Vertu Motors - BMW Durham Avis 

Had my car in for MOT today and wanted to say that is the best customer service I’ve ever received at a car dealer. I received a very warm welcome at the desk and enjoyed a lovely cappuccino and biscuit while I waited for the car to be ready. I believe it was Paulminder who dealt with me and he’s extremely well mannered and has fantastic customer service skills. Thank you very much for the great experience today, a 100x better than your competitors. I will definitely use this dealer in the future.

I had a few issues with my used vehicle and was back to the dealership numerous times , saying this I have the highest regard for Richard skinner who has went above and beyond the aftersales service to sort this out for us, excellent customer service thank you

Consistently falling levels of service since Vertu took over this dealership.

For example:

Direct dealership number swapped for a group call center number.

Persistent upselling of optional items and services that are not manufacturer mandated and this is not made clear.

Call centre staff that call, not leaving a message and no one knowing why they called if you call them back.

It isn’t possible to book in a car for anything less than a whole day, even for a simple procedure with few courtesy cars available this is a real issue.

Disinterested dealership staff that are not able to help if your request is in any way difficult or out of the ordinary.

I don’t doubt that this is an efficient money-making business but it appears uncaring, cynical and really quite hard to deal with.

This dealership seems to have forgotten its loyal customers since being taken over by Vertu and appears to be in complete disarray. I purchased my vehicles from here and up until this year have always taken my BMW's to this centre.
My vehicle was recently recovered and on Mon 26th Sept I arranged for vehicle to be collected for diagnostic on Weds 28th. My car was showing drivetrain error and was losing power. I had to use car to get to work, so requested the vehicle be collected from work address. Later that day I received an email to tell me my car was being collected from my HOME address. Three phone calls later I managed to get through to someone to explain where to pick up vehicle. Sure enough another email and text to state it was being collected from HOME. I spent Tues evening desperately trying to get through to someone to tell them where to pick up car. Finally got through to someone and received another text to confirm car to be collected from work adress between 8am and 10am.
Happy Days? Not quite.
Weds 10am came and went so I fervently tried to get through to someone who suggested driver may arrive around lunchtime. I don't know about employees at Vertu but like most people at work I don't sit on my hands waiting around flr my car to be collected. This was a major inconvenience for me. Why text me a time frame and have me alter my day and then not bother to show up.
Driver did indeed arrive around 11.30am. At that point I had to be called out of an important meeting to meet the driver collecting my car.
On Weds afternoon received call to state more diagnostics needed and car would need to be kept Thurs.
Thurs afternoon received call to state EGR valve had failed and car would need to be kept Fri.
Right I'm not a mechanic but 3 days to diagnose and fit EGR valve....REALLY!
On Fri (today)received call to state car being returned to work address. Vertu Durham couldnt guarantee a time even though I finish at lunchtime on Fri. OK deliver to my Home address then. I was informed I needed to settle bill first. Rightly or wrongly I didn't have my wallet at work so suggested I would ring Sat to settle bill. I was informed abruptly, that's fine but you can't have car back as we are not open for collection or delivery on Sat. I quickly rang my wife used her car details and settled up.
So let me get this straight after years of loyalty this is how you treat your customers?
This dealership is a shambles and treats its customers with comtempt Today was the straw that broke the camel's back and Vertu Durham will never receive my business again. Strangely enough, after the debacle of this week I was going to look at purchasing a new BMW 1 series, as I need a reliable car. Off to Stratstone, Tyneside in the morning to part ex and purchase new. Avoid this BMW centre at all costs, they don't deserve you.

Absolutely hopeless sales department….took the wrong details which included vital information to conclude a deal for a new BMW, initially they couldn’t find the car that they had advertised and then started by saying the price was £3000 more than their ad, they priced my part exchange £5k lower than WBAC, included in their price for things that expressively I had said I didn’t want i.e. wheel and tyre insurance…and it still took them two days to get to that point!

Would not recommend, have owned 3 bmw from various garages and this is the worst in the North East.
My refundable deposit of £500 took a month to get back, despite numerous phone calls, the particular salesman could never be found, when they did find him to speak to me he was evasive and lied that it had been put back onto my card when it clearly hadn’t.
In the end I had to ask for the manager and make a trip to the garage (which was not local) to actually get it refunded. No apology was made.

Then at the end of my contract they were interested in buying it back off me but then stopped replying to emails. I sold it elsewhere in the end.
I really expected better from a BMW garage, disappointing service all round and won’t use again.