Birchwood Group Reviews 

After much research and a few test drives I had settled on a Kia Sportage to replace my ageing Nissan Qashqai. I was initially going to get a brand new 3 but whilst browsing Autotrader I spotted this 14 month old GT-Line S. The ad read "Introducing the Kia Sportage 1.6T GDi HEV GT-Line S 5dr Auto, now available at Birchwood Kia Chichester. This exceptional vehicle comes with a history of careful ownership, complete with service history and 2 keys." I arranged a test drive of the vehicle for the bank holiday Monday and everything went well. I arranged to purchase the car and part exchange my Qashqai. The salesman stated the car would be cleaned and serviced prior to my picking it up. I thought a second service so close to the initial service was a bit OTT but wasn't going to refuse. I returned on the agreed date and time to pick up the car and apart from a technical issue with the payment devices all went well.
10 days later after the V5 arrived I dug out the Owners manual and service booklet and on checking the service book their was no record of any service having ever been done. I figured the dealership had simply forgotten to stamp the service book. I emailed the salesman and asked if he could send me a printout showing the cars service history. I received the following reply. "Sorry for the late response, i have been doing some digging.
It appears that the workshop has failed to get the car serviced before it sold so I do apologize.
Of course we will do that for you, but obviously we will need the car."
I immediately phoned Birchwood as I was now deeply concerned that this would invalidate the manufacturers warranty. I was told there was a 3 month/1000 miles leeway from the registration date on the first service.
I immediately email Kia UK explaining what had happened and asking them to confirm that the 7 year manufacturers warranty would still be valid.
The initial reply appeared to be a standard response: "A late or missing service wouldn’t automatically invalidate the warranty. However, if a fault can be attributed to incorrect maintenance that claim will be declined."
I replied stating that the car had been advertised as having a full service history and that the dealership had also stated they were going to service the car. I also pointed out that the car was now booked in for service, with Birchwood. After two more emails I finally got a satisfactory reply:
"Warranty claims would only be declined if the issue stems from the vehicle being incorrectly serviced e.g. oil hasn’t been changed correctly and this resulted in an engine issue arising, then that claim could be declined. If it was to be declined, it still wouldn’t invalidate your entire warranty."
To give Birchwood some credit the service department called me and arranged a full service within two days (though this did involve my taking a day off work and a 120 mile round trip and sitting and waiting for the car to be serviced).
Whilst I could have checked the service record when I bought the car I didn't expect that a) it would have been falsely advertised or b) that an approved Kia dealership would not carry out a service that they have said they would do.
I'm also surprised that Kia UK did not show more concern about the issues I have had (my research showed they have one of the best customer satisfaction ratings).

Birchwood Kia, Washington have been servicing our Kia electric cars but they always attempt to overcharge. A few months ago my wife had her e Niro serviced and they try to put oil change environmental charges on the bill. There is no oil to change in an electric car as far as we are aware and when queried they took the charge off.
Today I had a similar experience and when I questioned it with Matt the service agent I was told it was a brake fluid environmental charge.
The video they sent me of the inspection of the under side of the vehicle was completely inaudible – we couldn’t hear a word of it.
When I said I wanted to complain I was told the manager would phone me back but had agreed to take off the environmental charge. I'm still waiting for a call.
From our experience anybody living in West Sussex would be better to find a good local garage rather than being overcharged by the Birchwood Kia franchise.

We have just purchased a Sportage , our sales man was Eddie Dunn who was very helpful, knowledgable and friendly, the transaction went very smoothly, We would highly recommend Birchwood Kia Eastbourne. Tim and Mary Wingfield.

We bought our Kia Rio from Eastbourne early March this year, we visited the showroom as we were going to part ex our existing Kia.

Problem number one, the car location at Eastbourne are all crammed in so it's extremely difficult to get round each car to look at, which is not really the dealers fault it's just manic trying to park yet alone look at a vehicle unless its brand new in the showroom. (BE WARY OF THIS WHEN VIEWING A CAR HERE)

After looking as best we could around the vehicle, alas it was wet and had been raining so i only managed to notice one area of scratches on the car we chose, which the salesman said he would make good before collection. We had very minimal help with viewing the car.

So picked up the car on the 11th March. It wasn't until later in the week when the sun eventually came out that I noticed the windscreen had a huge length of scratches right across the eyeline, that really impaired my vision driving to work (as I mostly work from home, this was the first time i had driven it properly) thought at first it was a greasy smear, but pulled over to notice it was actual scratches.

So this prompted me to really check the car over and noticed lots of significant scratches that went right down to the primer, bearing in mind we had only driven it from the showroom to our home which is safely parked off road on a private estate.
So I called the showroom and mentioned all the scratches and windscreen, where I was told to bring it in so they could have a look.

The response was far from acceptable saying perhaps these were caused by a seagull and that he hadn't noticed them. I can't imagine unless they have prehistoric seagulls the size of an elephant that these scratches and glass damage could be achieved. I mentioned that I wasn't made aware of these scratches when we were viewing the car and thought this would be something a salesman would do, other car showrooms tend to point out any issues and allow you to decide if you want to buy, we as a buyer shouldn't be the quality control, I expect more from a main Kia dealership, it's not Dodgy Dells car dealership is it. I mentioned that maybe we could swap for the other car we were looking at if it was in better condition, but this was obviously not an option for them.

So he agreed to talk to his manager and see what they could do.
The next week I had to call them to find out what the outcome was, and they eventually said ok, we have booked the car into a body shop over the road from the Kia showroom to try and polish out the scratches on the paint and screen.

So yesterday I dropped the car off to Kia and later in the day had a call from the salesman, saying they had sorted the scratches but can't get the windscreen fixed. So he told me if I claim on my car insurance they would pay the excess, which i responded, so you are asking me to claim on my insurance for damage that happened before I bought it, isn't that fraud. His response was "well i didn't notice them". At this point I asked him to talk to his manager and then they agreed to replace the windscreen.

I arrived at the dealership to collect the car, and to be honest the scratches had just been touched up with a red paint, hardly any different, I could have done a better job, so was not impressed, the salesman gave me a pot of touch up paint and said we would get back to me when the new windscreen is in.

This is where the situation has been left, I have been left feeling as if it was my fault for not checking the car over properly and also that they are doing me a favour, they haven't sorted the scratches that should have been pointed out to us initially, if it was any other purchase I would demand our money back.

We have had the windscreen repaired, through Kia, using an external company, even they mentioned how bad the scratches are and that Kia shouldn’t have let this be sold in this state.
Having been a Kia supporter in the past, this will be out last and will not be buying cars from this dealership again, very poor service

This review is for Birchwood Ford Hastings. We reached out specifically regarding one of their nearly new Ford Focus stock on their books. Joshua reached back out to us and we agreed to meet Joshua at the dealership later the same day. Joshua was a credit to the company, and to Ford. As a potential customer at the time he balanced perfectly the soon to become customer relationship. Absolutely no pressure whatsoever and super helpful and knowledgable. Thank you Joshua, and thank you Birchwood Ford Hastings. PB...

Reserved my sons first car online from their Eastbourne dealership via the official website. He was so excited!!

Paid the deposit, received confirmation and a personalised link to complete the transaction. The car was showing as reserved, amazing, or so we thought!

Received a phone call from James the next day claiming we couldn't reserve the car as someone was coming to look at it later that day.

After being challenged, his story changed more times than a baby's nappy, he finally admitted that Birchwood hadn't received any other deposit on the car yet but we still couldn't have it.

Long and short is that he'd probably promised it to someone but forgot to take it off sale. Don't treat customers like fools, honesty is always the best policy.

I would not trust this dealership.

This is for Birchwood Kia Eastbourne.

I’ve had a few cars from these guys and honestly after the sale they just don’t care (and even then getting the car was an issue).

The service is poor, the staff often rude and unhelpful and the cars pretty fragile. Alistair the branch manager is particularly rude, putting a call on speaker (without telling me) so others could hear my 'tone'.

Also service team pretty much refuse to do any investigation work so if the issue isn’t obviously or intermittent don’t expect them to actually fix it even when it could be a safety issue.

They were hostile from the start when we asked them to investigate faults on the service visit and it escalated badly from there with them not appreciating my challenging them back and calling out their lies.

I ended up dealing with Franchise Manager but still promises made which so far have not been honoured.

Actual quotes from my experiences with them today “I cant be bothered” and “you are taking up my time”. Charming.

Personally I'd avoid using them again and the Kia warranty doesn't seem worth the paper it's printed on.

Poor experience from start to finish. All sorts of promises made and not delivered.
After care does not exist at Birchwood Ford Eastbourne.
I have had to constantly chase and remind them of what they promised to do.
Constantly asked me the same questions where they didn’t listen or care to remember.
AVOID!!

Recently purchased a Kia Stonic from Birchwood Kia at Eastbourne and would like to praise Eddie who dealt with us.
He was very friendly but, more importantly, patient, all the time up to his handover of the Car to us this evening at our House so we could have it for a visit to our family tomorrow.
Thanks
Alan and Ann Bloom

Took my Skoda Yeti for its service to the Chichester branch in August 2023.
Informed them that the CD player had recently stopped working and had my CD,s inside the unit.
I was told I would need a new unit at a cost of over £2000
I had had the car for less than a year and have a 24 month warranty, I was promised that they would check to see if this would be covered. Despite many calls to them I am still waiting 5 months later for any contact from them let alone an outcome.

We have just purchased a new car from the Hastings branch. Phil the salesman could not have been more helpful talked us through all the benefits of the car and did not put us under any pressure to buy the car. They took our car in part exchange and gave us a fair price. We feel we were given excellent customer service and made to feel we are a valued returning customer. Well done Phil and Birchwood Ford.

We have to wait 5 months for our car to be fixed from a break down that's under warranty. We've had little communication from the dealership with what is happening and keep having to chase to find out the information. As a young family with that being our only car it's unacceptable.

Went to Birchwood Ford Hastings with my daughter to buy her first car as she passed her test and was very excited. We chose the car and went for a test drive and she loved it. I arranged with the salesman to repair small parts on the car and we agreed on a collection date.

I couldn’t pay the entire amount over the phone as they don't accept cards by phone and it was too late in the day to go to the branch. It was the salesman‘s day off the next day so he said - come the day after and do it with him as it would be better to do the deal with him.

So I rang up two days later on his day back to arrange to come down to pay for the car.

But guess what! They had already sold it to someone else who walked in the branch the day before on the salesman‘s day off! So they sold it to anyone ie the first person available. Even though it was already arranged & agreed to sell it to me for my daughter. No-one called me or checked or bothered to inform me. Shocking stuff, i was devastated as was my young daughter obvs.

Spoke to another salesman about this all he said was...money talks. An unpleasant response i have to say. But it was impossible to pay for the car on the day as the salesman said wait til he was back from his day off!!!

On a scale of one to 10 for reputation and customer service and trust…

Hastings Birchwood Ford is a zero

I first called yesterday morning to order a wheel bolt security key to replace the one I lost.The need is urgent as without it I am concerned about getting a puncture and not being able to use the spare.I have called at least 8 times and at each call I have been promised a call back from the parts department which has not materialised. I have tried to get contact details of senior management in order to complain and this has been denied.I tried to use the chat function and was informed it was for car sales only!!!

Avoid this company if aftersales service is important to you. I am also looking for a new car and Skoda are now low on the list

bought a car from liam in kia found him to be dishonest and a liar still waiting for a part for the mokka that i purchased weeks ago il tell you dont bother ive got the part myself cant wait any longer for a muppet

I'm writing a follow on review I left all the way back Sept 2021 on TrustPilot. At that time i had been waiting 18months for my Kia Sorento to be fixed.

I am still waiting!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My Kia Sorento has now been with Kia 'being fixed' for 3 years - yes 3 years!!!!

It seems that everything they try - or don't try - ever works. Months go by and no one seems to do anything or every contact us proactively to tell us what is going on. It seems they are perfectly happy for us to just wait and wait and wait while the situation stagnates and goes nowhere.

I was told that new parts had been ordered to arrive 2 weeks ago. I just called up today and was told that they're not in yet but they expect to work on the car in mid-June - 5 weeks from now.

We are stuck in this hellish cycle of constant go-slow fixes that never work. How much longer must I be tormented by the ineffectiveness of Birchwood Kia?!

I want this sorted out but no one takes ultimate responsibility - it's always someone elses fault, or an issue at Kia.

I was promised that Kia's top engineer in the UK was booked to work on the car in March. I don't even know if he turned up - no one told us anything. It's totaly frustrating and depressing.

To their credit Kia have organised and paid for a courtesy car for almost the whole of the 3 years our car has been in the garage. But, surely the economics of paying £40/day for a courtesy car for 3 years doesn't stack up. Please please please just fix my car and stop this hell.

I purchased a used vehicle for £16,900 and paid extra for delivery. They said it needed a part changed due to a fault code generated. 4 weeks later and I am still waiting for the van that I need for daily use as a self employed builder. Negligent and unprofessional has been my experience these last 4 weeks. I am very angry, upset and disappointed with the poor service i have received. I expected more from a main dealership

If you'd have said to me that I would be a Kia owner one day I would have laughed in your face.
I wanted to purchase an electric vehicle and was very sceptical. From the moment I walked into the Kia showroom at Washington I began an experience which I thoroughly enjoyed.
Mathew Hemingway introduced himself and went through the pros and cons of an EV and I was immediately struck with the Kia Niro EV 4. An exceptional build which ticked all the boxes for me.
Every element of the process was met with genuine professionalism and the after-sales service has been met with support.
All types of communication with Matthew and of his colleagues resulted with an immediate response.
As corny as it seems thank you Kia and thank you Matthew.
kind regards

My wife found our ideal car at a good price at Birchwood Kia in Washington and had the pleasure of meeting Ashton Marshall. Ashton took time to discuss and understand our needs and helped us through the whole process, explaining the features and benefits of our choice of vehicle. She is very professional, knowledgeable and helpful and made the whole process a stress less experience. We'll done Ashton.

More communication between staff and customers had a service took too long to get my car finished told wrong Information about when it would be finished,not happy with the service we received. Will not be returning next year.