Having just purchaced a car from carcraft sheffield and having bieng kept in a little room for over 3 hours with a hungry 14 month old child we were pushed into taking out a 3 year warranty on our new car (obviously as it was a cash sale they wanted to get some form of credit from us) when I got home and read through the paper work the simple 18 pounds a month we were told we would be paying by direct debit looked rather like a loan and credit agreement the chap who had me sign the papers at no point told me it was a loan he also neglected to sit down and go through the figures with me this is somthing that i understand by law they are obligated to do. all in all the hole thing was a horrible stressfull experience ... today i called there office and spoke to a manager in the credit dept told him i wanted to cancell the agreement, he went through everything he could to try and talk me out of it even tryed the no cooling off period thing on me .. I told him that as the terms and conditions of this agreement had not been fully explained to me i would of course take the matter further ..and funnily enough the paper work he couldnt stop going through just happend to turn up and he promised to rip it up ... I am now really worried about it and keep wondering if he will rip it up has anyone got any advice or experiences of this that may help me feel a little less stressed :)

honeyplanet

best advice I can give is call Sheffield trading standards on
0114 2736289 first thing in the morning It's a chap called Phil Glaves you want to talk to.

also on Monday morning on Radio Sheffield at 10 am there's a consumer phone in program where you can speak to the experts. name and shame the company to over 100,000 listeners.

P

I've not heard a single good story about that place, can they really be so negligent??

Thanks.. will give them a ring this morning ...have been up all night again worrying about it all just hope the car stays in one piece when we start to drive..

If you look around on the web you will see many horror stories about Carcraft.

My advice would be to steer clear of them. Besides the fact that they always charge way over the top for the current market value of a car.

The only reason some people use them is because they want credit, but as you said you were a cash buyer.

If you haven't already picked up the car, I would cancel the agreement and go elsewhere it can only get better.

As for 3 years warranty they really aren't worth the paper they are written on. Again there can be more information found on the web at how useless 3 year warranties are.

Can't offer anything constructive that hasn't already been said, but I can offer a carCraft anecdote.

I called there recently when I was on my way to Leeds to look at a Cougar (which I subsequently bought). The reason I called was that they had an advert saying Cougars from £5500, I called them on the phone and they assured me that a model matching what I wanted spec wise was available at that price.

Long story short, there was no model at that price at any spec. They will not give you a price for a car. I spent 30 minutes asking how much a particular Cougar was, and the only answer they will give is "what is your budget", or "how much can you afford every month".

Easily the most frustrating time I've ever spent on a garage forecourt. Stay well clear.

Luckily for us we ended up only paying about 500 quid over the odds for the car and from what i have read it could have been worse.. spent the morning on the phone trading standards were great gave me loads of good advice and funnily enough said i was the second person to call there this morning with the same complaint .. but I did manage to get the warranty cancelled i called the finace company and explained to them what had happend and they were really helpfull and but a stop on the entire contract Phew... many thanks for everbodys advise it really helped and i fell slightly less stressed now

Carcraft are a ****** disgrace and they are breaking the law - threaten them with legal advice and watch them change their tune.

Hi,

Car warranties can be purchased from the AA and online companies like Warrantydirect.co.uk - I reckon these would be much better value than buying from most dealers who make a nice little earner on these. Which? magazine has a review of aftermarket warranties.

When we were looking around for our car before last we went to Carcraft out of interest - we got the "how much can you afford a month?" type questions and we just gave vague answers like "whatever is needed" and "depends on the car". We looked at an Alfa 156 about 2.5 yrs old and Carcraft wanted nearly ten grand. Thinking this was very pricey as I'd been doing some research, armed with a copy of Glass's Guide I went to Premier motor auctions in Leeds and picked up an immaculate 18 month old top spec 156 with leather, climate etc for just over £9K. And the balance of manufacturer's 3 year warranty! Personally I would steer well clear of Carcraft unless you just want a test drive which they are quite handy for as they do have a big range. Also good for sitting in lots of different models at one time - we ruled out many like this.

Auctions are great for newer cars (1-3 years old) but unless you are very savvy NEVER EVER buy old crocks or anything without warranted milage and full SH.

Cheers,
Mark.

Car Warranties are really not worth the paper they are written on, read the small print on what they cover and you will find it is hardly anything so not worth the money. Lots of info on web about it.

Yeah Auctions are great places, some real bargains can be had. Like Mark says tho, you really have to take a friend who knows what to look for on a 2nd hand car.

How do you get a copy of Glasses guide anyway? I thought this was only for traders and parkers for us buyers?

Contact Glass's for subscription details - phone, website etc.

Just tell 'em your a trader, they don't do much of a check.

If its a cash sale they probably dont stand to make that much money so they prefer it if you buy a car on credit and take out an extended warranty so they can earn two lots of intrest charges on you.
They buy/import a lot of cars for next to nothing from Ireland so every step of the buying process they are 'coining it in'.

I'm thinking I might go down to carcraft one day if I'm feeling particularly bored with no intention of buying a car and waste as much of their staff time as I possibly can with ridiculous requests, good be quite a laugh!

It's been posted before but this http://www.ciao.co.uk/Carcraft_of_Sheffield__5297714/TabId/2 is worth a read.

just found this too: http://www.dooyoo.co.uk/archive/motors/carcraft_of_sheffield/_review_list/

we should arrange a Forum day out to Carcraft..get as many people together and all turn up at once in a minibus and cause as much disruption as poss....We can't let people get away with what they do

Originally posted by wibbles
we should arrange a Forum day out to Carcraft..get as many people together and all turn up at once in a minibus and cause as much disruption as poss....We can't let people get away with what they do

that's not a bad plan, I like the cut of your jib!

Thats such a good idea !!!!!! have been giggling all day thinking about that ..

Can you imagine the look on the sales staff faces?? a coach load of people all pile into Carcraft in one...I think we'd make Calender...get the press involved. A bit of negative publicity for Carcraft. Won't make much of a difference but nevertheless would be soooooo funny

I've just spent a couple of hours in Reg Vardys looking for a new Picasso and although they were fine i was going to go to Car Craft tomorrow.

That was until i came across this thread.

I think i will give it a miss now and thanks for your influence on this forum, you saved me dropping a clanger if nothing else.:thumbsup:

I hate the place. We went there a year or two ago to look at people carriers. What a waste of time , they dont want to sell you a car they want to sell a finance agreement.

Why dont we all get our own back by having the forums first Flash Mob.

Originally posted by Cycleracer
I've just spent a couple of hours in Reg Vardys looking for a new Picasso and although they were fine i was going to go to Car Craft tomorrow.

That was until i came across this thread.

I think i will give it a miss now and thanks for your influence on this forum, you saved me dropping a clanger if nothing else.:thumbsup:

We used to get all our work vans from Reg Vardy Citroen.
We gave up and went to Ford this year because of the amount of cock-ups from the chaps on Penistone road.

Every time the vans went in there was some kind of problem. The list is too long to repaet here but I promise, going off our experiance I would give that place a wide berth.

pm me if you want details.

I bought my car from carcraft last year. After many hours dwindling and messing about on their side the contract finally arrived BUT! not the price which was originally agreed, after much kicking of by both myself and my dad the manager was dragged in the arguments continued..

The result.. £700 off the car, payments reduced by £30 a month, a £200 cheque and all admin costs were paid by them.

Safe to say I will never go near carcraft again but I guess the end result wasn't a bad un'!

DeeJ

Originally posted by dinp
I've not heard a single good story about that place, can they really be so negligent??

Yes, because:

1) They spend thousands on advertising in newspapers and on the TV, so editors and broadcasters don't like to upset their customers by reporting on their bad practices.

2) They offer (seemingly) cheap weekly payments which appeals to people who cannot get credit elsewhere.

Time computers was exactly the same.

Originally posted by hj dary
Why dont we all get our own back by having the forums first Flash Mob.

Fantastic idea.... we could all gather round a car chanting "RIP OFF, RIP OFF" for 2 minutes, going around several of the cars (nearest the door, of course. And on a busy Saturday afternoon, as well).

we bought a car for £6000 at the time i was at work so my girlfriend went and got the car with her dad, they told us we couldnt have the car but said her dad could, with intrest im paying back £11000 thats £190 a month for 5 years wouldnt mind but the cars not new its a t reg if anyone knows a way out of this mess pls email me cos im b******d if i know how

Originally posted by hj dary
We used to get all our work vans from Reg Vardy Citroen.
We gave up and went to Ford this year because of the amount of cock-ups from the chaps on Penistone road.

Every time the vans went in there was some kind of problem. The list is too long to repaet here but I promise, going off our experiance I would give that place a wide berth.

pm me if you want details.

I bought my car from there last year & had loads of problems. Love the car though, just a shame it's ended up costing me so much. :(

Really think about going to the Citizens Advice Bureau about them.

Originally posted by simjns
if anyone knows a way out of this mess pls email me cos im b******d if i know how

Find the credit agreement, which you should have a copy of. If you cannot find it, write to the company asking for a duplicate copy. They are required by law to provide this but are entitled to charge a fee for doing so.

Take your credit agreement to the Citizans Advice Bureau. They will give you independent advice as to what rights you have. Certain types of credit agreement can be cancelled by returning the goods, but you will almost certainly end up out of pocket.

If you need to communicate with Carcraft, do it in writing. Don't bother phoning because there's no record of what's been said.