My nightmare experience with purchasing a car from the Pierce family - used car salesmen in Middlesbrough / Longlands / Stranghow Road / Guisborough / Saltburn / Skinninggrove - Bad Review
This is my review of our experience from a used car salesman, David Pierce.
The reason we are putting this online is because we had a very bad experience with him during which we discovered that trading standards knew who he was and had been involved with him numerous amounts of times in the past. Before we bought a car from him, I tried to look for reviews online of his garage and couldn't find any. This is most likely because he keeps changing work premises and business name, but I feel that it's only right that people ought to be warned of him whether they choose to accept the advice or not.
This was where David Pierce was operating from a few months ago when we had dealings with him.
David Pierce
Bargain Motors
Unit L,
Warelands Way
Longlands
Middlesbrough
Cleveland
TS4 2JY
08446639053
He seems to have since changed the name of the business and is operating from new addresses, namely:
Bargain Motors
Stanghow Road
Lingdale
Saltburn by the sea
Cleveland
TS12 3ED
and / or
MOORSIDE MOTORS,
STANGHOW ROAD,
LINGDALE,
OFF A171
MOOR ROAD
GUISBOROUGH,
TS12 3ED
01287 348758 or 07581129864
OPEN 7 DAYS UNTIL LATE
Current places online by the same used car salesman.
Gumtree: http://www.gumtree.com/volkswagen/middlesbrough/moorside+motors+lingdale
Ebay: http://myworld.ebay.co.uk/moorsidemotors/?_trksid=p4340.l2559 - Member since: 16-Mar-12 - which probably means he changes his account often.
Review of Bargain Motors / Moorside Motors Stanghow Road, Lingdale, Mr Pierce
On the 30th of June 2012 we purchased a car for just under £900 from a Garage in Longlands, Middlesbrough - owned by a man named David Pierce operating at the time under the name "Bargain Motors" The car was advertised both on gumtree and ebay and advertised as "running perfectly"
The truth of the matter is that no more than 30 minutes down the road it was obvious that the car had serious problems with overheating and suspitious noises from the engine.
I was due to go away the same day - a fact which David Pierce was aware of - and had no option but to hand it over to a family member to try and sort out while I was away - all of which was an enormous inconvenience especially as I had already filled the tank with petrol and put the car on my insurance ready to take it to the other side of the country and had to arrive a day late on my holiday.
David Pierce had initially played the situation down, asking for the car to be returned and casually suggesting for "the keys to be pushed under the door of his unit" and for the situation to be sorted out when he got round to it or upon my return. The car was returned to his unit but we decided to hold on to both the keys and documentation as we had absolutely no guarantee that the situation was going to be sorted out and the whole thing seemed very suspicious. We were right to do this, as I will go on to explain later.
By the time we had returned, the situation had still not been sorted out and David Pierce wasn't replying to texts or phonecalls. After doing some digging, we discovered that the previous owner of the car had spent hundreds trying to get it fixed before eventually giving in, having no other option than to sell the car on as scrap! ( So much for "running perfectly" then!??)
We then discovered through talking to and seeking advice from other local garages that the Pierce family were well known as having a bad reputation in the Middlesbrough / Redcar / Saltburn / Guisborough area and that they had changed business locations and business names numerous amounts of times in the past due to the consequences of ripping people off with dodgy cars.
We also found out that they had even been ousted from their community in Skinningrove a few years back after provoking vandalism and arson in the area after unhappy, ripped off customers had acted out their revenge.
After ringing trading standards, it was very obvious that they had dealt with the Pierce family before. We were advised to write a letter to David Pierce explaining why we weren't happy and to keep copies of the letter. Many other attempts at communication with David Pierce were made. Usually we were ignored, but whenever we did manage to speak to David Pierce we were either fobbed off or messed about.
After much persistence of contacting, we were offered initially for the car to be repaired - something we were not really prepared to accept at all given what we'd discovered about the car being sold as scrap and thus unrepairable. Then we were told we would be able to get a replacement car. Again, this wasn't really an acceptable option either. Why would we want another dodgy car from the Pierce family? We had already wasted money by putting another car on the insurance, which turned out to be completely unusable.
At various other times we were told that in their "website's terms and conditions" online (which was actually their 'about section' on their ebay account) - that all cars were sold as either scrap or repair. Aside from this being a lie, (the car I bought was advertised as "running perfectly") this would have meant that every other car advertised by them online would surely therefore fall into the description of false advertising?!
We were also told "we don't really do refunds mate" and that the letters which were posted to him, when asked had conveniently "gone missing". All the while, there more more suggestions of him asking us to "post the car keys through his unit door" - fat chance!
We then discovered that the car we bought - and still technically owned - had been relisted on gumtree and advertised for sale again!!! The listing was in no way changed either and was still described as "running perfectly" Suddenly David's requests to "push the keys under the unit door" were beginning to make sense! Had we done as much he could've sold the car on which would have left us with no proof of ownership!!
On the day we rang him insisting to meet with him to arrange a refund, he was on his way to the airport off on a holiday to Cyprus! We were told that we could instead speak with father, Terry Pierce - owner of "Terrypiercecars" - a used car showroom in Saltburn who boasts about being a "family businesses offering that personal touch to their customers "
David had told Terry Pierce that we were coming to "take another car from them t use until the original car was repaired" - something we had absolutely not agreed to neither had we any knowledge of!!! When we got there we were fobbed off still after demanding a refund.
We were told by Terry Pierce that we would "have to see David about that because it was his son's business and not his." - So he says.
This meant waiting yet another week while our own work suffered because we could not afford to purchase another car in the meantime. When David Pierce returned from his holiday in Cyprus, we had already been waiting a month and the situation was still nowhere near resolved.
Trading Standards were ready to take action, and conveniently, as soon as we threatened David with this and were about to go through with it, he was suddenly quite eager to contact us for once and arrange to meet up to refund our money!!!
This blog serves as a warning. I would strongly advise anyone I know not to buy anything from David Pierce or his father, Terry Pierce who owns the showroom. In my opinion they're all in on it together.
If you are unfortunate enough to have been through a similar experience, my advice would be to get in touch with Trading Standards as soon as possible. They were more than willing to take him to court and seemed to indicate that we wouldn't have had a leg to stand on in court.
