to detect a leek - meaning I had to then return my car. They then succesfully manged to blow one of my aircon pipes covering my engine bay in green dye - which they would not wash off as I told them to halt work , they would not tell me which pipe had blown. Cost me over £300 and aircon still does not work , now I have a £135+vat pipe to buy and the labour to fit it etc etc.

The only plus point is you could drop your car off out of normal working hours as they had the airport parking service who you could leave your keys with and settle the bill.

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Steve
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sdds_8

I've got another bad experience to mention!

Took my car in as there was a small fuel leak coming from around the fuel filter. The AA man removed a small piece of plastic that was stopping one of the seal's from making proper contact but he advised me to take it in to be looked at as it appeared that the two small rubber seal's were damaged.

So, I called them up, they said it would take about 30min to look at and a few min to deal with if the seal's needed to be replaced. Took the car in at just after 9am and was reprimanded, like a school child, for being a few min late (about 5-10min). Apologized as was stuck in traffic, drove to sales center by mistake ect. They sent me up to the waiting room. After an hour and fifteen min a guy came in and told me that the fuel seals were damaged and that it was not their problem as the car he previously been serviced at a Nationwide Service center. I told the guy to show me what exactly was damaged so that I could inform Nationwide. Took 20min to find someone to show me the problem. I asked them why it had taken close to 2 hours only to be told what the AA man had already told me! They offered no apology and told me it would cost £15 plus labor to replace damaged equipment.

So, I took it back to Nationwide who dealt with if for free on the spot however, they couldnt quite see how the damage had been caused by them but it least they dealt with it in a polite, friendly manner.

I recommend caution if taking your car to Crawley Down Skoda!

*CJ*

I too had trouble with CDG when trying to buy my new MK2 Octavia. Despite chasing them 3 times to arrange a test drive in a 1.9 4x4 they never got back to me.

MarkyW

Have had 2 X-Trails from CDG and am now awaiting a new Scout. Have to say, all of the sales team members from both Nissan and Skoda have been extremely helpful. Special mention to Amy in Nissan sales (we looked at the new X-Trial when trying to decide on the latest car) and Dan in Skoda.

Dan arranged for us to have a Scout overnight, as I was working weekends and could not get to the dealership for a test drive. I have also been driving them hard for discounts, which was reasonably successful.

We had some issues with the last X-Trail which were dealt with without too much fuss, but were prolonged by Nissan rather than the dealership as it was warranty work and CDG needed to Nissan's authorisation to replace parts over and above the standard fix. The only real issue we had was that we had to chase the service guys for updates (our car was with them for 7 weeks at one point!) as they were pretty poor at calling us back and passing on updates and information.

As with any garage, check the bills, query anything you are not sure about and don't take BS from anyone because their will always be a franchise manager above the service manager.

Regards

Mark

PS I'll let you know how we get on with the Skoda after sales once I have some experience.

deecee3

DO NOT USE CRAWLEY DOWN SERVICE

I took my Skoda fabia to Crawley Down for a service. Luckily I said they had to call me before doing any work beyond the agreed service.

The week before I had fitted new cheap wipers from Tesco. They phoned during the service to say that the wipers needed to be replaced. It was raining on the way there so I know the new wipers were working fine. I said no thank you.

Picked up the car after waiting an hour and drove off quickly as I was very late by then.

It started raining and when I tried the wipers they were all over the place. Ispection showed someone had cut the rubber on the ends of all the wipers except the back one which had been torn as it was knackered. (I won't deny that)

I drove back and complained and they assured me that nothing had been done. NOT BLOODY LIKELY!!!

I won't be returning

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Ah was hoping to buy a new Oct II, but lost faith with the dealer world so I'm servicing me Fab and keeping her for now. One day, one day....
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Jimble

Same old story......

I took my Fabia 1.4 16v to them for a service and they phoned me telling me of all manner of problems so as it was still under warranty I said go ahead. When I came to pay they said "your warranty is no good here mate". So I paid and then called Skoda warranties and they reimbursed me. Next service they managed to find £1200 of work needing to be done including the wheel bearing they changed the year before!

Complete con artists.

Avoid like the plague.