Vertu Motors - Dacia Exeter Avis 

Karen Evenden ,the Sales Executive ,made the process of exchanging our car very quick and easy . Everything was explained.I would recommend them.

Dear Dawn

ref VMPJ1007

You have asked me for further information regarding my experience in purchasing my new Dacia Duster from Vertu Dacia Exeter.

My sales contact was Nathan Cotterill, although the initial people involved in my proposed purchase were Carwow, who agreed the part exchange valuation on my previous vehicle, a Dacia Sandero Stepway.

I was subsequently contacted by Nathan and in due course I was sent an agreement, which I initially signed, but then realised that the annual mileage had been mistakenly set as 12000 miles per annum, instead of the previously agreed figure of 7000 miles with Carwow. So a few days later a new agreement was emailed to me which was again signed and returned. A date was proposed for me to make the transfer between the new and old vehicles, which was not possible due to my own prior events and a new date of 26th June was agreed.

On 26th June I drove to Exeter, met Nathan, fulfilled the final requirements, then drove back to my home in North Devon. The new vehicle seemed to sway unnecessarily but I thought this might just be a case of getting used to a new car. However the following day a warning message appeared on the dashboard telling me to check tyre pressures and init, which I did only to find that the tyre pressures had been set at 41 instead of the recommended 33 front and 30 back; no wonder the car was swaying.

I kept checking the my Mobilize online account in the subsequent days, noticing that my old Stepway agreement was still active. So contacted Nathan on several occasions. On about the 3rd such message I was informed that he had checked with the Dacia accounts department and I was assured that the part exchange payment had been sent to Mobilize but that it might take a few days, but that if my account hadn't been closed by my next payment date of 15th July, not to worry as I would get my money back. I chased again a few days later, both by phone to Mobilize and Vertu and spent much time being passed backwards and forwards between the two, expecting me to sort the issue out. Finally in my frustration I emailed Kirk Broome, the General Manager, who emailed me back stating that "I can confirm that we have settled the agreement yesterday" , not the week or so earlier as I was told.

Then to cap it all on only the 12 day of my purchase I went to start the car and got an immediate error message, alerting me to an electrical error as the car wouldn't start, let alone turn over. I contacted Dacia Assist and 18 hours later the RAC turned up at my home, tried in vain the diagnose the problem, but he was unable to as the car's computer system and the RAC computer wouldn't communicate with each other, so the car had to be towed away to County Garage Barnstaple and I was told that they would be unable to look at the problem for about three weeks, due to them being fully booked. I am therefore driving a courtesy car, ironically a Dacia Sandero from Enterprise Car Hire, Barnstaple

This may all seem very trivial, but the aggravation this has caused and the mis-truths I have been fed have, in my humble opinion, fallen far short of the professional standards I would have expected.