Hartwell plc Reviews 

If I could have left a 0 star review I would have.

I have personally worked within the main dealer network since 1999 and never in all my years have I come across deal prevention like this.

My partner wanted to buy a Mini Countryman for which we have the funding in place so we started searching around for a sensible value for money vehicle...after seeing the car she wanted advertised with a main dealer I said to her "that's the car to buy"
as there would be the back up of Hartwell being a main dealer group so the car would have been checked and prepared to a proper standard.

The issue came when we tried to actually buy the car...My partner called to place a deposit on it with the view that we could get the finance paid out and transfer the remaining deposit and arrange to collect the car on a day that suited our very busy life, only to be told that the car must be collected within 3 days even though the car would be fully paid for.

Disappointed doesn't even come close to the way we now feel about Hartwell group and our experience!!
It's no wonder that over half of the reviews on Trust Pilot are 1 star!!

I have worked for a range of small to large groups over the last 24 years and never have I come across a ridiculous rule like this!

Just think how much additional business and customer satisfaction you'd build if you just took a common sense approach!!!!

I ordered a mobility car in Jan 2023 and spent 2 hours going threw all of the necessary details with Josh for it to be delivered in May. After no contact from him for 4 months I returned to the garage in early May to speak to Joshua who was out so Lee checked my file to find that Josh had not pressed the send button on my form so my car hadn’t been ordered. So I spent another 2 hours with Lee who re-did my form. In June the garage telephoned me to say my car had arrived, a Puma. I didn’t order a Puma. I ordered a Black Ford Focus estate. Finally in Oct, 10 months after I originally walked into the show room my car arrived but in White not Black. Lee passed us the keys and said download the App and it will tell you how the touch screen works all the functions for the car. It controls literally everything and there’s no handbook these days. He said it was complicated but we’d figure it out by trial and error. I asked Lee to order me a boot tidy. He gave us the keys and basically chucked us out. Everything felt extremely rushed. He was already onto his next customer. 3 days passed I heard nothing. I rang and tried to speak to Lee, too busy, so I asked for the manager Andrew to find out what was happening. He said Lee would ring me back. Nothing. I rang again to speak to Andrew he was now too busy. 4 days passed. I left messages. Nothing. Finally Lee rang to say the boot tidy was in. On arrival we were directed to the seated waiting area were we sat for 45 minutes. I specifically requested that Lee or somebody go through the touchscreen app with us so we could control the car properly as we didn’t understand it. Neeve, who was passing saw our distress and asked if she could help. She was very polite, very helpful and way out of her depth coming from the service department but she tried her best to give us a demonstration in the car on how the app worked. You could tell she was thoroughly embarrassed by the behaviour of her work colleagues, Lee was too busy and Andrew had conveniently disappeared to Timbuktu and she was left on her own to try and save the face of the company. The only person I can praise in the whole of this diabolical shamble of a company is Neeve as she has a very professional, diligent, work ethic and she should be put in charge! Don’t buy a car from here. Don’t waste your time and your money on this appallingly run and managed second rate garage. Go to a professional establishment. There are Ford dealers in Wantage, Witney, Newbury, Swindon but please 🙏 don’t go to Hartwell Abingdon. You’ll be sorry!

Tyler was an excellent guide in buying a used car at Hemel Hempstead. He was patient and meticulous in explaining all the cars features and the process of carrying out a part-exchange deal. We felt assured that all stages of the process were being thoroughly done and there was no hard sell.

To have a car booked in for a MOT @ 8am and wait despite booking in advance and being reassured it would be taken in and done straight away only after 45 mins to still be waiting to approach a young man who is totally out of his depth and has no conception of customer care to be given a torrent of abuse upon when I said I would complain started to mumble foul language in my direction isn't acceptable shocking service I hope you lose your dealership.because I'll escalate this to the manufacturer

do one thing and not another, booked ranger in for a underboost fault,, said they dids not do courtesy car
arranged for someone to pick me up said is it okay to bring in early, yes i was told by email 2 days before they phoned cant come in untill 830am and want payment up front, not happy now cancelled, try some where else will not use again

Worst experience in my life of buying a used car from this company Bought a 2014 Focus Zetec S 1.0 ecoboost from these back in July 2022 and i have had nothing but problems with it from day one buying it had to go back 7 times to get repairs done. And in the end the engine has blown up and i have lost all my money and without a car. Stay well away from this place they are not worth your time or hard earned money!

This company also doesn't like to take responsibility they just pass the blame to other company's just so they can try and keep a "good reputation". I have seen Hartwell for there true colours and so will every other customer who even buys a car from this dealership.

Bought a one owner, five year old Mondeo, 43k on the clock from Hartwell Grimsby, £13k+. It started making a slight noise that sounded like it was from the fan, shortly after taking home. I didn't think it warranted looking at, as the car drove ok. After 3 months I thought I'd better investigate, and a local garage diagnosed a new water pump and timing belt was needed, £600+. When I returned to Hartwell to ask them to sort it, they offered to pay the first £200 of the job only. No warranty or guarantee. Not happy.

nigel the mobility adviser went out of his way to ensure that my wifes requirements were met to enable her to get in and out of the car .Knowing we had a holiday booked he again went the extra mile to ensure that we had the car within two weeks. We are extreemely pleased with the service we recieved and the smoothness of the whole transaction

For me the whole experience was made easy. The salesman welcomed me straight away told me his name Conrè Wagner, very friendly "but not pushy" . Didn't try to sell me anything I didn't want. The biggest thing for me was he listened to what I wanted and my needs. Big thumbs up 👍 from me

Brought a second hand Tesla from Hereford, travelled 70 miles to get there. I thought it was a good effort that the car was covered in a sheet when I got there which on first impression was a nice touch. However when the car was unveiled there were loads of scratches and the wheels were curbed all round, to which I thought what was the point. On the drive home noticed there was a problem with noisy steering which felt very concerning. Reported problem to be told that I should go to Tesla, followed up with unhelpful emails and a lack of overall interest. Despite being given a new MOT, an advisory that was on there about a steering problem on the last MOT had strangely disappeared on the new one. Coincidence? In fairness they took the car back and I was refunded, but I had to drive the car 70 miles to take it back. I don't think you can claim an exceptional customer experience based upon this particular experience.

worst car buying experience part two i had my say and thought that was it then got this reply got this
Reply from Hartwell plc
4 hours ago
Hi Alan, we pride ourselves on providing exceptional service, so we are disappointed to hear that your visit with us was anything less than satisfactory. Please reach out to us at 01865 290300 when you can so we can address this situation directly. Thank you and have a great day.So out of politeness i rang got there switch board who had no idea what to do with my call nice lady left me on line for a good 5 minuets felt sorry for her as she could not find anyone to speak to me what good is putting a phone number when it goes nowhere. It was left with the lady saying i think someone will try to get back to you.saying sorry only works if you are sincere

I paid in full for the car, over £31,000. It turns out the car had been in a major accident and hadn't been repaired correctly. To be fair Hartwell cancelled the sale and promised me a full refund... Problem is I'm still waiting for my money, I need to buy another car and quickly. its just not acceptable, this is a huge amount of money and they treat me as if I don't exist..

Booked in my car to add some new parts, The sales advisor Charmaine King was very professional and helped me through the booking process and kept me informed of the work being carried out. The quality of work carried out by the technician was outstanding Collected my car what time was best for me. Thumbs up for 5 Stars would definitely use Hartwell Ford again.

I wanted to part ex my two year Old Ford Puma for a new model. The Abingdon branch had what I wanted and the deal offered was similar to a different Ford dealership were offering. Abingdon threw in private plate transfer so I paid a deposit and we agreed to collect my new car 14th July. In the run up I asked Abingdon to include the Ford 5 year extended warranty that had to be taken out pre the car being registered. I kept highlighting my private plate had to be transferred and the extended warranty had to be in place pre the changeover date. Communication was poor in that I had to chase them and they have little confidence things would be done pre changeover. The day before changeover I contacted Abingdon and was told everything was in place except the private plate transfer but not to worry see you in the morning. Next day I was told the salesman was day off, that he hadn’t put my private plate on the new car and that the 5 year extended warranty hadn’t been added. I reluctantly agreed to wait until the issue was rectified. The new car was handed over in the rain with rubbish inside. All in all buying a car from Abingdon was a poor experience. The car cost in excess of £23,000 but I was treated as though I was an inconvenience and that the order was irrelevant. The actual car is great but the experience of buying it, the disappointments and the firms attitude was poor. I certainly won’t use this firm again.

I went to Hartwell Ford in Grimsby to buy a replacement key fob battery. Jordan at the service reception changed the battery and handed it back with no charge. Extremely satisfied at such a polite and friendly response.

AVOID AT ALL COSTS - Kidlington Used car and van centre.
I would never recommend this dealership to anyone and I will never do business with them ever again. If you are reading this I would strongly advise you to do the same.

If it were possible to provide a zero star rating then I certainly would, 1 star is generous. Extremely poor post sales care and communication even from senior management team. No empathy shown during problems within 4 months of buying a car which caused great stress for weeks on end.

If you are talked into buying a car, I strongly suggest you get a third party to check the car over fully top to bottom before driving it away. Their however many hundred checks they do is certainly not adequate or accurate.

I was sold a car supposedly with a full manufacturers warranty and after a third party investigation it turned out the warranty was void. Patrick and the team did very little to help and claimed this was not a big issue and was not their fault with some very condescending and dismissive emails.

It is very worrying that this sort of company is allowed to continue selling cars! Very untrustworthy dealership.

DO NOT GO WITH THIS COMPANY. THEY HANG UP ALL THE TIME WHEN YOU CALL THEM. THEY NEED SACKING.

Firstly, don’t bother making an appointment via the website.. nobody will be in touch to set up the appointment. To be fair, a lovely lady from head office did arrange a virtual app for us and was very helpful. But the dealership never showed up or seemed to have no knowledge of it. We would have given up but we had an existing car lease that was due to end. Not that anyone seemed keen to sell us a new lease..

In the end, we just turned up at Hartwell Watford. When we arrived, we were promptly told that they don’t sell new cars on a Saturday (surely the busiest day?!) because they haven’t got the right staff. What proceeded was a very chaotic meeting with a salesperson who had to keep running off every 30 seconds. He was very nice but clearly overstretched and trying to do many things at once. We eventually agreed on a used car and agreed to return the following week to collect it. The next week, we arrived to collect the car at the agreed time. However we had to wait 25 minutes to be served despite there being a group of staff literally standing around doing nothing.

Eventually we were that our new car had neither been MOTd or taxed. So we then had to return home without it. It was a 3 hour wasted trip for us as we don’t live locally. Absolute chaos and we won’t be buying again from Hartwell.

Bought a 2020 Mondeo. Within 24 hours the Engine Management Light came on the dash. Contacted Hartwells who asked me to drive the car for over an hour to them for them to look at it, even though it states one should not drive the car when the light comes on. Hartwells has a branch in Reading and they contacted me to arrange for a health check on the car and I was told that due to the bank holiday weekend they could not look at the car till the following Tuesday. Received a link to book an appointment and nothing has progressed. When the EML came on the dash, I decided to take a look under the bonnet and try to diagnose it myself. I opened and checked the air filter, and despite being informed that the car had been serviced, the air filter had not been changed. Had about a years worth of dirt on it.
I am not confident that even though the car has 3 months warranty, that any of these issues will be addressed.
Don't bother with them. You will regret it.
I have contacted Trading Standards and seeking legal advice.

Just bought a new car from Hartwell’s Grimsby branch, and very pleased with the service. Dealt with a lovely guy named Dylan, and couldn’t be happier with my new car. Even managed to drive it away same day! Would definitely recommend, thank you Hartwell Grimsby!