Poor Service At Hidsons Maidstone Kent

[FR-RUSH]

Having moved to Kent I started looking around for a local dealership.

I went to Hidsons and found their sales team 'reasonably' helpful.

However since buying a new car from Brighton (frosts) because Hidsons didnt have what I wanted, they have been terrible in every aspect of service.

I went to Hidsons as I noticed some paint de-fects on my new car. They told be to go back to where i brought it from. 'OH' I thought maybe I cant take to back to my local dealer, so phoned 'Frost' who informed me this was wrong.

Back to Hidsons, it took me 3 visits to get their service person who sits right opposite the service desk, to admit he can indeed deal with it.

Each time I went into the service area, I would stand at the desk for 10mins before the service person on the other side would even acknowledge I was there, despite him being 2 feet away from me.

Anyway 2 months later and 6 calls to the service person, he still hasnt called me back or sorted out my warranty claim.

 

[Redcupra20vt]

take it to westerham garage mate

Paul

 

[FR-RUSH]

been on to Seat Customer Services who are not bitting at his heals.

will see what happens, but if nothing is done I will take a look there, thanks.

 

[tris]

james comes all the way to canturbury from southend to have all his work done as they are top blokes

 

[FR-RUSH]

hmm yeah, just hard when it goes in for work in brighton, but I may have to bite the bullet and go start the whole process again with Frost, they are good.

cheers guys.

 

[tris]

who do you use ant?

 

[grahamdiesel]

Hi FR RUSH i have used hidsons with the same quality of service as you.
ive been recommended wjking in sidcup

 

[GrayT]

Hi FR RUSH i have used hidsons with the same quality of service as you.
ive been recommended wjking in sidcup

WJ King Sidcup are an honest good bunch.

 

[SHADY-NINJA]

william j king @ sidcup i would highly recomend.
thy are very helpful.

 

[orca]

I use hidsons in Rainham and they are pretty sound and very helpful. although did not think much of the monkeys in their paint shop!!! so would not bother with them again

 

[FR-RUSH]

Its not the first story i have heard about the Hidsons bodyshop.

I work near sidcup, may pop along there and see what they think.

Well still had no call from Hidsons despite getting Seat to chase him. They obviously really dont care about their customers, so will go else where.

Ive not heard one person say a good thing about them.

 

[FR-RUSH]

Well its booked in with hidsons for the roof to be resprayed, he suddenly became more helpful once he had Seat Cust serv on his back.

well guess ill have to hope they do a good job.

 

[REVOman]

Frosts have a realy bad reputation. Doesn't surprise me in the least.

 

[tris]

has it been done yet john?

 

[tris]

lmao two tone

 

[Vicky M]

Can't be as bad as Dutton Foresk1ns.
They managed to get red paint inside a blue car

and even worse, they hung the drivers door with the hinges the wrong way round

 

[FR-RUSH]

well just picked up my car from Hidsons,

the roof paint does appear do be a good job, however unfortunately a few extra scratches have appeared that were not there b4, but they have said they will rectify those.

the biggest shock being that the manager spoke to me about this thread, threatening me with legal action and stating I am no longer welcome at their branch and will no longer work on my car.

an interesting way to deal with a customer complaint, all i can do is feedback the trueth to our car club members.

bit ironic really as i was going to thank the service guy until the manager talked to me.

 

[FR-RUSH]

yeah maidstone, i couldnt belive the way they talked to me.

threatening customers just for feeding back bad information? thats a new way to deal with people.

all i can say is dissappointed.

 

[tris]

off to the motorist centre seat in canterbury then
enougher customer having to travel to get good service

 

[FR-RUSH]

In conclusion to this. Bare with me its quite long but I wanted to feed back everything.

I took my car back for Hidsons to repair some scratches that appeared during the roof re-spray, as they agreed to put it right.

Took it in on the Wednesday eve. and agreed to pick it up Friday afternoon. No temp. car this time.

So got to friday eve, waited for a call, the Service Manager called at about 4pm. He informed me he had received the car back from the body shop, but I can’t have it back till Monday.

I asked why?....... he went on to say that the car was covered in wax from the body shop and tape marks from where is was masked off. He was adamant I could not pick it up until it was fully cleaned and that would mean I have to wait till Monday.

I had to have the car to drive to Guildford for which I was already an hour late, I asked him what I was going to do without a car all weekend, he suggested hiring one at my expense and suggested a car hire firm.

After about 5 mins me saying I have to have the car back I cannot do without it, he agreed for me to come and collect it as long as I signed a disclaimer. I had no choice.

I could not understand why he was actually telling me I was not allowed to collect my own car. I said I wasn’t bothered about the car being dirty, I can wash it myself.

When I got to the dealer, the car was not dirty at all, the wax marks he spoke of didn’t exist and there were no tape marks.

I asked him if he had cleaned the car? He answered "no..... erm if you have a look the trim is not quite right......."

I returned out to the car, sure enough the rubber seal at the bottom of the pillar was knackered.

By this point I was so fuming I just wanted to take my car away, so signed the disclaimer, said no more and left.

I'm just going to take my car elsewhere now, it’s twice the car has been to them for one thing and come away with another piece damaged.

I could not leave it with them indefinitely for them to fix one thing and damage another and after the way they spoke to me previously I wouldnt want to return.