Gates Automotive - Ford St Albans Reviews 135

Exceptional service . Lewis and poppy and the branch director all played a part in ensuring exceptional customer experience . Purchase and after care was first class.
Dealership as a whole was on point, nothing an issue and I will now be a loyal customer for future new car purchases.

My family have exclusively purchased Ford cars since 2005 and the experience of Gates Ford in St Albans has ended that.

In February 2026 we had damage to our car wheel after swerving to avoid hitting a pedestrian jumping in front of cars as a prank.

As it was wheel damage and not a tyre, we needed a Ford approved garage. We attempted to book into Gates St Albans (our nearest as we live on the outskirts of St Albans). This was a saga in itself as the online booking has to be confirmed and it is almost impossible to find someone to pick up the phone. We added a service and MOT to the booking while we were there.

After a month (yes, a month) we had an appointment booked and took a day off work in order to drive to Gates Ford at 8am for the appointment to replace the wheel.

On turning up, someone had written into our paperwork that due to the age of the car wheels were no longer available for a Ford Fiesta. That the car would fail it's next MOT as it was running on a spare wheel.

They then acted as if they were doing us a favour by cancelling the MOT and service. But no-one had bothered to contact us when they were unable to source a wheel to tell us there was no point coming to the appointment.

For clarity - this complaint is not because the car couldn't be fixed. But because someone was unwilling to competently carry out their job and let us know. And when that hadn't happened, they could have done the decent thing and compensated us for the day of annual leave which can't be recovered from employers.

In the end, we used the rest of the day in order to purchase a new car. But the failure of Gates Ford meant we were not confident to purchase a Ford again as we risked requiring that garage in the event of another issue.

The poor communications means that Ford lost out on a significant amount of money (even second hand cars are not cheap!).

Worst Experience Ever

After waiting 3 months since booking my car, the collection date finally arrived. We called the company to confirm that delivery was scheduled for the next day and that the car would be ready for collection.

To our shock, we were informed by Lewis Baldwin that the car has now been delayed and is not expected until June.

This raises a serious question:
If the delivery was delayed, why were we not informed in advance?

Instead, we only found out on the day we called — and now we are being told to wait an additional 3 months.

This is completely unacceptable and highly unprofessional.
Very disappointing service from an unreliable company.

I would not recommend this to anyone.

Off the back of a disaster car experience, walking into stAlbans Gates and meeting Lewis was a big relief. Being in sales I knew straight away Lewis could help me. Honest, supportive and knowledgable was exactly what he was. Top lad and an even better salesman.

Would you pay a deposit to “Test Drive” a car, and buy it by not test driving it? ?

Would you buy a car (albeit a demo) that is filthy inside & out, human hair on dash, greasy finger prints on leather dash, black dirty hand prints on the hand visa and inner roof… thinking it looks attractive??

Oh yes well it’s the expectation here…especially if you are dealing with David here.

We were asked to pay a refundable deposit to ensure they didn’t sell car overnight when we enquired Saturday afternoon… we drive 90 mins next day to go see and “drive it” and whilst commuting we get called twice whilst driving there by the hi .

The demo car was filthy inside and out…

The sales guy walks out with a yellow duster and tries to rub bird poo off the bonnet but failed the task….them we were asked are you ready to take it for a spin around the block to be told to get in…whilst the sales person drives it!

We Wanted to get answers to our questions….only to be told ”we can discuss next week when you come and pick it up??”

Seriously does no one in the motor trade have any morals these days… excuses like well you only reserved a test drive yesterday afternoon… when you opened at 10am and had over 2 hours to clean it….is not good enough.

We got our refund and left…the salesman was rather shirty with us…but still had the audacity to leave a voicemail two days later still trying to sell the vehicle to us!

What he successfully did was demonstrated why you don’t buy a demo car or any second hand car from them… so we purchased a brand new version of the car…with a dealership with better customer service!
11/3 Response to the response, it would not take much to work out the salesperson I name, the deposit to test drive was made saturday (last weekend) and incident happened sunday (same weekend). We do not want to waste anymore of our time on this.

If I could give the experience a minus star it would get it.

Bought a Focus in April 2024 (£18k) and since then 4 gear boxes have gone in November 2024, April 2025, November 2025 and now again in Feb 2026.

In Nov 2025 we said we no longer wanted the car as it was not fit for purpose and unsafe to drive as clearly there is a systemic issue with the gear box. They refused to acknowledge it and offered us a trade in offer with no compensation for any of the inconvenience. This offer was not fair and would have meant a big financial hit.

In Feb 2026, when the gear box went again, they have acknowledged that this is an issue and it is not normal for 4 gear boxes to go in less than 2 years. They suggested to look at their website to see if there were any cars that might suit us. There was the same car (year and spec) with a slightly lower mileage than ours and we asked for a straight swap as we did not feel safe driving the current car even with a new gear box, seeing they have never adequately investigated what the actual issue was.

They came back and said the couldn’t do a swap and it suggested we pay £1200 for the new car. This offer is disappointing and really shows that despite the website talking about the importance of customer care, they in fact do not care at all. This straight swap would have been a good resolution to this ongoing issue which we have had to endure for nearly 2 years. It would have restored our faith in Gates but now it just shows them in a real petty light with zero interest in customer care.

I have tried to escalate this higher than the garage but to no avail. Apparently there is no one higher than the manager in the local store, which again is not in line with the family run, customer caring business they portray themselves to be.

We are really disappointed with the level of service we have received as we are loyal
Customers to this garage, it’s our second car with them and we have them the opportunity to fix the first few gearboxes.

We have now sought legal advice as to what our next step should be.

Our experience at Gates St Albans was great from start to finish. We were left to browse without being hassled but the moment we were ready to proceed our sales person Sarrah was there with help, guidance and explanations when needed. The whole process was easy, relaxed and informative.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Tas was an amazing sales guy! He was knowledgeable, friendly, and made the whole experience easy and enjoyable. He really knows his stuff and goes above and beyond for his customers. We will definitely be back!

Thanks
Stacie, Tom and girls

This was my third time buying a car from Gates St Albans, and once again the experience was excellent.

I didn’t have a lot of time to sort out my new car due to my current PCP deal ending but Dave was fantastic throughout the whole process. The whole team are amazing, incredibly helpful, and made everything smooth and stress-free from start to finish. It’s always a pleasure dealing with them, and I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend the dealership to anyone looking for a new car.

Bought a Ford fiesta ST Had a great experience with Abbie Crouch and James Callow would highly recommend to anyone buying a car from ford. Gave excellent customer service.

What a waste of time all I wanted was to know the hours the service department was open Monday to Friday so the live assistant pops up happy to help so I ask my question Bea the assistant asks can I have your mileage and my name I replied no because I’m only asking a question to which she then asked for my name and contact details after having a bit of a moan about what a waste of time this service is because she can’t or won’t tell me what I needed to know so I give my name and email address and she tells me she will pass my enquiry to a colleague then asked is there anything else I can help you with my reply not wishing to be rude Bea but you haven’t done anything now I still don’t know the answer to a simple question I still have to wait so no there isn’t nothing more you can do for me I’ve done all this and still they haven’t contacted me

My wife purchased a car on the 1st October, once the deal was done James the salesman told us it only had 1 key but another was on order. We are still waiting for the 2nd key and it's not a good situation to be in! It seems to me that Gates are keen to do the big money deals then don't follow up with timely support!! Feeling very frustrated and angry!

They are friendly, and they genuinely want to help and care. That takes it all seriously, but it took time to listen to my needs for which car is best. They offered refreshments. Explained that there is disabled access or steps. They are humans not just shop robots that push on you. They really want help and take the time explaining all about the car, what it can do and can't get in the rangers, even in the aftercare with my EV Ford Explorer. Took the time was first time electric car owner and driver, how to use the car, charge where, apps, also, explaining things might help to get what you need. James and Abbie were both so lovely and friendly, and I was nervous but they curbed that. Yes, there are salespeople, but they are still approachable and helpful. Definitely recommend it was a good experience.

James Callow and Abby were extremely patient and practical in assisting us to find the cars we needed within our budget. We feel we got a fair deal.

We were not up to date with the latest car technology but James and Abby put us at our ease so that we could ask questions regardless of how basic.
We are delighted with our two cars.

Part exchanged my car today at Gates St Albans. Amazing service from James Callow. Very professional from start to finish. I have used This company for many years and have never had a problem. Love my new car. Thank you James 😁👍

An absolutely terrible company. Cannot do enough for you while selling a car. Have a problem and hear nothing at all. Avoid these cowboys.

can't fault Lewis baldwin he even come in on his day off so I could pick car up. probably the best salesman I've delt with ever a real pleasure to deal with. after the bad experience with waltham cross branch st Albans branch put them to shame.

Put car in for service and MOT (14/04/25) , got into the car (16/04/25) the service light came on. Mechanic had failed to reset the service light. I reset it. (17/04/25) Lot of noise for under the bonnet, found pair of radiator pipes and small radiator vibrating. Air filter plastic clip undone, both radiators wobbly. Plastic cover over the engine wobbly. B Max is 9 years old and done 14700 miles, it sounds like a tractor now. Don't know if it's safe to drive. Tried to phone the sevice department - no reply. Been back twice told the vibrations on the pipes and radiator are normal. We did discover the two jubilee clips between the air filter and the turbu were not tightened, the guy got a screwdriver and did them up. when I got home I got an endoscope on rediator mounting and found the top housing for the rubber mount too high allowing the rubber to flex.
Made second visit to Ford, this time the pipes and top radiator mounting was removed, reseated and the vibrations stopped. Told by dealer it's an old car we concider all cars over 5 years old as old cars, and do the minimum service. I paid for a service plan approx £324 a year. I have just cancelled it.
The cam belt service is not covered in the service agreement, but there is no mention of the water pump replacement not being covered in the agreement. The comment of it being an old car even with the exceptionally low mileage does not count with Fords. The cam belt service / replacement is about or greater then £1750.
I was adviced the car failed it's MOT due to a faulty stop tail bulb and it will cost £30.00 to replace it. We checked all the lights and other things before it went in for the MOT and was surprised the bulb blew in the interceeding 30 minutes of driving the car from my garage to the service centre. I was told they can blow at any time. This I accept, it was replaced FOC as I have spare set of bulbs in the back of the car. I was also informed the wipers were smearing, they will replace them for £58.00, I said leave them. Strangley these wipers were not smearing in the rain the next day. So why have I stayed so long with the main dealer!

James Callow extremley helpful,

Booked in for safety recall several weeks in advance. So many messages telling me to not forget and be there. I did. They had the car all day, as they said they would. …not a problem.

Went to pick it up 8 hours later

They had not done it. They didn’t book someone in to come and do the recall repairs. Said sorry and gave me the keys.

A whole day wasted. (It’s a much longer story than that) but I won’t be going back. I have to go through the whole thing again somewhere else. No offer to re book. Nothjng. Just goodbye.

Just wrong and unprofessional on every level. Go somewhere else.