Harwoods Group Reviews 

Portsmouth Audi Service Centre review.

Tea and coffee doesn't smooth over the obvious cracks....

The charge flap on our £40k Q4 Etron wouldn't open so had to drive all the way there for the technician to just rip it open....!!! Why they couldn't tell me to do that I don't know.

The next available slot was 4 weeks away with no guarantee of fixing it that day so I waited patiently for 6 weeks for a courtesy car. Turned up today at 8am only to be called just now at 11am to be told they need it for another day - THEY HADN'T EVEN LOOKED AT IT?!

It's so obvious that they have too much work and are just trying to stall people seeing as they had the part in weeks ago to fix and unless they had actually found another problem it doesn't take over a day to replace....how do I know this, because a woman sat next to me had the exact same problem!

On top of this, about 6 months ago we had to take it in and had the same experience with them fobbing us off that it would take three days to update the software??!!

So sad as the receptionists are really nice personable people which is the only credit to the company. I think if it's a warrantee issue you take second place......awful experience x 2!

I recently bought a car from the Sussex branch and was really pleased with the service received from both Adrian and Kevin. They were very helpful and kind both pre and post purchase of new car! Highly recommend.

I was attended to by Mr Abdul Nuhu at the Centre in Croydon where I brought my car glass window to be replaced. What a professional gentleman?, very nice welcoming smile. His approach was very positive and kept me informed of update of my car. Generally I was happy with the work done and I appreciate the team at the reception too. Good experience always.

Having sent a email on 4 October 2024 to customer services regarding my below complaint, I am still yet to have any response.

Even the one star given is too much for the appalling
service given at Harwoods Audi, Hants.
I used their website to book a service and MoT or so I thought. Although the site showed the 'next date available' on their calender and the time of '10:00am also available', it turns out that neither were available until the week after. I was told also, that the booking isn't actually a booking but a request for a booking.
Where is the logic in that and why have a website that isn't fit for purpose?
I am not sure if Audi CEO's ever look at these reviews but they seriously need to know about the lack of customer care at their dealerships/websites.
MJN

Helpful and informative from the first contact made. Due to a circumstances I needed to purchase a new car and trade in my old car quickly, they couldn't have been more helpful, I wouldn't hesitate to recommend.

Thank you Audi Five Oaks!

My experience working with Harwoods Pulborough has been exceptional thanks to the fantastic service by sales manager Michael Larkin.
Greeted with a warm welcome I wanted to look at Range Rover Sport options. Michael was fantastic in explaining all the products available, arranged the test drives - and clearly loves the business he works in.
Anyone going to Harwoods Pulborough to look for a car - should ask for Michael Larkin without fail. Gold Star Service.
A true professional with a great passion for cars and an even greater passion for amazing Customer Service.
Thank you, Michael for taking care of us.

Excellent service and advise by Andrew to purchase my Audi A3. Would highly recommend this dealership.

We have bought 5 cars from Chichester
branch and wouldn’t want to go to any other garage now…. Dan, Ben, Damien
what a great team can’t fault them. Amazing customer service, keep it up

I brought a new jaguar XF from the Chichester branch, they made it very easy to purchase the add ons which I accepted were explained throughly but the nice little touch was after a couple of weeks I received an afternoon tea voucher saying thank you for purchasing the car, all the team at Chichester were good and knowledgeable especially Paul Walter

I went to Harwoods Southampton Audi with very low expectations as Audi had ceased production of the A4 Avant.
However I was met by Ellie who listened to my needs and promptly set about finding the exact model and specification I required even down to the colour.
Ellie has only been in car sales for Seven months but she is definitely a star, and the whole experience at Harwoods has been very satisfactory.
Phil Legg

I recently purchased a Range Rover velar from Harwoods. We were dealing with Jack and when we visited the showroom to view the vehicle we went round it pointing out any issues with Jack even pointing out a few things he had noticed and we clarified them all with him and arranged a collection date for the following Friday and he advised that he would be in contact on Wednesday with the bank details for payment to be made. Late Wednesday afternoon I received a call from Jack to say that the vehicle would not be ready for Friday. I advised him that I had sold my current vehicle and had made arrangements with someone to drive us the 170 mile round trip so it needed to be ready by Friday. His attitude in all honesty was very poor regarding this I can’t understand why as it had all been arranged the previous weekend. On the day of collection we unfortunately got stuck in traffic and were delayed by around an hour and again his attitude was severely lacking and on arrival we found him to be quite rude as if he didn’t have any time for us. When we walked around the vehicle two of the marks that had been pointed out to him (black paint) had not been removed and he adamantly refused to accept that these had been pointed out to him (even though they had) and it was as if it was a big deal to get someone to have a look and said it is a second hand car. Well that really is not what you expect when paying over £40k for a used car. He went and got a valeter begrudgingly who simply rubbed it with a cloth and said no it’s a scratch. Well it definitely is not a scratch but we couldn't be bothered to argue. We asked Jack quite a few questions with regards to the car and to be quite honest some of the things he said he didn’t know or wasn’t sure on and some things he’s told us we have now found are completely wrong for instance we asked if the steering wheel position moved when you get in and out the car he said no but lo and behold it does by pressing the auto button on the side of the steering wheel column and the Land Rover app that he said you could only have on one device. We have had the vehicle since 20th September I have been eagerly awaiting the receipt of the V5c so I could put my personal plate on and have been checking DVLA to check if it had been issued yet after 8 days I emailed Jack and then received a reply saying he would check and let me know then nothing so I have had to phone and speak to someone else and it turns out Jack did not register the change of ownership which has now been done by someone else at Harwoods (thank you Ros) 11 days later. If you are looking to buy a new or used car take my advice and avoid Jack like the plague as he is more suited to a fruit n veg stall on a market.

Cannot speak of the whole company. But was thoroughly let down by the Crawley branch. Would approach with caution. Aftercare service levels a real issue.

Liz at Harwoods Crawley deserves a gold star as she has to be the most professional parts department I have ever dealt with . Always Sorts us out with the most pleasant experience. Well done Liz keep the wonderful attitude up and excellent customer service . Regards Jen

Hi, we purchased a Range Rover Evoque back in June 2024 from your Brighton showroom and 2.5 months down the line we noticed horrendous wear on the inside of one of our tyres. Having spoken to a number of tyre specialist they have stated that the tyre should not have worn like that in the time we have had the vehicle and that the tracking must be severely out. Having spoken to the dealership where we purchased the vehicle from, they confirmed that the tracking had flagged up on their pre used vehicle check and needed doing. I have had the tracking checked by an independent garage and have confirmed that the tracking on the rear of the car is still way out and with it being a 4x4 this will be effecting the driving of the vehicle all round. Apparently the tracking had been done by the Croydon showroom where car was originally for sale, but seems like the faulty tyre had forgotten to get changed leading to a near miss of a potential accident. The showroom we purchased the vehicle from had offered a GOODWILL GESTURE of £100 for this and 13 days on we are still awaiting this payment.
This is unacceptable customer service

It is startling that two emails have been sent, as instructed by the reception one to a Portsmouth Audi address on 16th September and a follow up to Harwoods customer services and yet still nothing heard! The narrative is:

The reputation of Harwoods is good and my experience of Tom Stocker at Portsmouth Audi has been excellent, but I am somewhat frustrated by the marketing of an Audi A3 that we were at the time interested in purchasing. I have bought a number of Audi cars, many new and some through the Audi Approved Used scheme where I have taken for granted that full checks are made, service history verified and amongst other points a two year warranty offered.

I enquired about a silver A3 reg VN70MHJ, it seemed interesting, only to find out by accident from my local Marshall Audi Dealership that the vehicle they were marketing had no service history in the last three and half years and five recalls! Yet this is being promoted as an Audi approved vehicle with full service history?

Never the less my wife and I were persuade to visit the Portsmouth Dealership on Saturday 14th September to see the car, the so called "big sales event", only to find the A3 in the service area with no keys available. Apparently locked away by a technician. We could see very little. A completely wasted journey.

I have to say rather unimpressed, we are buying an A3 but it seems that the customer now has to make additional checks themselves through other dealers as the Audi Approved Used car service checks are proving to be poor with Harwoods Portsmouth! This car had never been serviced in the previous ownership, nearly 29,000 with no checks since it was first collected on 9th January 2021. Even now rather disingenuous to continue claiming a full service history on auto trader and the Audi web site! I would not expect this through the Audi Approved scheme and Harwoods.

Perhaps more focus is required to maintain the standards expected in the Audi Approved Used Car scheme?

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As a further update having already sent an email on 20th September to Customer Services at Harwoods, the only response in Trustpilot is the standard one, send it again to this email address. This very poor service.
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Email sent as requested on 30th September to Customer Service, three weeks later a no response! Its fine I bought a car from their competition, excellent service as opposed to my experience with Harwoods Portsmouth.

Hardwoods Crawley. They tried to scam us when trading in our car. They had all the details of my car prior to going to see the car we wanted, they had given a quote to change (not an estimate) as well as info on dent insurance, scratch repair, ceramic coating and wheel insurance and extended warranty.
When we said we only wanted the warranty they said they had made a mistake on the cost of the warranty and they wanted another £200. Also they wanted more money for alloy wheel damage which I had already told them about (£400) and £200 for a scratch on the front passenger window. This turned out to be bird poo which I scraped off.
I wish I had walked away but said I would pay a bit more which I now regret.
Untrustworthy and I’ll never go back there.
Make sure you pay only for what you want and remember that there are lots of choices in car dealers

Saturday 14 September 2024 12.55pm.

Just telephoned Crawley Jaguar to book an appointment to trade in my almost new Mercedes for a Jaguar. Imagine my surprise when the receptionist told me they close at 1 pm, so no one can speak to you until we open again (The website showed they we open until 5.30pm). I had no chance to leave a telephone contact number.

I was proposing to spend in the region £70,000 with them.

If this is the level of customer experience I can expect from Jaguar, then I will never be returning to any of their branches.

We have just collected our first Land Rover from Harwoods in Basingstoke and we were very impressed,

From initial contact to collection
I dealt with Niki Howard who was brilliant, always on hand to answer questions and gave us an excellent handover

I would recommend them to anyone

I have absolutely no confidence in Harwoods Southampton, or indeed the Audi brand.
I purchased my Audi TT convertible in Jan 2020. It had been pre-registered by the garage, but I was the first owner, it had 9 delivery miles on the clock.
I had previously owned a 2007 Audi TT which I kept for 10 years, it had 30k on the clock when I sold it to a private buyer.
I extended the warranty on my new TT after 3 years, mainly because I had experienced some issues with the soft top roof mechanism on my previous Audi.
At the time of writing, the car has 6900 miles on the clock.
A couple of weeks ago, I noticed that the clutch pedal hadn’t returned to its usual position, but was kind of frozen. After a couple of gear changes it returned to normal. It’s literally only happened about 3 times. On the second occasion I put my toe under the pedal, it came up with very little resistance, so I assumed there was an issue with the clutch pedal mechanism. I wasn’t particularly concerned, but I thought might as well take advantage of the extended warranty to ensure all was ok.
I booked the car in on 3/9. I was greeted by Ryan who is a very pleasant young man. I walked into CF to kill some time.
A few hours later, Ryan updated me that the technician couldn’t do a proper assessment, because that would involve ‘dropping the gear box’
The technician thought the clutch is failing, so full clutch replacement required. £2300 quoted (labour £250 an hour - 6 hours work) Ryan also told me that clutch issues aren’t covered by the warranty, but are considered to be fair wear and tear!
I was obviously far from impressed, plus not convinced that a 4 1/2 year old car, with less than 7000k on the clock should have a failing clutch!
I’ve previously owned from new a golf GTI, put 90k on the clock, no clutch problems, same for my first TT. 30k on the clock, no clutch issues.
I’m sure that if I’d purchased a Dacia or a Kia (no offence meant) the clutch would be fine with less than 7k on the clock!
I had a phone call from one of the mechanics, which to be fair I declined to take. I have since asked to speak to the mechanic again, no call received.
I have made a formal complaint to Audi UK. My issues are how can 6900 miles on a relatively new, high end car be considered to be fair wear and tear? I’m not convinced the entire clutch mechanism needs replacing because of a very occasional intermittent problem with the clutch pedal. Gear changes are smooth, there is no slippage, and bite point is the same, despite what the technician said to the contrary- absolute nonsense!
I have asked 3 independent very experienced mechanics to review the issue.
I also intend to contact Martin Lewis to raise the fair wear and tear extended warranty issue. If the car had 69000 miles on the clock fair enough, but not 6900.
I have lost all confidence in the car now so will sell it. I will never buy another Audi again, definitely BMW or Mercedes.
If I could give a lower rating for Harwoods than 1 I would.