- Maypole Motors - pre 2015
- 7 Hook Road
- Surbiton
- KT6 5AA
- UK
- www.maypolemotors.co.uk
- 020 8399 5544
Maypole Motors - pre 2015
Comments are submitted by users and represent the opinion of the author. They are not the opinion of Surbiton.com nor have they been approved or issued by Surbiton.com.
Surbiton.com 1998 - 2024
Comments
I took my car to Maypole motors for a blown head gasket repair. After checking the car they gave me a quote and told me that the repair will take about a week. After a week they told me that they didn’t have the tools to fix the car and I needed to wait for another week. I asked if I can take my car to another garage and they said that they don’t recommend that because they have already started the work and they will charge me the full quote plus that I will need a recovery vehicle to transfer the car to another garage. To cut long story short they kept the car for a whole 8 weeks. They caused more damage to the engine while they were fixing it that increased the quote by 50%.
The whole experience with Maypole was very unpleasant. The service is very poor and their staff is very unprofessional, rude and incompetent. They were not apologetic at all about the whole situation. They promised me a discount but the final cost was so increased that I ended up to pay £300 more even after the “discount”.
I recommend to avoid them especially for major repairs as they seem very inexperienced.
I don't believe that the majority of negative comment about this garage is genuine and in my view this website should not display anonymous comments, especially when most of the people commenting can't even be bothered to spell check their writing.
I have been using Maypole Motors for the past 15 years and have only ever received a very good level of service and in my experience Maypole Motors provide very good value for money. In particular, Danny, the Service Manager, is extremely knowledgeable and helpful and often suggests solutions to car problems that are far cheaper than I have been quoted by other garages and dealerships. The level of workmanship is excellent and I have heard many conversations between Maypole staff and customers and they have always been polite and courteous.
In my experience Maypole Motors staff are always prepared to 'go the extra mile' and find solutions that are cost-effective and get the driver back on the road as quickly as possible.
I live in surbiton and only used once and never never AGAIN!!!
I needed my brake pads changed ended up there wad more work that needed doing. When I drove away I noticed a faint noise didnt think much about it possibly the new pads. About a week later my van was due for its MOT at my useal choice surbiton hill garage-whom I have used for years.
They told me when doing the check some bolts or parts had not been tightened propery and some parts left of leaving it extremly dangerous!!!!!!
I then had to ring maypole motors to let them know so they can make right what they had left!
I found the guy on the front desk extremly pushy and intimidating. Trying to put words into my mouth to cover his own back.
evebtually maypole agreed. I was polite throughout and apologised and said -at the time-i would use them again.
when I picked my van up-
I noticed both doors were scraping the bottom of the frames scratching all the paint of andmaking the frames rusty and hard to close the doors!!! They had also messed with my horn so it sounded extremy quite msking it very dangerous. The new brake pads went after about 5 months far quicker than all previous pads-since I have lost all trust in them I belive thay could have taken the new ones of a replaced with part worn pads.
I will never use them again-feel extremly annoyed since I hadnt had anything to do with loose -torn bolt heads in the first place!!! Do not use
Firstly if you normally use the other garage you mentioned why didn't you take your vehicle to them in the first place as they are only a mile or so down the road?
Secondly we don't have second hand brake pads just lying about to fit to your vehicle. I wouldn't even know how to get hold of second hand pads. What would be the point of us fitting them when we can get a new set delivered to us in 30 minutes.
Thirdly you say your horn is now quiet. Why would we even touch your horn? How exactly do you make a horn work quietly? If you know please tell me.
Fourthly you say your doors are scrapping and are rusty. Unless one of our technicians has sat on both your doors and bent them which I can assure you they haven't. Your door have not been bent by us. As for the rust, rust takes at least a few weeks to show if not months. I just don't believe this at all!!
Please if your going to slander my company at least make it believable.
If you have a response to this please get in contact. If not please not posting rubbish on this site.
Regards,
Darren Sparks.
Maypole Motors.
02083995544
I didn't even get as far as booking my car in for repairs with Maypole. I was ringing round garages to get a quote for replacing a starter motor in my car, and had already had quotes from Kwik Fit and Browns Garage and was looking for a third for comparison.
The man at Maypole quoted me £190 + VAT, I said so that's £228 in total then? He said no that's £230. Couldn't even work out the VAT properly! I know it's only £2 difference but even so. Even with my basic maths skills I can work out that 20% of £190 is £38.00! Kwik Fit had quoted me £211.25 (inclusive of VAT and parts) and Browns Garage had quoted me £200 (inclusive of VAT and parts). I said that Maypole's quote was the highest I had had, and he asked what the others were.
I got as far as telling him the Browns quote (which is genuine) only to be told that he couldn't believe their quote and said it was "a shame we can't help you but we are only £10 apart" (Um actually £28 from the Browns quote and £16.75 from the Kwik Fit one?! Not very good at maths there either!). I didn't hear him properly the first time so asked him to repeat it which he did but in a very rude tone of voice like he was speaking to an idiot. I then said that I hadn't said they couldn't help me, I was just pointing out their quote was the highest of the ones I had had and there was no need to be rude! At which point he started being super nice again and asked me when I wanted to book my car in! I said that I would "think about it" - ie over my dead body - and put the phone down.
Unbelievably rude. They must be ripping people off to survive in this economic climate with customer service skills like that.
The above text has been deliberately disemvowelled as it is in breach of the Surbiton.com terms.
I have used maypole Motors for the past 25 years. I have never received poor service and I have never been overcharged! Recently my son received a quote from a VW dealership for £700. Maypole immediately argued that all 3 parts did not need to be replaced. If the first part was replaced the others would automatically work! I notice that those who have complained don't have the integrity to put their full names. I wonder if they ever bothered to discuss their problems with the garage before slagging them off. Unlikely.
At "Anonymous" (below). I see you haven't bothered furnishing the group with your details either. Interesting...
Also, ever heard the expression "there's no smoke without fire"? For every 1 good comment about Maypole there are 20 negatives. Feel free to keep getting ripped off. I've voted with my feet.
Well, I have used Maypole for MOT and Service for the last two and half years atleast. Liked what they did before. Of late, I have seen a tendencey of the staff behaving very rude (will not fault with all the staff though) ) and starting to fleece the service charges and foisted MOT failures. I am moving my MOT and services to another reliable garage, hoping I can find one around surbiton/tolworth!
Would not recommend anyone to use them unless they are desparate for a MOT/service at any cost!
Surbiton hill garage honest reliable friendly!!!!! Service
Speaking as an ex member of staff I would like to say that everyone tries hard in Maypole but since the Greenflag recovery contract was lost the management have been putting the staff under huge pressure to increase profits from the servicing side of the company to support the failing recovery side. I could not take it anymore and left but thought it only fair to warn others.
Was told after a service at Maypole that my car needed new brake pads and discs front and back... quoted well over £200.
Going off general guidlines based on mileage and the careful way the car is driven I smelled a whiff of B.S. So I got a second opinion elsewhere. Turns out discs were ok and only front pads needed replacing!!
I guess for every one that gets a lucky escape like I did, many others get fleeced.
The above text has been deliberately disemvowelled as it is in breach of the Surbiton.com terms.
Poor service and incompetent staff.
Took my vehicle in for an MOT and to have a windscreen motor replaced. I supplied the necessary parts which I was then told were not the ones required. They ordered a new part from the manufacturer at great expense and then managed to break my windscreen in the fitting process (which they replaced). The repair was sub par, and the cost extortionate. Subsequently spoke to another mechanic who informed me the part I had originally supplied was fine, however, I couldn't return it for a refund as Maypole had to use the windscreen arm linkage I supplied as they broke the one that was in place, yet they neglected to mention this.
Very unprofessional, avoid.
Used to use Maypole several times but never again!
Had some recall work done at the main dealer garage and they checked the car over. They were quite surprised by some of the 'repair' work carried out and said the work done was dangerous, incompetent and would be a MOT failure even though it was less than a year since it was done! His advise was not to use the car until the work was fixed. Could have taken it back to Maypole to sort it out but how would I know if they would do a better job next time!
Just confirmed my suspicions really about several sub standard repair works they have done, shame really!
Finally, why has my car has NEVER been locked when left on Ditton Road.... Once I can pass as a mistake, but every time! Come on that's just rude!
I'm afraid I have to agree.
My car was checked for something unrelated by a main dealer. They noted that all break pipes had been changed. I had been told by Maypole at my last service that this had to be done because there was serious corrosion. The main dealer told me this seemed very unlikely, as there was no evidence of corrosion anywhere else on the underside of the car. To make matters worse, the quality of the repair works had been such that the car was deemed by the main dealer to be dangerous to drive! The brake pipes had not been fixed correctly (and had not been made to the correct size) so they were rubbing against the underside of the car. I had been charged over £400 for this repair work, which it now seems was (a) unnecessary and (b) left the car in a dangerous state.
Will not be going back.
I have also found that when collecting my car from Ditton Road it is never locked - even after I mentioned this to the guys in the office after the first time.
A 1
I used to get my cars mot at maypole motors until the mot tester had an affair with my wife,I hope he did not find any defects when he checked her over. Anyway he can have her now got myself a new model
Just the most awesome read ever. Some people need to learn how to spell 'a loud'. Do you mean 'allowed'? LOL
I am the general manager at Maypole Motors and have read all the above comments. I do think some of them are unfair and uncalled for but everyone is entitled to there opinion and i am not hear to argue about what people have said or haven't said.
Saying that i would like to say a few things. Yes, we do park the vehicles on the road but our customers do know about this as the majority of them park them in the road when they drop them off. Unfortunately we do not have a big enough car park at the rear of the premises to park all the vehicles out the back when we have finished with them.
As for us failing cars for various thing well thats part of an MOT's, the standards of which are set by VOSA. We are not a loud to carry out any repairs whilst doing an MOT. If we have time after the MOT is finished we will do the repairs but unfortunately at the weekends (when i suspect the MOT in question was done) we are on a very tight schedule and just don't have the time to do these sorts of repairs.
As i have said in earlier comments on this page, if anyone does have any issues or problems with there vehicles after we have carried out any work whether it be replacing a bulb or an engine please get in contact with myself as the only way to improve a company is to find out about things like these and put them right.
If the people who have compalined on this page would get in contact with me then i would be more than happy to talk to them and put things right.
One last thing the comment about the company sending in feedback forms filled in by us to "Check a Trade" and "Good Garage Scheme" is total rubbish and is actually slander! We have and never will fill in any of these forms! We give them to every single customer who has a full service and if for whatever reason it doesn't get past on when the car is collected then we post it to them. We pay alot of money to be openly vetted by schemes like these so people can see that we do a quality job.
Like i said earlier if anyone has a problem please please please get in contact with myself. I can't be fairer than that. If we are doing anything which people think could be improved then please let me know as i would like to keep the company going and improving things as my father has done for the past 35 years!
Thank you for taking the time to read this.
Best regards,
Darren Sparks.
General Manager.
Very lazy people, charged me a staggering £450 for break work that didn't need to be carried out after they basically couldn't be bothered to fix their own initial shoddy workmanship.
Please people don't get led in by some fancy website or tales of good service. Bottom line is that these people don't really care about you or your car.
Its great that these sites now exists and will expose cowboys like Maypole!!!!
They parked my car down some side street and had run the battery flat, they didn't seem to care much as to how i would get home and not even an apology. On another occasion they failed my MOT for a broken head light lense that THEY broke!!!!! VERY RUDE people, Avoid!
Oh and don't bother falling for that checkatrade site as it's useless and seems alot of the comments have been made by themselves, family and friends etc.
I'm gonna throw these guys under the bus. I've read all of your comments and I have some of my own to add. I've resisted the urge to use expletives where possible...
I had my car serviced by Maypole Motors in December '09. Previous servicing has cost around £120-£150 per time. Our (not-so-friendly) friends at Maypole charged me £280 for the privilege. Yes, £280-odd FOR A SERVICE on a small 4-door hatchback. Only the bare essential were replaced, as you'd expect them to be. However, it gets worse: the tick sheet indicated that the brakes were OK and had sufficient lining (+- 9mm). I asked about the brakes when I collected my car and was told they would be good until the next service, i.e. approximately 1 year.
This past weekend my left front brake shoe started making a grinding noise, which I know from experience to be worn-down brake shoes and where the pad is making metal-on-metal contact with the wheel disc. I took the car to Kwik-Fit Uxbridge yesterday (Mon 2/8/10) and had all of the brakes replaced, plus the disc that had been damaged beyond repair, the right front disc for safety's sake and the rear drums. This all came in at an eye-watering £363.79.
And let's think who I have to thank for this unplanned capital outlay? Yes, Maypole Motors. The chap at Kwik-Fit said the brakes SHOULD have been changed at the last service and he was surprised that after 5000-odd miles since the service, the brakes had degraded to such an extent as to cause permanent damage to the brake discs.
Let's set aside the financial implications for a second and think about the safety aspect. If I had young children in the car and was driving on the motorway and had to brake sharply... It literally beggars belief!
Moral of the story: a) Maypole's "Service Warranty" isn't worth the paper it's printed on. b) You're almost guaranteed to be ripped off. c) They don't know the meaning of the words "customer service".
Conclusion: vote with your feet and common sense and find somewhere else to have your car serviced. Job done!
PS: No, I'm not a disgruntled ex-employee, nor a "special friend" of the business. I'm a one-time customer on a one-man crusade to help the lovely people of Surbiton!
Very Bad
I agree. Used them once as we live locally and never again. Poor customer service, rude and unhelpful. Also I wonder how many customers know they dump, sorry park, customers cars on nearby streets for days at a time.
Used the garage loads of times over the years. They've always done what they've been asked to do at the time agreed. Customer service hasn't always been outstanding but at least you can generally talk to
the mechanic who worked on your car. I certainly don't feel like I've been ripped off.
I cannot comment on the service side of the garage but was very impressed with the standard of the MOT.
My car passed after the tester kindly adjusted my headlamps and fitted a couple of bulbs and also took the time out to go through the advisery items he spotted which were all spot on and have all now been rectified.
I only hope the rest of the garage are as good as the daytime MOT tester.
Unfortunately they were not so good with mine, failed because of very minor head lamp adjustment and also because the rear seat belts had slipped down the back of the seat!!!!
i have read all of the new comments that have been posted. I am willing to talk to and try and put right any probelms that anyone has with my company. As i said before we are openly vetted by various companies and have had no real problems. It just seems strange to me that everyone on this site thinks we are a "bunch of rip off merchants". I also find it strange that the majority of bad comments are from anonymous people. (I still believe that most if not all of them are from ex employees trying to get there own back, for whatever reason).
Just to set things straight our labour rate is £52.95 + VAT were as Autoquick are £60.00 + VAT. So i can't see how they are cheaper than us. We as a company work on repair times from the ICME manuals or Autodata as most garages do. These repair times are from the manufactures.
As i said earlier if anyone has a problem with the service they receive from my company please let me know as customer service is very important to me and my company.
If you do feel like you have been "ripped off" by my company is there any reason why you didn't complain at the time? As maybe i could of done something about it? If anyone does want to complain for whatever reason please call me on 02083995544 and i'll be happy to talk to them. We as a company have nothing to hide! We have been in business a very long time and haven't got to where we are now by "ripping people off"!!
Darren Sparks.
General Manager.
You seem to be missing the point. Regardless of labour rates it would appear your overall bills are too high and it also seems you want your customer service to be good yet every one complains about your guys being rude. I found a few of them very rude not just to me but to some poor guy in front of me, he spoke perfect English but because he was oriental the goon behind the desk (who's own English was appalling) kept saying he didn't understand him and didn't know what he was saying when every one around was able to pick up quite clearly what he said.
Also you claim some negative comments are from ex employees getting their own back....own back for what exactly? That clearly says to me you get through lots of staff for 'what ever reason' and that doesn't sound good. Ex employees would certainly have no reason to get their own back if they were treated with respect?
Used to use Maypole as they are a stone's throw from work. Work not cheap but wasn't bad - found them plain rude. found this site by accident and was not surprised other people found the same thing.
Thanks for the Autoquick tip, they have just sorted out a front suspension noise of my VW - good bunch of guys - friendly, fast and not expensive
let me just tell u ive recently left this garage by my own accord and most of the above comments are true. maypole's do rip people off on prices and overcharge for the work they have done. i strongly recomend autoquick in kingston. telephone number: 02085493339.
Not used them for years. Hope they're better now. Couldn't be much worse.
Took my car in for an MOT. It failed and I was told it needed hundreds of £ work doing to it. I disagreed. My then-neighbour (who was known to them and put lots of work their way) took it back for me and lo-and-behold the car passed with flying colours.
I am the general manager down at maypole motors and i find it hard to believe that some of the comments on this site are true. We are vetted by various companies including "check a trade", "the good garage scheme" and "the motor vehicle code of practice". We have nothing to do with the comments put on these web sites and they are mostly positive comments. I would ask anyone who is thinking of using our garage to first have a look on these web sites and look at the reviews we have been given by our customers.
In response to a couple of the comments made on this site.
Yes we do have a car park out the back of the garage but we are not allowed to use our back gate after 7pm at night and customers are not insured to drive over the ramps. That is the reason we park vehicles either in Ditton Road or Southbourgh Road.
As for the MOT comment. i would love to know who your next door neighbour is? As far as i am aware this would never happen! We have been doing MOT's for many many years and we take this role very seriously as its the only safety inspection that most vehicles get each year! We do not and have never ripped anybody off as various people on this web site seem to think. We are a trustworthy and very reasonable priced garage. Most of our custom is repeat business and most of our customers have been using us for years.
I am truely sorry if anyone feels they have been ripped off or that our customer service hasn't been up to scratch in the past.
I have tried my best in the last couple of years (since i took over as general manager) to make sure that our customers get the best possible customer service that we can give them (not that there was anything wrong with it in the first place). I have to say that so far the majority of our customers seem very pleased with the service we provide, either in our service department, bodyshop or out on the road side.
I would just like to say that we have a new website available online at WWW.MAYPOLEMOTORS.CO.UK. You can now book your MOT online and in doing this you can save yourself £5!! We are also doing MOT's 7 days a week from 8:15am - 8:00pm.
Lastly, i would just like to say please don't listen to the comments on this web site as i believe them to be untrue. I personally think they are bogus comments that have been written by our competitors to put off new customers and have not been written by customers of ours.
I hope this has cleared a few things up and i hopefully look forward to your custom in the future!
Have a fantastic 2010!
Darren Sparks.
General Manager.
Maypole Motors.
'Yes we do have a car park out the back of the garage but we are not allowed to use our back gate after 7pm at night and customers are not insured to drive over the ramps. That is the reason we park vehicles either in Ditton Road or Southbourgh Road.'
Erm... so that's why you leave vehicles parked in Ditton Road for days on end?
Oh yeah, one more thing. We used your garage once for an MOT and service. Never again.
what everyone is saying about maypole motors is true aprt from the mot service, (well was good when i worked there not sure about it now though) however with regards to the service and repair sides of things they will most definatly try and rip you off if the oppurtunity arrises, i used to work there and the repairs they did on the cars were unbelievable for example, when a a mechanic there accidently snapped an oil pressure switch off a custmers car, danny the service managers idea to fix it was take the oil light bulb out of the dash and it will be fine!!!! plus when they take your car on a so called "test drive" they would absoulutly rag the s**t out of it dont believe a word darren sparks (garage manager) says they are all there to get what they want out of you and then screw you over. in short NEVER EVER EVER take your car to them!!!! you will regret it, there are plenty of other places in the area especialy if you go into kingston!!! hope everyone sees sence and decides not to go there
Not wanting to sound rude but whoever wrote this comment is obvisiously an ex employee and by the sounds of it is a bit bitter about it. The whole comment is total rubbish and i would appreciate it if you wouldn't spread lies like this in the future. Removing bulbs! Do you know how stupid that sounds! If this had of happened we would of replaced the switch. Its a very simple job! its also funny that you haven't said your name!
Please don't call me a liar either. I'm not sure who you are but you were obviously dismissed for a reason, which by the comments you have written on here you didn't agree with. Whatever happened between my company and yourself it does not give you the right to tell lies and bad mouth my company.
I can assure you these comments are not bogus, I have been to yourselves on a few occasions and unfortunately while i think that you are an honest garage I think your customer service is terrible I have had better service from a greasy spoon. (And some of them their don't even speak English!)
Your staff might be mechanics but that doesn't mean they shouldn't learn how to talk to people properly and manners don't cost a thing! Oh and being able to tell the time might be a good start, trying to tell a customer that they are 15 minutes late when they turn up 10 minutes early is a joke and then had the cheek to tell me that he might not see my car as I was supposedly late.
As for the the actual quality of service, I have no major complaints really I mean what garage wont try and rip you off? after all they need to make a living.
I would prefer thou that next time your mechanic 'finds' a problem with a car that he takes time to explain to the customer what's wrong and why it needs to be fixed rather than say, 'well i found such and such wrong but i cant put it back together because its broken, but if you pay me lots of cash then we can get it fixed and put it back together'.
There are other occasions but I'm not going into them as you get the point. Bottom line is you need to sort your service out, I am prepared to vouch for you being and honest and a reliable garage but you need to train your staff, there was a lad working after hours at the desk when I came to pick my car up and he was fantastic 10 out of 10 for his customer service and he should be what the rest of your staff should aspire to when speaking to people.
If you can train your staff with social skills then I certainly think your negative reviews/comments on here and other sites will certainly change, as people are a lot happier if they feel confident about the service they receive regardless of the cost
I'm sure you have a huge loyal customer base but unfortunately its the few unhappy customers that can really sway potential new and existing customer from returning.
I hope you take these comments on board as there are plenty of garages to take my car to but id like good local service which I'm sure you can manage and upon my next return I hope they may have learnt their Ps and Qs :)
Good luck
Gor ripped off by this garage. AVOID!
[quote=Ionkontrol]Gor ripped off by this garage. AVOID![/quote]
I too had a bad experience with Maypole motors. Sent my car there for an MOT, service was awful. Rude unhelpful staff, didn't call me to tell me it was ready. When I picked up my car the next day I was told it was in the car park; I finally found it parked on a main road 300 yards from the garage (despite a massive car park at the back of the garage). There was no need for anyone to have taken it off site. Maypole say on their website that they have great customer service. I highly disagree!
Work there do you?
Register with a name and I might furnish you with the details of this shi-ster garage.
As I said, avoid.
Go on. Tell us what happened.
[quote=Ionkontrol]Gor ripped off by this garage. AVOID![/quote]
Details?
Ooops, woring reply button
Been to Mayploe for yrs - very good - Kwikfit - OH -MY- GOD! NO WAY
[quote=Anonymous]Been to Mayploe for yrs - very good - Kwikfit - OH -MY- GOD! NO WAY [/quote]
Maypole are a commercial rip-off, they focus on commercial [insurance] repairs, take your car there for a slight scratch and you’ll be stitched-up