My Arnold Clark Experience

I own a BMW i3. Everything was good until it refused to charge one day, i.e., it wouldn’t charge from my 7kW home charge point or my 13A 3-pin granny charger.

With the help of a good neighbour, we verified that both chargers were in perfect working order and happily able to charge his BMW i3.

I booked it for repair at Arnold Clark (formerly Harry Fairbairn) in Giffnock and left it at the workshop on July 26, 2023.

24 days later and settling an invoice for £4,662.40 (including VAT) I collected my repaired car. This invoice comprised £1,650.40 (including VAT) for parts and £3,012 (including VAT) for labour.

I was informed in writing that BMW had declined a goodwill warranty claim.

Unhappy with this I submitted a Data Subject Access Request under GDPR. The main thing I discovered was that no goodwill warranty claim had been submitted.

I contacted BMW directly to ask if they would consider such a claim. Although out of warranty, my car is immaculate and has very low mileage. BMW considered my request and then said they were willing to contribute 80% of the cost of the parts. They contacted Arnold Clark, requesting they submit a claim on my behalf.

Arnold Clark then waited almost a month before submitting the claim.

When I finally received a cheque from Arnold Clark, which took almost another month, I queried the amount as it was less than I had expected. I was told it was correct.

Still unhappy, I submitted a follow-up Data Subject Access Request under GDPR. This confirmed the date of the claim and the amounts on the claim. As mentioned above, the invoice I paid comprised £1,650.40 for parts plus £3,012 for labour. The claim submitted by Arnold Clark was for £1,030 for parts plus £400 for labour.

After much complaining, Arnold Clark continue to refuse to acknowledge I have been lied to and unfairly treated. I then tried the ADR route. What a waste of time that was! Here is a screenshot from The Motor Ombudsman website which promotes their Service and Repair Code of Conduct which Arnold Clark claims to abide by. Note the first bullet point for customer expectations of Honest and fair services.

The barrister acting for the National Conciliation Service opined that dishonesty and lying do not constitute a breach of contract in legal terms, just poor customer service.

Arnold Clark has charged exorbitant labour costs, short-changed me on the BMW goodwill warranty claim, and repeatedly lied to me. To this day (4 September 2024), no one at Arnold Clark has acknowledged or apologised for their dishonesty.

In order to fix my car Arnold Clark first said they needed to replace the KLE. This didn’t fix the problem. So after further excessive diagnostic charges they said they needed to replace the LIM. After replacing the LIM everything worked and it cost me £4,662.40. Interestingly, here is a story of someone who encountered the same issue of being unable to charge. It ended up costing them £1,494.

If there is one piece of advice I can offer at the end of this sorry tale, it’s to understand how the charging system works on a BMW i3 – if someone tells you that replacing the KLE will fix not being able to charge from a granny cable, they haven’t seen this manual – ST1851 I01 High-voltage Battery 120Ah – it’s a very short manual, but do see the diagrams on pages 8 and 9 in particular.

Eddie Hawthorne – Chief Executive and Group Managing Director
Alasdair Craig – Customer Services Relationship Manager
Tony Aitken – Assistant Service Manager