FOW Winsford - Winsford

Hannah B.

Extremely Disappointing Experience – Avoid at all costs!

I had a very poor experience with this dealership from start to finish. Right from the beginning, they tried to push us into taking out a finance deal through them, even though we made it clear we were planning to get a loan from our own bank. It felt like they were more interested in making money off the finance than actually helping us buy the car.

When we agreed to move forward, they made it sound like we had just one week to collect the vehicle – but when we came to see it, the car was still full of the previous owner’s rubbish. No valet had been done, and the MOT hadn't been carried out either. Completely unprofessional.

We arranged to come back a week later for a proper test drive, only to find the car had been removed from the site without anyone informing us. I called several times afterward but kept getting ignored. No one returned my calls until, after a week of chasing, I asked to speak to a manager.

The manager promised to send me an email with updated deal information, but I never received anything. At this point, we lost all confidence in their ability to handle the sale professionally or honestly.

I would not recommend this dealership to anyone – poor communication, pushy sales tactics, and a complete lack of basic customer service.

Adam H.

Firstly, I left a positive review with my dealings with Matt in January.

This review is based on the customer experience, the car itself, the professionalism and language of staff.

Within a day or so, we noticed a rattling and creaking coming from the front suspension.

FOW said they would pay for any repairs as it's within 30 days of notification, great!

Took it to a local independent garage, 2 mins from me - sent the cost to FOW - 'Nope, that is too expensive, we will repair it in house.'

Annoyingly had to book in with FOW for repair - 6 weeks later.

Drop the car off at 9am on the morning. I was told to 'wait in the coffee shop' and someone will be with me.

20 minutes later! Someone finally comes to greet me. No other customers were in the dealership, but it was nice to hear of the great success of the previous day sales of 65 cars - not sure it should be done in public?

Also nice to hear of the lovely weekend the staff had, with a lot of swearing, S words and F words, in front of a customer. Cheers.

I asked 'how long will it be here' - expecting a day... 'Not sure, what's it in for?' was the response.

I was told, I would have a call on Wednesday (next day) with an estimate time.

Had the courtesy car, still felt uneasy about the situation - found a local coffee shop, drove past 2 hours later, my car hadn't moved. Straight away concerned me.

No call Wednesday. Rang up at 1.15pm...

'Yeah we're behind so I can't give you an estimate of the time of repair'. The lack of communication here is staggering - why don't you let me know the week before if you're behind? I could have changed dates? I cancelled work for the trip up.

SO I said forget it, I'll collect it. Thanks for the communication, like.

Travelled 2 hours to collect the car, walked in, 'What's the reg of the car you want' - I LITERALLY could have been anyone taking my car keys!!

There was no apology. Car is not fixed. Parts were chucked on the passenger seat with no protection so it's dusty and dirty now.

Top it all, I requested a complaints email - was given the website. You try and click 'complaints' on their website..... doesn't work!!

So now, 5 months after purchasing the car, I am no further along, there is issues and shouldn't spend £25k on a car with so many issues.

Utterly dreadful - check Google reviews as Trustpilot seems biased - and prepare for a response to this email. Lack of professionalism.

Fayas C.

Visited last week and bought a mini cooper; Danny helped me in making decisions; he was very friendly and helpful. Just started using the car; will review after using more. The prices are okay for the range of cars seen but need to wait and see the condition. They are providing only 30 days warrant which I was not at all happy. If the company is very confident about the car, they should be giving little more days of warranty which other dealers are giving like arnold clarke. I had to buy a warranty extra. The ceramic coating they are providing are good it seems, I bought one and looks good, but have to wait to see its durability. Overall am happy with the purchase till now

Kevin S.

Firstly I didn’t end up buying from Fow. I initially enquired re a 2017 xtrail. I reserved via auto trader which was handy. I then received a call notifying me that I wouldn’t b able to test drive as hadn’t been safety checked and / or prepped. I went to see it the next day and was again told I was unable to drive but could start it etc - all good. Car was great v low mileage and all genuine included original mats and spare wheel. I wanted to return to drive and asked but was told had to seat down with sales guy. Asif was a really nice guy and we chatted but it became clear we were talking a deal but I could only reserve for longer if paid 99 deposit so obliged this. He then said I could drive the car I was not happy to do so based on 2 staff members saying this was not permitted. I mentioned that a tyre was perished probably due to v low use and asif acknowldged by recording my concerns. I also highlighted the vehicle had not been serviced for 12 months. Asif stated this would be done however upon a bit of digging they will only do oil and filter and not what is due on schedule- so watch for this.
In the ensuing few days I received several emails re my purchase and optional extras - v unsettling. Upon my return car was ready and drove v nice. I reinspected the car and the perished tyre and been painted with b2b. This was a deal breaker for me not due to the £ 150 tyre but it questions the level of all checks they perform and they only offer 1 mth warranty as standard.

Asif lost this sale not due to anything he could or should have done but was let down by what goes on in background. He was really good with me and should not be criticised.

As a foot note when I was waiting the test drive Asif went to photocopy my dl. There was a sales guy across from me talking to a customer on the phone. They were obviously cancelling an appointment Upon putting the phone down he shouted ‘f@&k off’ and then went into a tirade ironically about poor reviews. Once he hade finished his rant he stomped out of an exit next to his desk.

I don’t think I’ll b going back and probably won’t b welcome after this review. Asif you did everything you could to sell me the car but safety is safety and if the back room accept the standard of that tyre u r up against it.

Claire M.

What a shambles, I wouldn’t even give 1 star if I could, arrived at a 4pm appointment too purchase a car, 20 minutes later still no one came to see us even tho an employee came up to me & asked who our appointment was with, tired of waiting we then asked for the keys at reception, eventually we were told that the ‘salesman’ wasn’t in work, (now allegedly if you don’t take finance or warranty they don’t earn commission & as we did neither perhaps this is why he was a no show) so we went to see the car on our own ( they where trying to find a salesperson to help but as I said no one is going to bother if the above is true & yep you guessed it no one came ) after a supposed ‘Valet’ & ‘Service’ what we found was absolutely shocking, think the pictures say it all, they call this a valet, Walked back into reception & asked for our deposit back, a manager called Lois (really nice & the only postive thing I can say about FOW) asked us to step into her office, I showed her the pictures of the car, the lack of customer awareness when waiting for a salesman who wasn’t even there for which she apologised, we then all went outside with the mechanic to look at the tyres that we thought needed changing, his reply ‘there FOW legal’ he had such a dismissive, ignorant & bad attitude but hey why was I shocked the whole thing so far had been a debacle, not a good look FOW, this should have been such a happy purchase but turned into 1 1/2 hours return wasted trip & petrol, I would never recommend this company to anyone!
Ps NEVER GOT A REPLY TO THIS GOOGLE REVIEW, THINK THIS JUST ABOUT SUMS FOW UP!

Pixie

Sold my car to FOW via Motorway and the experience has been brilliant. I was worried as I've never used Motorway before and I know that the experience varies GREATLY on the dealer who buys your car, but Fords of Winsford were amazing. Lots of communication, very prompt and accomodating with my schedule. Very happy with their logistics partner too. All of the things that I anticipated having to chase them on based on the reviews I was reading were nothing worries as John (FOW) and James (logistics partner) were super proactive and had already done those tasks without needing to be asked! I would definitely recommend checking them out if you are in the market for a new car or want to sell your car.

Mike N.

Granted my wife and have only two experiences of FOW (Winsford and today Trafford).
Both experiences terrible, I've struggled to give one star here, call it one half for each branch.
Unprofessional greeting staff who hadn't a bloody clue where the car was, the young man who gave us the key and sent us off on the search for the car just said its somewhere on the third row, the third row being some 150 metres long.
We had pre-booked a test drive and expected the car there ready to be driven out. Oh no, to have got this car out, it would have taken the maneuvering of numerous vehicles.
We found the car and it was filthy inside, looking like a cleaning job a 8 year old cub scout may do on "bob a job" week.
Very disappointed.
Our first experience was not a lot different, terrible Unprofessional staff who hadn't a clue.
Sometimes more isn't better. Especially when you here a member of staff ranting because the car a customer had booked to test drive was blocked in.
Note: Don't pretend on the phone that its easy to turn up and test drive a car. We wasted an 2 hours of our lives, driving to you, trying to find the car, to discover it was filthy and nowhere ready for a test drive.
Try employing a body to prep the car when you know someone has taken their time to book a test drive. Absolute crap, and I thought the cowboys at Arnold Clark were bad.

Callum W.

Was booked in on the phone for a viewing and test drive on Monday over the phone. Was passed over to Huzafa when I arrived at the Trafford site. Huzafa couldn't really seem less interested if he tried, spent less than 5 minutes with me flitting between customers before asking me whether I wanted to buy the car or not. I said I'd be happy to take the vehicle as long as all 4 kerbed alloys were sorted. I was told the company policy is they'll only refurbish wheels which are 25% or more damaged, they'll do the front two but the back two they won't as they are "losing money on this car anyway"(?!) (In my opinion the rear passanger wheel was above the 25% threshold however not sure why they're splitting hairs on a £10,000 purchase.)

I was still interested in purchasing and asked to commence the test drive. At this point I was told that they don't do test drives without a £250 deposit. Funny I wasn't informed of this when I booked in over the phone and wouldn't have driven 25 miles to the dealership otherwise. Who's going to want to pay £250 to find out if the car drives correctly or not? At this point I said I'll not bother and left.

The following day I called up to complain regarding the person booking me in for the test drive for not telling me about this charge. At this point I was told that this isn't company policy? After speaking with a few people each contradicting each other I was promised a call from the manager never happened and I'll purchase a car from elsewhere.

Real shame as I was ready to buy the car that day and that was and still is the car I want due to it's specs.

On a lesser note I'd suggest Huzafa enrol in some training to improve his professional manner as when I'm looking to spend a 5 figure sum of money I'm put off when someone speaks to me as if I'm one of his boys "init."