Vertu Motors - Volvo Exeter Reviews 

All of the staff at Volvo Exeter where very efficient and professional
With special thanks to Harrison and Daniel who helped through a difficult situation caused by myself
I would certainly recommend anyone looking to exchange a vehicle to look here first

Staff at the Exeter Volvo dealership were efficient, polite, and informative. The new car buying experience was smooth and free from hassle.

Exeter Volvo have been outstanding from the moment I turned up in their forecourt unsure what I wanted. I was seen my Elliot and he made to feel welcome and accommodated a test drive of an EX30 without a booking, and with myself insisting I was not buying that day.
I went for a test drive unaccompanied and on my return there was no pressure and I knew that this was my car and bought it.
I was kept up to date between purchase and collection 6 days later and the service has been better than expected. The car is exactly what I was looking for and I am looking forward to a long journey as a Volvo customer.

The staff at Vertu Volvo in Exeter were a pleasure to deal with! Friendly, courteous and knowledgeable they helped me to choose select the right electric vehicle to meet my requirements. I would thoroughly recommend them!

James was welcoming, knowledgeable & really helpful and put together the right deal on the right car for me & my family.

We had a great experience buying our Volvo XC90 from Vertu Volvo Exeter. Elliot was friendly, professional and knowledgeable and we would recommend using them for future car purchases.

Excellent! The salesman was very accommodating, polite, professional and human without being pushy. I trusted him and felt all my questions were answered in full. He kept in touch throughout the purchase process and facilitated a lengthy test drive. I am confident that the after sales service will also take care of me.

Robert, G Mgr and Craig GS Mgr at VERTU Volvo Exeter should be ashamed of themselves.Their Head office at Gateshead have contacted them several times regarding contacting me and they havent bothered.
I have spoken to Dean, Dawn and Kerry who seem to have chased the above up with no success.
It seems the management at VERTU Volvo Exeter have a couldn't care less attitude towards their customers and there own Head Office!
If this is the way they treat people who are thinking of buying a £35000 Volvo, imagine what their aftersales service must be like!!!
Perhaps both gentlemen should contact ARTHUR DALEY MOTORS as I understand he is looking for a couple of salesmen.
Kind regards
TJ

We were looking for a new car and considering the Volvo XC40, on arrival at the Volvo Exeter dealership we were given a very warm welcome by reception staff and didn’t have long to wait until a Sales Executive was with us. The Sales Executive was Savvas Petrou, a very professional and charming gentleman for whom nothing was too much trouble. Savvas took us through everything we needed to know as well as arranging for us to test drive the car. I cannot recommend Savvas highly enough, a true professional and would thoroughly recommend anyone visiting and looking for a car at Volvo Exeter to make an appointment with him

Well this is an ongoing issue.

Bit of background had my 16 plate xc60 since 2020 and as its ex mobility I decided to keep up with the full Volvo service history and continue using the main dealership.

I set up an EMAC plan through the service department, which they ever so kindly messed up and must’ve switched paperwork so that my plan is registered against another vehicles reg and vin number…
3 years later and they still can’t sort it out.

The staff in the service dept fob you off with half assed answers, especially on a Saturday where none of them look like they want to be there.

I’ve asked them to look at small issues when I book in for MOTs & Services - This never happens!

The last MOT and service felt sub par, no communication from the workshop, nor a video which was actually a nice feature from previous visits.

All in all really disappointing from a premium company charging premium prices.

Felt like a second class citizen in there which is a shame as I have spent thousands putting my faith in the brand name.

Volvo should really take note of these 1 star reviews.

I read the 1* review with horror, but my review is of the service team, which got me out of a problem, with both speed and terrific service.
My drivers side wing mirror (car stationary at the time)was smashed by a passing car, just days before due to drive to Gatwick where the car would sit for 10 days. On Monday morning I visited Exeter Volvo, showed the damage to a service receptionist called Dan, who then after reference within the dept., said that the replacement could be obtained from stock in Bristol, and the job could be done on a day and a time to suit me.I arrived early on the Wednesday morning, to be met by another service receptionist called Dave, who assured me the new mirror assembly had arrived, and the replacement repair was done to my complete satisfaction, within a couple of hours. All problems solved, and both Dan and Dave gave me efficient, courteous and reassuring service.
I hope their line manager reads this.

Had my vehicle (20reg XC90) for weeks replacing the engine under warranty. Finally return the vehicle and it FAILS AGAIN WITHIN ONE DAY. The General Manager Rob Scott then has the audacity to write to me saying 'whilst delayed, was completed in full and to standard'. I'm not sure how the car failing again immediately is up to standard!...I have now been without my car for 3 months.Clearly Vertu Volvo Exeter and Barnstaple are not worthy to represent the Volvo brand. This horrific situation has now left me with a huge £1500 car hire bill and they are refusing to take any responsibility for their poor service and workmanship.

Currently seeking legal advice

After my wife's beloved Volvo XC40 was written off in a Road traffic accident we went to a Volvo main dealer to buy a new or nearly new replacement.

We were immediately dissuaded from considering a new car because the wait was claimed to be at least 6 – 9 months – this was untrue, I bought a brand new XC40 directly from Volvo online in about 6 weeks from order to delivery

We were told it was not possible to buy new Volvo with leather seats as Volvo’s green policy had stopped the manufacture of cars with leather seats – this was untrue – my new car, bought online direct from Volvo has charcoal leather seats.

We were told that the car they persuaded me to buy – WG73 RXW - was an Exeter Volvo demonstrator that could be ‘back any moment now’ - this was untrue - in reality it was a fleet car located somewhere in Dorchester

We were promised that WG73 RXW would undergo ‘thorough pre-purchase checks’ yet the car was placed in the delivery bay with a missing floor mat and a significant electronic ‘SOS” fault flashing on the dash. My wife waited for more than 3 hours in the waiting room while Vertu Volvo technicians tried to correct the electronic fault and the sales staff did their best to ignore her. We were later told that the fault was not one that the technical team had encountered before and yet they were happy to hand the car back-over to my wife to drive home. The fault recurred the first time that the car was restarted.

The car was collected, kept by Vertu for a number of days and returned again ‘fixed’ only for the fault to reoccur the very first time the car was driven. The car was returned and a refund demanded and even then, we had to chase the garage for our money!

Add to this a very poor level of customer service throughout – the usual stuff like failing to return phone calls on multiple occasions - we ended up wasting weeks of time only to end up with no car and be out of pocket due to the cancellation fees charged on the insurance products that they sold us with the car

As a customer I expect to be treated with honesty and courtesy. Whilst I fully understand the business argument for trying to sell existing stock rather than ordering new, seeking to achieve this goal by misinforming customers is, in my view, unacceptable. My wife now has the Volvo car that she wanted and that was, inexplicably, never an option to buy at Vertu Volvo.

I expressed my dissatisfaction with the standard of customer service and honesty within Vertu Exeter. The managers reply to my concerns included the suggestion that I take my business elsewhere. I have done this. I still trust Volvo but believe that Vertu-Volvo Exeter tarnishes the Volvo brand.

And before Vertu reply to this review with a limp ‘we are so sorry but…..etc’ – Vertu already know all about all of this and have yet to offer any apology or explanation.

Needless to say, I will never consider using any Vertu garage again

Back in June 2023 my car had a engine fault error code CEM-3F93, so the car went to Sibley's they put a new Acclarater peddle on, then the car got worse, so they took out the CEM cleaned and checked it over said it was fine so in October they booked it in at Vertu Exeter. They were fully book up untill late November, they,said it was the CEM that was at fault so fitted a new one I got the car back in December that cost £1262.65 in April 2024 the same fault came back, so Vertu said bring the car back they will fex it for free now in July, they still haven't fixed it after fitting more parts to it and saying I've now got to pay them plus I have been without a car now for over three months, the car now has more error code than it did back in July 2023

Picked up our new car from Vertu Exeter. Handover by Will was carried out in a friendly and efficient manner. Now been driving the EX30 for nearly a week and couldn't be happier.

After receiving the best possible service from Kastners Volvo Exeter for over 30 years, I am delighted that Vertu Volvo Exeter have continued to provide such high quality service. All the team are so professional and helpful but special praise goes to Ben (Service Manager). Between Christmas and the New Year period our XC60 flashed up the dreaded dashboard messages (AWD and alarm faults) and we were concerned that we might have to wait for any repairs, especially as we would not drive until repairs had been done. Ben went out of his way to ensure we had prompt attention and his team kept us up to date at all times on what the problems were and how long we would have to wait (all work was expertly done within 24 hours). The whole service team at Vertu Volvo Exeter, led by Ben, are always courteous, professional and customer service focussed – nothing is too much trouble for them. Thank you all and we will see you in May for the annual service and MOT.

I had a good customer experience pre sale. The p/x & purchase journey was slick and hassle free.

Where my experience falls down is the obvious lack of quality in dealership stock and apparent sly prep for sale techniques.

I purchased a low mileage (<8k) Approve Used Volvo for a large sum of money. The dealership has clearly used polishes and fillers to hide paint blemishes, chips and dents. I found this out after washing the car and finding the fillers disapearing and paintwork marks surfacing.

To date, I've had to fix one dent, two door chips down to primer, a stone chip, rotary polish marks on the bonnet and a seat tear - all found quickly after sale. The car also requires a two stage polish to bring it up to a satisfactory quality and remove abuse marks.

This was a partial remote purchase (I live 6 hours from the dealership) and the Sales Exec stated the paintwork and interior was in excellent condition, which is a stretch. This car required a more through eye for detail to classify the quality.

I'm now having to spend additional funds to bring the car up to a satisfactory quality, something that should have occured pre-sale.

Would I make the same decisions again about remote purchase? Likely not, I will insist in a visit before handover.

Would I use Vertu again? I'd be hesitant on what they're using to hide paintwork issues and so I'd be wary.

How would I have prepared the car? Firstly a thorough review of paintwork to identify and fill in stone chips. Secondly a quick single stage polish to buff out the paintwork blemishes. Not a rotary, but a dual action handled by someone experienced. Lastly I'd check the interior for damage and repair/replace. The summation is an approved used that is mechanical and cosmetically ready for sale with no further work required - it may even fetch a higher pricetag.

How do we know you didn't cause the damage post sale? Good question. The seat tear was found about 5 minutes after leaving the dealership, the door chips when stopping at a service station. The dent was while walking back to the car after parking at the rear of the services and covering about 100 miles. The stone chip may have been on the drive home so we'll chalk that up to motorways. The general paintwork condition is obvious post clean using a two bucket method and air drying to avoid additional touch steps.

Could these issues have been found and sorted before sale? Yes, with a little bit of time and less out the door mentality these could have been resolved before sale and I’d have never been any wiser.

Overall I'm disspointed in the dealership quality and the onward cost to me.

05/09/2023 - Have emailed in response to Vertu below and so far nothing has come of it. No resolution or discussion. I have downgraded the rating to 1 STAR because of this.

25/09/2023 - No further contact from reply to Vertu. Subsequently the car rejection has been accepted under the CRA 2015 for non disclosure of repair work and sub standard and unwarrantable paintwork resulting in the aforementioned review. Verified by an independent Volvo Approved Bodyshop, the issues included; Lacquer blend lines, sanding marks, misaligned door, silicone spots, imbedded dirt and unpainted sections. Cost to put right came into the £1.5-3k range. The vehicle was sold as ex-demo.

The car is back on sale within 5 days. Be vigilant with WF22UOY. The dealership is pleasant but the vehicle history is questionable.