Gates Automotive Reviews 2,766

Avoid Ford Chigwell if you actually care about your wallet or your car.

Booked a service online at one price, turned up and the “manager” immediately said it would cost more. No proper explanation, just classic bait pricing.

Then came the upsell circus. A long list of “urgent” extras, most of them completely unnecessary. They clearly care more about hitting quotas and bonuses than doing honest work. They will push to replace parts that do not need replacing, including perfectly good tyres.

Left with serious doubts they even did the basic service properly. Zero trust, zero transparency.

Feels like the whole place is built to squeeze money out of you, not to look after your car. Go somewhere else. PS Anyone thinking of buying a diesel from Ford Iurge you to just google the Ford DPF Scandal

We bought an Omoda E5 Noble Trim from Omoda Gates of St. Albans. The car was picked up towards the end of October 2025.

The car was being driven in normal conditions, and it suddenly and without warning lost power. The was it lost power creates an immediate safety hazard as it refused to roll to safety of the roadside. It just stopped in the middle of the road. I was stranded at the roadside for 8 hours. The car has been at the dealership since 28 March 2026.

To date I have not been given a courtesy car. They book rolling hire cars from various rental companies, and I have had to return and pick up cars, causing inconvenience and added expense.

They dont seem to fully understand the cars they are supposed to work with.

Stay away and go to established brands. Cars can develop faults, but the way I have been treated after the issue is not acceptable.

Exceptional service . Lewis and poppy and the branch director all played a part in ensuring exceptional customer experience . Purchase and after care was first class.
Dealership as a whole was on point, nothing an issue and I will now be a loyal customer for future new car purchases.

As an ex car sales manager, motability accredited for 15 yrs..now unfortunately disabled.
Called wanting an update on my Omoda order, im appalled at the lack of customer service that doesnt even answer the phones. I’ve tried service line also which still doesn’t get picked up. Emailed … yep you guessed it, no reply in over 2 weeks. No letters in the mail either. Short of driving over again to find out, Ive no other option.
If I have to do this? I’ll be requesting an appointment with your Dealership manager. Motability have been made aware of this dealership not following their policy & guidelines. TCF should be mandatory to all employees.
NEVER had this problem with Steven Eagell Toyota on my current car.
The motor trade talks… & what im hearing does not fill me with faith. Terrible reputation already

My family have exclusively purchased Ford cars since 2005 and the experience of Gates Ford in St Albans has ended that.

In February 2026 we had damage to our car wheel after swerving to avoid hitting a pedestrian jumping in front of cars as a prank.

As it was wheel damage and not a tyre, we needed a Ford approved garage. We attempted to book into Gates St Albans (our nearest as we live on the outskirts of St Albans). This was a saga in itself as the online booking has to be confirmed and it is almost impossible to find someone to pick up the phone. We added a service and MOT to the booking while we were there.

After a month (yes, a month) we had an appointment booked and took a day off work in order to drive to Gates Ford at 8am for the appointment to replace the wheel.

On turning up, someone had written into our paperwork that due to the age of the car wheels were no longer available for a Ford Fiesta. That the car would fail it's next MOT as it was running on a spare wheel.

They then acted as if they were doing us a favour by cancelling the MOT and service. But no-one had bothered to contact us when they were unable to source a wheel to tell us there was no point coming to the appointment.

For clarity - this complaint is not because the car couldn't be fixed. But because someone was unwilling to competently carry out their job and let us know. And when that hadn't happened, they could have done the decent thing and compensated us for the day of annual leave which can't be recovered from employers.

In the end, we used the rest of the day in order to purchase a new car. But the failure of Gates Ford meant we were not confident to purchase a Ford again as we risked requiring that garage in the event of another issue.

The poor communications means that Ford lost out on a significant amount of money (even second hand cars are not cheap!).

Worst Experience Ever

After waiting 3 months since booking my car, the collection date finally arrived. We called the company to confirm that delivery was scheduled for the next day and that the car would be ready for collection.

To our shock, we were informed by Lewis Baldwin that the car has now been delayed and is not expected until June.

This raises a serious question:
If the delivery was delayed, why were we not informed in advance?

Instead, we only found out on the day we called — and now we are being told to wait an additional 3 months.

This is completely unacceptable and highly unprofessional.
Very disappointing service from an unreliable company.

I would not recommend this to anyone.

I was booked in to have my stereo removed to obtain the pin number to enable it to be reset, & at a cost of £30. After a technician looked at my vehicle, I was told I was unable to have this done simply, as due to the fact it had a sat nav, the whole console would need to be removed, at a cost of an hour's labour of £162, & the technician explained once they had the serial numbers required they would need to contact Ford for the pin number. I did not rebook my vehicle, but called later to ask 'if' I did undertake the work, how long would it take them to get the pin number from Ford, & the receptionist said they did not know, & for me to call them myself to ask them! I therefore called Ford, & I was told this was not something they could not do? Therefore, after being given the runaround, I called back to speak to the service department to explain this, & after yet "again" explaining the situation, the telephone call was cut off!! I called back for the 3rd time, & asked to speak to the Service Manager, as I was now extremely frustrated in getting absolutely nowhere! I eventually was put through to him, & he did not introduce himself, & I had to ask if he was the Service Manager, & his name. I again had to explain the whole scenario, & was told that he would have to fill out a form with several serial numbers from the radio, & this would then have to be sent to Germany to obtain the pin number, & did not know how long that would take. He told me this could not be done until his return on Thursday 9th April, & I asked him if a team member of the service department could not fill out the form in his absence, if I did decide to have the work undertaken? I was told it was not that straightforward, & was he was not helpful in whether he could get it done sooner for me. I found his attitude to be extremely condescending towards me, & quite rude! He then called me "darling", which I find quite astonishing, & is this the calibre of the "Service Manager" at a flagship dealership?! I have previously worked in the motor industry for many years, & he certainly did not come across as a professional 'Service Manager'. All in all, I found the whole situation very stressful, & I was passed from "pillar to post", & found the whole process extremely unprofessional, & I will certainly not be recommending this dealership.

Gates of woodford dealt with Aaron who was easy to talk too very down to earth had a laugh but very professional.
Great experience Aaron was always helpful & always got back to me with any queries I had. I would highly recommend dealing with Aaron his a lovely bloke.
I got the car and the colour I wanted for a great price all thanks to Aaron a true professional and a credit to the dealership.

What a load of rubbish! It’s like buying a car off of TEMU! Jaecoo 5 is poor quality drive and clearly made cheaply. I’ve had nothing but issues since I took the car 4 months ago . The customer service since taking their car, has been nothing but poor. Avoiding dealing with the issues and continuously have to chase them up. The car is dangerous to drive and I’ve shown them proof of this, and yet they can’t seem to find any issues with it. Don’t bother wasting your time!

My experience was great from start to finish. The team was very helpful, and informative.

Collins Okoli was very welcoming, polite and respectful. He explained every step as I made the initial enquiry.
Explained the ethos of the company which I found useful.

He is very knowledgeable in his field of sales and understands the make and model of the car he sells.

He kept in touch with me from the time I visited the show room until when I picked up my new car. Hoorah!!!!!!!!!!

What was really helpful is that he provided me with the summary of the essential features of the terms and conditions including the finance, which is always very useful as you have to understand those key features and there is never sufficient time to read them at that time.

He did my finance compentently that I did not have to feel any pressure.

Great customer services, Great service overall.
I will recommend Ford Gates to friends and families

I recently purchased my Jaecoo 7 SHS from Gates of Woodford, and I couldn’t be happier with the experience—thanks in large part to Ryan. From start to finish, his service was absolutely outstanding.
Ryan was knowledgeable, approachable, and genuinely helpful throughout the entire process. He took the time to answer all my questions, made sure I understood every detail, and never made me feel rushed or pressured. His professionalism and friendly attitude really stood out and made what can sometimes be a stressful experience feel smooth and enjoyable.
The whole purchase was handled efficiently, and Ryan kept me updated every step of the way. It’s clear he genuinely cares about his customers and takes pride in delivering excellent service.
I’m absolutely thrilled with my Jaecoo 7 SHS and would highly recommend both Gates of Woodford and Ryan to anyone looking for a new car. A truly first-class experience!

I dealt with Tyler Wink from Gates Omoda & Jeacoo Woodford. From start to finish he was lovely, always had time to answer any questions I had to ask. He was very pleasant, welcoming and helpful and I appreciate all the help he gave me.
Got my new Omoda 5 last Sunday and I’m loving it!!
Would deffo recommend a visit to the showroom if you are in thinking of getting the Omoda or Jeacoo car.

Tyler was a superb representative, very welcoming and answered every question with care and detail. He made the entire process easy. I would definitely recommend ordering your car through gates at Woodford with Tyler

Tyler was amazing from start to finish. He guided me through ordering the car and clearly explained all the different options available. When the car arrived, he took the time to show me how to set everything up before I left and made sure I felt comfortable and confident driving away. Excellent service throughout!

I recently bought a Ford Puma from Gates in Woodford and I was served by a young man called Danny. I had to write a review because I was so impressed by his overall manners, maturity, intelligence, knowledge and capability with regards to the way how he handled the sale of the car, and also the way he executed his job with precision and professionalism. It took him a little while to get the car that I wanted because I am pretty particular and specific when it comes to buying anything so he had to exercise a lot of patience in terms of finding me the right car. When he did find me a car that I liked, he bent over backwards to make sure that the car was in top condition when it was delivered to me and he also made sure that I drove the car out of the showroom on the day of purchase, even though there were some minor difficulties on the administration side of things. So I would just like to commend Danny on the care I received as a customer and I am sure that Danny will do very well as a salesman at Gates. Danny has displayed enormous potential in terms of being a key team player in his future at your company.

Thank you very much Danny from a very satisfied and happy customer.

Mr Raymond Crawford

Off the back of a disaster car experience, walking into stAlbans Gates and meeting Lewis was a big relief. Being in sales I knew straight away Lewis could help me. Honest, supportive and knowledgable was exactly what he was. Top lad and an even better salesman.

Would you pay a deposit to “Test Drive” a car, and buy it by not test driving it? ?

Would you buy a car (albeit a demo) that is filthy inside & out, human hair on dash, greasy finger prints on leather dash, black dirty hand prints on the hand visa and inner roof… thinking it looks attractive??

Oh yes well it’s the expectation here…especially if you are dealing with David here.

We were asked to pay a refundable deposit to ensure they didn’t sell car overnight when we enquired Saturday afternoon… we drive 90 mins next day to go see and “drive it” and whilst commuting we get called twice whilst driving there by the hi .

The demo car was filthy inside and out…

The sales guy walks out with a yellow duster and tries to rub bird poo off the bonnet but failed the task….them we were asked are you ready to take it for a spin around the block to be told to get in…whilst the sales person drives it!

We Wanted to get answers to our questions….only to be told ”we can discuss next week when you come and pick it up??”

Seriously does no one in the motor trade have any morals these days… excuses like well you only reserved a test drive yesterday afternoon… when you opened at 10am and had over 2 hours to clean it….is not good enough.

We got our refund and left…the salesman was rather shirty with us…but still had the audacity to leave a voicemail two days later still trying to sell the vehicle to us!

What he successfully did was demonstrated why you don’t buy a demo car or any second hand car from them… so we purchased a brand new version of the car…with a dealership with better customer service!
11/3 Response to the response, it would not take much to work out the salesperson I name, the deposit to test drive was made saturday (last weekend) and incident happened sunday (same weekend). We do not want to waste anymore of our time on this.

I picked up my new car today. Macy has given me fantastic service this week. She is knowledgeable, professional and I didn’t feel under pressure from her. The whole process only took a week, from thinking about what I wanted and could afford to picking up my new car. Macy responded quickly to any questions I had. I can’t recommend her enough. Well done, one very happy customer.

I have been left with no car bearing In mind I am still paying for the car that they are not able to work on because of a fault on there side I am struggling to get to places like work and I don’t live in an area with frequent public transport hence why I got a car from there in the first place. My car is a 2023 plate car with only 2000 miles when I got it I haven’t even had this car for 3 months and due to them selling me a faulty car it has been taken away from me 2 times already and on both occasions I haven’t be given a temporary car or any support leaving me stranded.
My job is on the line as I need a car for my role and they don’t care because this is being covered with the one year safety net that they provide the first year when you get a car with them and they have no sense of urgency when dealing with your needs since they are not making money or a profit from it, probably why my car wasn’t fixed properly the first time it went there to be checked because while I was driving my car just shut down to the point i couldn’t even lock my car ( also for extra information my car is not an electric car) They want me to go 3 months without having a car even while I am still paying for it, beating mind i haven’t even driven the car for 3 months.
This is not fair and highly regret ever getting a car from here. Even though though the cars are stated as ‘ Gates approved’ you are still at risk of buying a deathtrap like I unfortunately have.