MG dealership

[awbugritt]

Having placed an order back in the first week in December and paid a deposit by credit card I cannot seem to get a proper confirmation of my order which I need to show to the electrician in order to claim the Government grant against the home charger installation.
Despite several phone calls and personal visits to my local dealer Budgens I have yet to receive any meaningful response and this is despite sitting in front of the manager yesterday who promised to be in touch. Has anyone else had a similar problem?
I am very tempted to cancel my order if this situation continues for much longer!

 

[Avro]

Hi the short answer is yes, and with Budgens at Shrewsbury.
It would seem that they have had a lot of problems due to a manager that appeared to not be managing well. He and pretty much all the staff that were in the MG showroom when I ordered mine in October have gone, so I am surprised you are still having this particular problem. I picked up my MG5 last week and it was noted that the original order had not been processed properly (in fact at all) so it was rectified then. But I too had problems with the electrician needing proof of order when I didn't have any other than a very basic email which he didn't like to accept.
I did as you see get the vehicle ...well sort of as its not the colour I ordered. On the basis that it would have been a longer wait for the Blue (so I was told), I took a Silver that they had been offered by MG UK
Keep on at them is my advice... Good Luck!

 

[Alb]

Did you order remotely or face-to-face?
I walked out with a piece of paper in my hand when I ordered my car.

 

[awbugritt]

Thanks Avro,
I'm beginning to wonder if the car has even been ordered! I wouldn't mind if I got some sort of feedback as I explained to the new manager yesterday-it's being in limbo that irritates me, and these days it doesn't take much! Factor in the removal of the charger grant at the end of March and the backlog of installations, time is of the essence in my opinion. I appreciate the new manager has probably got a lot on his plate, reading between the lines, but you'd think proof of a placed order was a simple enough request. My car in white, is supposed to be delivered at the end of March. Mind you if I got another colour like you for the same price, I wouldn't complain!
I'll give it another couple of days for now, but if fingers aren't pulled out pronto, I'll take my custom elsewhere.

 

[awbugritt]

Hi Alb,
It was face to face. The requisite information for credit was filled in, I paid a deposit for which I received a receipt for my credit card, but not an official order form.

 

[Avro]

I feel your pain, it was the same for me not really knowing if the car was on order or not. It turned out ok in the end for me, and I hope to does for you too. Early days but so far I would say its worth the wait as the car is a nice drive. I have not had any major problems with Budgens (Citroen) before, always found them pretty helpful, so lets hope this is a one off

 

[Lguk]

I got a paper carbon copy (so 1990s) of a hand written order. Charger company wouldn't accept it. Especially as it said delivery 5th Dec and it was now past that point. It took 2 phone calls, an in person visit and 2 follow up emails to get the information in a format they would accept.

I think half of the lethargy is related to them not wanting to be on record with delivery dates when it seems MGUK operate in an alternate dimension and pick them out of a bingo machine written in disappearing ink.

If I was you I would also be seeking confirmation they registered the order on the government grant portal, or you're also going to drop from the agreed 2500 grant to 1500.

 

[awbugritt]

Hi Lguk,
As soon as I heard about the reduction in the car grant I went straight to Budgens to confirm that the full grant would be applied, which I was assured would be the case. In view of the present situation who knows? One thing's for sure if someone has dropped the ball I'll be kicking the whole sorry mess into touch! Pity, I really liked the car, but if this is the way they do business, it doesn't fill me with confidence for future dealings like servicing for example.

 

[awbugritt]

Well well, what a shambles: there's a new manager started so draw your own conclusions! Bottom line is I've lost £1000 with the reduced grant and my monthly payments have risen by £75 despite the fact I put down a small deposit the first week in December and ordered well before the grant reduction. In all fairness I can cancel the whole deal and get my monies returned. There's a lot of unhappy bunnies at the minute I get the impression. I'm going in tomorrow and see what I can renegotiate.Wish me luck, I'm going to need it.

 

[MonsterMonster]

Well well, what a shambles: there's a new manager started so draw your own conclusions! Bottom line is I've lost £1000 with the reduced grant and my monthly payments have risen by £75 despite the fact I put down a small deposit the first week in December and ordered well before the grant reduction. In all fairness I can cancel the whole deal and get my monies returned. There's a lot of unhappy bunnies at the minute I get the impression. I'm going in tomorrow and see what I can renegotiate.Wish me luck, I'm going to need it.

If the order hasn't been placed with MG by the dealer I'd go elsewhere. If you have any problems once you've got the car I'd hate to think of the grief in getting any problems resolved.

 

[awbugritt]

Must admit that crossed my mind too! Having said that if a change of management has now resolved matters that is more hopeful. Having accessed the dealer's website to view customers' comments they were, in the main, very favourable. It rests on how the new figures were arrived at as to my mind there seems a discrepancy to the tune of £2,000+ not including the £1,000 in grant reduction. I've been working out some figures so it will be interesting to see if I'm correct or not.

 

[JCFlippen]

If you were having it on PCP then Santander would have confirmed that they were happy to give the credit if the dealer had completed the paperwork. The deal could change px amount etc but the principle would be in place.

 

[awbugritt]

Car"s ordered but I've lost £1,000 off the grant and the monthly payment has risen by an astonishing £77 pcm, consequently I've cancelled the order and hope to get my deposit back within 3 days. Unimpressed and disappointed barely covers how I feel!

 

[Ozzie1989]

That's poor of the dealer to back out on a deal - I wonder if it's worth contacting Trading Standards or someone for advice in case you have a claim for the loss on the grant, because they didn't sort it in time?

 

[awbugritt]

Maybe, but the way I feel now is to forget the whole farcical business. Perhaps it wasn't meant to be anyway, as an unforseen expense has arisen which is quite significant.

 

[MonsterMonster]

Maybe, but the way I feel now is to forget the whole farcical business. Perhaps it wasn't meant to be anyway, as an unforseen expense has arisen which is quite significant.

I think you've done the right thing. Having a crap dealer long term after purchase is a right pain.

If you're not urgently needing a car I'd put it on the back burner as I think there's going to be many more new electric car models launched this year. The grant will probably go by then but with a good chance prices will drop through the ensuing competition. Also the new MG5 is launching this year giving deals for the current version.

We only went ev now as our C4 was having problems.

 

[awbugritt]

There's much in what you say. We only looked at the MG5 because it had a lot of attributes for the money and thought it was a good time to trade in our Meriva 2015 reg while it still has some value. Having said that the saving in the monthly PCP should give me plenty of dosh to throw at any future repairs! Who knows, sense may prevail and we may yet see hydrogen powered vehicles becoming mainstream. Certainly, the appalling rise in electricity has made me think twice and the road tax 'holiday' will no doubt be cancelled at some stage.

 

[Lguk]

That's shockingly poor behaviour from the dealership. It would seem the assurances you had about the grant were outright lies as they would have been fully aware it hadnt been registered in the portal. Sometimes these things work out for the best, even if it is extremely annoying at the time.

 

[awbugritt]

I would certainly think twice about having any future dealings and I think it's very unlikely I'd give them a 5 star rating! Now they are having difficulty with my "old' credit card number, which is my current one and the one I used for my deposit back in December! Pissups in breweries spring to mind. Naturally the accounts office is closed on Saturday (they obviously don't sell cars on a w/e!!) so It's another trip across town on Monday. It's not often that I'm lost for words but....