FG Barnes Group Reviews 

Customer service staff attitude is appalling, my partner purchased a brand new mg3, we realised it hadn't been PDI inspected on collection and we had to return with the vehicle for this to be carried out, collected car and found black handprints all over the headlining! They promised to organise valeting of damage and never did so we had it carried out at our own expense. 18 months after ownership battery died unexpectedly over a four day period, basically staff suggested we left the car unlocked and might as well have called us liars with their attitude! Now five weeks later the car smells damp inside and has all sorts of electrical issues with dash, called FG Barnes again and the attitude was its not likely to be covered by warranty (on a car that's done just 4k miles) and that we'd have to pay £134 for diagnostics, utterly appalling staff attitude. We're now taking the car to a different dealership to have the problems investigated! FG Barnes also told us that we would have to pay for a new battery as its not covered by the warranty despite having a guarantee for x number of years and all this from the service receptionist who is apparently is also an expert mechanic with a crystal ball! Would give zero stars if possible, don't take your vehicle to this garage and I'd strongly advise looking for a another lo Al dealership who are polite, helpful and competent! Will never buy from or use FG Barnes services again!!!

Avoid FG barnes maidstone at all costs.

After braking down on a motorway we got our car to this dealership as it’s the only one in Maidstone. The car still under warranty.
3 months it took to diagnose. The staff kept lying to me that they were looking at it but weren’t. I’d even had a date for a service and MOT three weeks after the brake down which they could use as the slot for diagnosing the problem. Once diagnosed it took 3 months for them to figure out that couldn’t get the parts anymore. So a new engine was agreed. No idea why as the car is worth less than a new engine. The car got given back 3 weeks ago. I took it back twice as I could smell fuel and it was losing fuel whilst I was driving. This was denied and it was just excess fuel at the back of the engine. The smell was still bad and they put a cleaning bomb in the car to take the smell away. However it was still present. Today driving to Tunbridge wells from Maidstone the smell got worse and worse. Then steam coming from the bonnet. I pulled over and there’s fuel all over the new engine bay. I’m fortunate enough it’s not caught fire. Thank god it’s minus degrees.
This has gone on since march this year. So many complaints and still they put me and my family in danger.
Do not trust this company or garage.

As most of the reviews about this company confirm, this is a company to steer clear of. There have been too many issues to list them all but basically, I found a car that I was interested in and put down a deposit to secure it. Went for a test drive and took a mechanic with me. Found an endless number of problems with the vehicle and reported them to the sales department. Sales manager Stuart got involved making excuses but basically, he hadn't had the vehicle thoroughly checked before putting it up for sale. He took the car off the market and refunded my deposit. I said I would still be interested in the car if the work required was carried out but he said he didn't think they would be selling it again and it would probably go to auction or to another dealer who was prepared to do the work. I asked him to let me know either way but he didn't. The car has now reappeared on their website at a much higher price then I had agreed to pay but I doubt all the work has been done because it wouldn't be cost effective. So I feel the reason he didn't get back to me is that the car still has issues but they are hoping whoever buys it will not do as thorough check as I did. This is definitely an Arthur Daley set-up and they should be avoided at all costs. Look at some of the other reviews and you see there is a familiar pattern emerging with this company. Not to be trusted and incompetent staff especially sales manager Stuart.

Yet again, Service Manager (Guildford) has failed to respond to any of my messages. My van that you had for 3 weeks whilst I was on holiday, returned with the exact same problems it arrived to you with. The fact that you don't even acknowledge my emails, or attempt to phone me regarding these issues will leave me with no choice but to involve a third party to settle this. Extremely disappointed as this van is my business and having to ask customers to jump start my vehicle is embarrassing!!!!!

Abdul Hannan Maidstone :

From the moment we first visited FG Barnes Maidstone to enquire about a car, through to the day we took ownership of a car, Abdul Hannan has been a pleasure to do business with.
Both myself and my wife have been impressed by Abdul’s patience, courtesy ,professionalism and pleasant manner in dealing with our car purchase from the start of our enquiry to the day we collected the car.
All our questions and concerns were answered satisfactorily and we never once felt pressurised into making decision to purchase a car . Options for our car of choice were explained and recommended leaving us time to decide what worked best for us

Maidstone Vauxhall work well as a team to support the customer needs as well as providing a welcoming sales environment, I would certainly use this dealership again.

Hannan Abdul Maidstone
when first walking into the dealership and meeting Hannan we were greeted with a smile, we didn't book an appointment and he was with a different client but still had the time to explain he will be free as soon as possible which gave us the confidence to wait, he was very patient and understanding recommending different types of vehicles then we test drove, never once was he pushy just very supportive of what would work for us
Maidstone Vauxhall comes across as a team more than a sales environment, I would deal with this team again

I purchased a BMW from FGBarnes Maidstone in July. When I picked up the car I was informed that it only had one key. I had not been made aware of this at the time I agreed the purchase. I also noticed a large scratch on the front bumper. I made FGBarnes aware of these issues straight away including photos. Several emails later I have had no response. I stand to lose £378 in the cost of a new key and around £100 for the cost of the scratch repair.

*ATTENTION* ATTENTION*

Do not conduct ANY Business with this pathetic joke of a car dealership, their customer service and car standard is absolutely abysmal. A car crash of an organisation - no pun intended. I bought a fairly new used car, when i picked up the car and drove it back home - the car started to vibrate and shaked excessivley at motorway speeds. This is callous and dangerous to sell a car to a customer when it's not roadworthy. In addition, the rear wiper blade was broken. I asked several times before picking the car up for the service checklist, it took three weeks for them to get back to me on this. They sold a car on the deception that is has been through the appropriate checks when this was all A LIE! To top it off the courtesy car they gave me broke down the motorway, which Tony threatened me to pay excess LOL!

I have since noticed on the service checklist that they happily sold a car with 80% wear gone on the front and rear brakes, squeaking noise when reversing and car movement when braking at high speeds. Tony (attached photo) is running a sinking ship - do not alight here. Robert has to be the most sarcastic, rude salesman i have ever witnessed.This company cut corners to save on time and money, but this can lead to your sudden death. Is it worth it?

I am still waiting for Tony to get back to me regarding the wear on the brakes as this is not the expectation i expect from a "FCA regulated" company.

I wish to bring to attention to all, about the service I got from the service manager MG Canterbury (Ryan). He was very professional and friendly. He got the job done correctly and in good time. He said he has only been at FG Barnes for 4 weeks, so this was the first time I met the man. I have great faith in this man, hope to see him Feb. 23 for my cars next service.

Yet another poor experience at the Maidstone auto centre….. literally have no words to describe how poor their service is, so unprofessional and have no idea about customer service

Hannan was great, took me out on a test drive, explained all the functions .... what all the buttons do, took me through the extra packages I could buy and went through the finance no problem. Hannan is very thorough and explains everything very clearly, makes sure everything is done properly. I bought the car there and then and only a week before I picked it up - all sparkly and clean and looking just like a new car. Very happy with my purchase and would highly recommend Hannan. Thank you

Arrived for test drive at 1450 15/2/22 at canterbury branch. On arrival I was told that the manager was taking the only available ev car in 10 minutes. This was a waste of my time and an embarrassing situation for the salesman I dealt with. It appears the manager has no consideration for the customers on this occasion and should be ashamed. Poor service.

Avoid avoid avoid.

Should really be zero stars!

Bought a car from Maidstone Vauxhall at end of June and what an absolute joke it has been since. I’m still not registered as the verified owner through My Vauxhall as it still hasn’t been confirmed by the dealership due to an error made by AH on initial sale who put the wrong info in and now they can’t correct it or say they can’t. Meaning I can’t book services or a service plan online as the system doesn’t recognise my car. No proper checks carried out on the car - infotainment unit is faulty and is missing privacy settings, meaning I can’t use a great proportion of its security or any of its journey tracking services. NH is a bully who knows nothing about consumer law and is a cowboy in a cheap shirt and tie. Services dept just make false promise after false promise and whoever the mystical ‘Technical’ department are I have no idea. They’ve had my car in three times so far and have done absolutely nothing to it except allow technical to close my case, so many times by every member of the service team I’ve been told that they need to do a data transfer but technical refuse to actually visit the dealership even though I was told by A that they would be doing just this in December 2021. They didn’t. RT at services had no idea that I’d had this conversation with A - communication amongst the different people and different departments is a joke. IB, the business manager, and RC couldn’t care less once they’ve got your money. This is an ongoing saga and my car is due to go in for a FOURTH time imminently (same false promises, same work being carried out apparently but no progress whatsoever) but my next step is legal action and local media. AVOID! AVOID! AVOID!

Very poor experience. Arrived to test drive a used car, every single panel had scratches and scuffs on, was told they have a very good guy that could fix this, so why not fix it rather than show the car in such a poor condition - alarm bells already ringing. Then asked if instead of the wheels that car came with it they could source bigger wheels - was told that the manger ' had said' - "if you want 16" wheels you should go to Halfords". I had already asked this question on email before visiting the car to which I got no response, had I known i'd be directed to Halfords for Fiat parts I would not have bothered turning up in the first place. If you want a Fiat, go to another dealer.

Gave one star, as it would not allow me to put 0. Organised a test drive on jeep,which was good. Asked for a quotation to purchase vehicle and asked again 24 hours later, 4 days later still no quotation

Very bad experience. Was sold a faulty car, and so far had to spend money on the car to fix problems. Was meant to be seen by the manager, but instead was fobbed off with his mate Rob, who was more interested in talking about himself and to my partner instead of talking to me who was purchasing the car. They claimed they have done an MOT last year, but somehow tyres that are 5 years old passed, with barely a thread on them. I'm now having to spend more money on tyres for the car. The car eats petrol, after being told it was good on petrol and cheap to run. It's more expensive than my 1.4! Still haven't received my V5 documents. Not impressed at all, would never use nissan again. Watch out, these are scammers!

Very bad customer service still waiting for Steve to get back to me now over three weeks ago

Worst ever company I have dealt with CUSTOMER SERVICE do they know what these words mean.I bought my Fiat from there Guildford branch worst mistake ever dealt with there service desk for three years RUDE STAFF arrogant and did not help with my issues or problems that I had with my car.

I now go to my local garage for service and repairs and would not step into that hell hole in Guildford sums it up for me.

what a waste of my time! So I am looking at getting a Seat Leon Estate so as you do, was going past FG Barnes, Seat, Parkwood last week so I popped in to see if the had any 1.4 Phev's that I could drive. They had a Leon out on display but this wasn't the engine I want. So we sat down for about 20 min and had a discussion and then looked at the car. After all this I asked if I could actually drive a PHEV an if they were getting one in to which the dealer told me that he has a Cupra with roughly the same engine and they could get one for me to test drive the following week. The next week I turned up for the test drive with my licence only to be told that the car didn't have enough charge and then that (after about 40min) that the car was out of my budget?? They quoted me for a lease and it was no where near what other dealerships have quoted at least £100 more +VAT..
So again, Thanks for totally wasting my afternoon I'll go elsewhere and recommend others do too.

In response to the reply below. I don't "feel" like you wasted my time, you did. I wasn't looking at buying somewhere else I had a legitimate interest in leasing a hybrid estate car.. But hey ho, your loss. Also because of your completely uncaring attitude towards a potential customer I have now rated you as 1 star. I am a very proud owner of a Toyota corolla sports touring. Top spec 2.0 full hybrid.. Much nicer

Purchased brand new Seat Leon Fr. Worst experience of life. Dealer all smiles & laughs to get the deal, but then an abysmal car & dealer customer service. Car 3 weeks late in being available. Delays in insuring car as dealer slow to register it. On collection car had chip in passenger door and virtually no valet with filthy engine compartment. How can a dealership prepare and offer a brand new car that had allegedly been fully checked and cleaned in this state? They apologised and confirmed in writing it was way below their normal standards!! Should have walked then but had paid balance prior to pick up etc. Dealer assured us car would be fixed asap. Ok we thought, oh no! on drive home warning lights on for passenger airbag constantly, then brake gets noisy and spongy. Check manual & dealer has not activated airbag!! A day later warning lights and exclamation marks all over dashboard & infotainment screen indicate park assists\parking sensors faulty! and a wiper is smearing badly. Call dealers who book car in. They keep car 2 days & despite numerous calls we never got an update, so go to dealership. They advise everything done except the valet as need car more than 2 days to valet it as well. Demand car is returned, so they get it and happily say, sensors reset its possibly an intermittent fault, brake servo filter replaced, wiper sorted and the chip has been touched up.
Total farce, we check chip which is still there and point out to an embarrassed member of staff. So the primary things it went in for a chip repair and valet not done. The staff member advised us ironically, if it had been him he would have refused the car when we collected it on registration!! Wow at least he was honest. think they thought as a female was purchasing car they could get away with chip issue and not do valet. Profuse apologies, So in it goes again, this time for 3 days and it's semi sorted out. The intermittent issue with park assist, park sensors is still there but Seat do not know how to correct this, even after referral to the technical team, so advise to monitor it!!. the service manager was at least trying to help and was polite and kept us informed but advised to sort chip out fully door will need respray, however the valet and engine were cleaned to a great standard, shame the car had to go back twice to get a decent valet that should have been checked prior to handover. Totally unsatisfactory in a brand new car . The sales manager and area manager assured us they would personally oversee the car through its second return visit but did not. Nobody has ever contacted us since to check up on things. Have owned Seat Leon\ibiza before and they were good cars, but the latest model is awful as is this dealership customer service. We have also contacted Seat HQ 4 times to complain and never once had any reply. Will never but a Seat again and suggest avoiding FG Barnes seat Maidstone.