I purchased a 2023 Kia Sportage GT line hybrid from Kia Glyn Hopkins Romford and was very disappointed with the lack of after service once purchased (in full).I did notice when I test drove the vehicle a week before its purchase that the wash wipe was not working and was told by the sales representative that the bottle was probably empty and to be honest I thought the same as he did. It was agreed that they would put a new set of Kia mats in the vehicle and also repair the plastic inner boot lining (sides) that were scratched. I was told a repair was to be done however the person who they get in to do this was on holiday and so I was told that because of this they were going to replace them. This fix apparently would involve a bit of work including removing the rear speakers, or so I was told. Before purchasing I did my own vehicle check and found out that the vehicle actually belonged to LOMBARD FINANCE! Apparently this is not unusual for main dealers to do this and Kia Romford or Glyn Hopkins use this particular company to finance all the used cars on the forecourt and pay Lombard for the vehicle once you pay them. So as I have stated this is not unusual practice but you have to ask yourself what happens if there is suddenly a problem with the Franchise (Kia Romford) ? Are there any safeguards in place to protect the customer?I made sure that part of my payment was by credit card and over ?100 so was then covered by section 75 of your credit card unlike your debit card!Anyway the sale went ahead and the car was delivered on a Saturday morning. I was very pleased with my purchase but this is whenthe after sales service started deteriorated.The first thing i noticed was the inner boot lining had not been repaired and was told the service department had the part's and if i took it back to them from Kent to Essex it would be done. I do not understand why it had not been repaired and assumed it would have been done before delivery.After a couple of days using the vehicle I then noticed the wash wipe was still did not working. I looked at the check sheet that came with the vehicle which had a huge amount of checks that stated these had indeed been checked and were good.The fact that they had obviously not been checked then made that check list with all the checks on it which were all stated good, totally irrelevant as if they hadn't actually checked the wash wipers what else have they not checked??I then had a problem with the indicators so I rang the sales representative twice but no reply. I then emailed a couple of times and finally had a reply stating their service department would contact me to address the issues. No contact was made so I sent an email again asking them to hurry up the service department in contacting me but once again nothing! So not wanting to drive around with these faults I contacted my local Kia and booked it in for them to repair under warranty which was done quickly and without fuss.The boot liner is still the same and I have decided to live with it as I am certainly not delivering it back from Kent to Romford Essex for them to do something that should have been completed before delivery as agreed.One last thing which shows lack of being a professional company is that it was not delivered on trade plates so a charge was incurred for the toll on the Dartford river crossing. Luckily a called Kia Romford to check if they had used trade plates and was informed they hadn't so as the vehicle was in my name I had to pay the small charge. Unluckily forgot and despite paying seven hours late I then received a penalty notice!I checked the reviews for Kia Romford and have to admit most are very good. My review however is honest and based solely on my personal experience.
