JOE CARWOW
a day ago
New
Very disappointing experience with Ridgeway Cars Romsey – particularly Joe
I had a very disappointing experience selling my car to Ridgeway Cars Romsey through Carwow, and unfortunately, the majority of the issues came from the way Joe handled the whole process.
My car sold through Carwow on a Tuesday and Joe contacted me the same day. I explained clearly that I had removed my private registration and that my V5C logbook was due to arrive by the end of the week. Joe told me they were happy to collect the car without the V5C and that I could send it over once it arrived. I specifically told him I wasn’t comfortable handing the car over without the logbook, so I waited for it to arrive.
The V5C arrived on Saturday and I immediately contacted Joe. He arranged collection for Wednesday and told me the driver would arrive at around 7pm. The driver didn’t arrive until just after 10pm. Despite the very late arrival, I want to make it clear that the driver himself was fantastic and was not to blame for any of this. He was polite, professional and did his job properly. My frustration is with the organisation and communication from Joe/Ridgeway, not the driver.
The driver spent around two hours inspecting and driving the car, only for Ridgeway to then try and reduce the agreed £4,800 price to £4,000. I refused £4,000 and made it clear that I wouldn’t accept anything less than £4,700. After going back and forth, they eventually agreed to £4,700.
I was then told that they couldn’t actually complete the collection until the V5C and all the other documents had been uploaded to Carwow. This was extremely frustrating because Joe had originally told me they could collect the car without the V5C. If I’d been given the correct information from the beginning, I could have uploaded everything and avoided wasting a considerable amount of time.
We rearranged collection for Thursday at 12pm. I work 9am–6pm, so I specifically asked my boss if I could leave work for an hour at 12pm to get the collection sorted, and she agreed.
At 11:49am, just 11 minutes before the agreed collection time, Joe called me and told me the driver couldn’t come because of personal problems. He then asked if the driver could come at 2pm, which I couldn’t do because I had already arranged with my employer to leave at 12pm. We therefore rearranged it again for 6pm.
It’s now nearly 7pm and, once again, the driver still hasn’t arrived.
Joe has also told me that we would receive confirmation that the car has been taken out of our name, but we still haven’t received this confirmation.
What should have been a straightforward car sale has turned into a stressful and unnecessarily time-consuming experience. I’ve been flexible throughout and have repeatedly rearranged my plans around what Joe has told me. The changing information, extremely late collection, attempted price reduction, cancelled collection and repeated delays have all been incredibly frustrating.
To be fair, the driver who attended was fantastic and I have absolutely no complaints about him. He was professional and polite throughout. My issue is entirely with how the collection has been organised and communicated by Joe.
Based on my experience, I would not recommend Ridgeway Cars Romsey. The whole process could have been handled far more efficiently, and Joe’s communication and organisation have been extremely disappointing.








