ALPHERA Financial Services UK レビュー 492

I purchased a car through Cinch May 2024, within 12 hours 3 faults appeared which had not been disclosed. Long story short they had 2 attempts to repair, neither fixed all the faults.

Cinch refused to take the car back, even though the same faults are still present now and remain unfixed. We escalated a complaint to Alphera 2nd January 2025 (that’s how long Cinch took faffing with booking garages / failed repair attempts).

I chased Alphera on the final day of the 8 week complaint (27th Feb 2025), they had done NOTHING, they stated they sent me a holding letter, when i queried this they checked and in fact didn’t send it, they asked Evolution (part of the Cinch chain) if the car had been repaired or not on 29th January 2025, got no response and did not follow up!

I chased Alphera again 28th Feb 2025 and was told i would get an email confirming the conversation, it’s now 3rd March 2025 - i have not received any emails (i check the spam / junk folder) and no outcome letter to my complaint either!

I have had no choice but to put in a complaint to the financial ombudsman.

4/4/25 - update - Cinch accepted the vehicle return 4 weeks ago, still waiting for Alphera and Cinch to sort this out, while i’m still paying for a car sitting on my drive doing nothing. After my trust pilot review i had a phone call from Alphera, followed by a holding letter, zero communication since.

22/4 update - Collection date booked with Cinch for the car to be taken in 3 days time, phoned Alphera as Cinch have agreed a full refund, the case handler isn’t in, no one else will speak to me - ‘management are not customer facing’, the call handler is the most patronising person to speak to - i have spoken to this person previously and found the same. So no one at Alphera can tell me any idea of any refund amount, saying it gets worked out after collection. Oh and they will be getting yet another payment out of me this week. I have already complained to the financial ombudsman.

Poor complaint handling & customer service
Inadequate resources to answer phone - waits in excess of 40 minutes for their escalation team are common place.
Unwillingness to transfer a call to a manger apparently they don't have any customer facing managers in the complaints department!
Failure to complete:
- their reviews within their own timescales
- their promised actions in a timely fashion

An absolute joke of a company please avoid. My case has been going on since Oct 2024 and still ongoing they owe me alot of money and avoiding it as my car was rejected. Going through a very stressful time with them and is impacting on my mental health. I am currently going to financial ombudsman and I am going to citizen advice to see about a solicitor also to get this solved.

It was an easy and straightforward application process, with excellent communication that helped me find payments within my budget. I would definitely recommend this service

Really disappointed. Wouldn’t recommend at all. I have made the complaint regarding the issues. I have been sold a faulty car and I returned them. All the process to get the deposit money back from dealer was a nightmare and it took many days to unwind the finance after calling everyday and atleast 10-15 times to the dealer, the 247car finance and Alphera. They all used to say ask them to call us if I call dealer they will say ask Alphera to call us. If I call Alphera they used to say ask the dealer to call us. I was just in between had no clue what to do n how to make them call each others to sort the matter out. I have made the complaint that my car delivery was arrange free by 247car finance. But the dealer took the money out from my deposit after returning the car to them myself. Alphera didn’t help me with that at all. N haven’t even mentioned that in their final decision that it was all unfair taking The money out from My deposit even though the dealer should have been responsible for the fraud sales. But they did not do anything regarding that. But thank God my finance had been unwound after many calls and emails to everybody. It’s been a nightmare for me.i would Never ever think of it getting finance through any of them.

The reviews don't lie unfortunately. Wow what a terrible experience. My car was sold to me by Big motor group using these for finance. Car was sold with faults and Big wouldn't help. So I thought the finance company might.
If you send them an email then the average wait for them to respond is about 20 days. It's taken me 3 months to have a short conversation with my escalations case handler Luke Proudfoot and we're still not even close to a resolution. If you call them then you will more than likely get the same response every time. The case handler isn't available right now.
I've unfortunately had to file a complaint with the financial ombudsman who can hopefully get me some sort of resolution. But at the rate things are going I doubt Alphera would respond to the financial ombudsman.

Absolute joke.

TERRIBLE SERVICE - DO NOT RESPOND AND DISCONNECT YOUR CALLS.

THEY HAVE INSTRUCTED BAILIFFS TO COLLECT MY CAR EVEN THOUGH I HAVE PAID ARREARS AFTER THEM CANCELLING THE DIRECT DEBIT!

I HAVE MORE CHANCE OF WINNING THE LOTTERY THAN THEM REPLYING! CON ARTISTS DON'T CARE FOR THEIR CUSTOMERS JUST LIKE TO CAUSE ANXIETY FOR NO REASON WHATSOEVER!

After writing on here they requested my details I have given them to them but shock horror no response!! Joke of a business!!

Omg where would i start. Please do not use this company they have messed me around and literally avoided all contact, made false statements, no one has any idea whats going on with your contract, begged them for a voluntary termination for weeks then get a random email that I haven't responded to them and now trying to bill me 14k.. but impossible to speak to anyone. horrendous.

Edit in response to the reply to me... Honestly, think theres more chance of a brand new ferrari arriving on my drive than actually getting contacted by Alphera but thank you for your response, lets see. I have put in a complaint, and as per YOUR policy online I would have received an acknowledgement by now but obviously that hasn't happened either.

I m telling you everyone do not get any finance from this company they are worse finance company in world not only in uk I m saying in the world!!! I m trying to sort my case last 6 months do payment clear balance but no one picking up phone sometimes I been waiting on phone each call over than 2-3 hours and now , it effecting my credit score !!!

Absolutely awful company! I became ill very suddenly 11 months ago (only had my car 6 months). Contacted them regarding my illness which made me bedbound and homebound. I was told to send medical evidence which I did. No one came back to me! Made a complaint! Only response I got to say they are collecting my car! Which was phone as I cannot drive. However I was never told I would have to pay.
No report received after collection!
And now 6 months later I open a letter for £6700 bill!
Absolutely horrendous how you get treated.
I will be taking this further. Do they realise that sending a letter like this to someone who is now disabled can actually push them over the edge!

This has been a shambles.
Got in touch with Alphera for a faulty vehicle in December as the garage has shirked responsibility, I believe, incorrectly. I've spent weeks chasing them for a reply. No one responds to emails.
I've phoned up three times and was told my broker had been contacted.
Contacted my broker.... Guess what? Alphera have never been in contact with them.

This is a poor way to treat customers. This whole experience has been disappointing.

Avoid this company.

Update. Despite the reply. No one has been in touch. I've phoned again to see what's going on. Advised that "precious little appears to have been done" with my case.

I will be phoning again today and I am expecting to speak to my case advisor directly.

Update 18th February.
Never got to speak to my case handler. Was told twice they would contact me. Also gave trust pilot additional contact details upon the request and even though Alphera have commented on this review saying someone will contact me. Guess what? No one has.

Update 17 March.
Guess what? Nobody has been in touch. I have raised a case with the financial ombudsman and I will be looking to initiate court action.

Update 20th May
Eventually we got to a resolution back in the middle of April. Alphera take a less than passive approach when it comes to investigations. Basically you, the customer rdo all the leg work. They don't bother. They didn't really get the details correct 100% either in their final response was but still nonetheless it's a resolution. The resolution was financial. I've allowed more than 10 working days for the funds to be allocated to me as advised on the paperwork I signed and return. But now I'm having to chase this too.

I'm now stuck with this company until such time my contract ends or a voluntarily terminate it... Which would be worth every penny if it meant I didn't have to deal with them ever again.

Takes ages to get through on the phone. It's like pulling teeth trying to get a settlement figure. Once settled, they can confirm they have received payment, but 24hrs later still can't confirm clearance?! Amateurs.

Terrible Customer Service - where do i start? I was nearing the end of my contract and only had a few hundred pounds to go, so i requested a settlement figure at the beginning of November. The next thing i knew (end of November) they had created a new contract and a new direct debit, which i never authorised. This meant i started paying my original direct debit rate (as it was reduced because we previously paid a lump sum off). Needless to say i cancelled the Direct Debit. My account now said that i owed £6500 and i had missed payments (which i hadn't). Needless to say this has had a negative effect on my credit score, with my lenders reducing Credit card limits and a warning on my credit account. Trying to speak to someone to sort this out has been very stressful, you are transferred and cut off, no call-backs, no emails, nothing, zilch, nada. I have written to the Escalations department, they have also taken weeks to reply (with no resolution) the whole process has been an absolute nightmare and there is no way on earth i would recommend this company, if i could give no stars, i would!

We had a great experience with Alphera Finance they communicated very promptly and got everything done and sorted swiftly and with ease. I would definitely recommend them.

Received a car which was advertised as serviced and also had a lot of damage which was not advertised, complained to the retailer (Cinch) who didn't want to know, so had to get the finance company involved, it has been almost 6 months trying to get something from Alphera, they must have purposely let the complaint run over because I have had to get the financial ombudsman involved and even now, still nothing. They are a VERY bad company to deal with, look at the reviews, if Cinch or any other retailer says they are using Alphera, ask them to use a different company instead. Looking like I will have to go to Small Claims court and complain to the FCA at this rate, which I will be doing.

Disgraceful abuse of logic!

I am guarantor on car finance for my son and this company doesn't seem capable of understanding that when finance has been paid off, there can be NO arrears. 2 letters every fortnight for the past god knows how many months (if not years). A complete and utter waste of time, resource and paper similar to my experience of this company in general - AVOID AVOID AVOID

Worst finance company!

Never have I experienced such poor customer service, case handlers are not customer faced nor are managers. Left me without a car for 5 weeks! Cannot give updates, cannot advise all they can do is take notes and ask for somebody to review. I’ve been hung up on, been told we can’t help. Can’t even put it all into words. Would not of chose these as finance company if I knew, wish I checked the reviews!

May I also add they didn’t request for my contact details but I contacted them to see if they could help, I was told the same information as above! Waste of time! Do not get finance with this company!

I financed a BMW 435d xDrive through Alphera Financial Services, and it’s been nothing but stress and hassle from the start. The car was sold with the wrong wwheels and tyres —tyres that didn’t meet BMW’s specifications for an xDrive model. This caused vibrations, strain on the drivetrain, and made the car unsafe to drive. I flagged this straight away, but Alphera completely washed their hands of it, even though they’re supposed to be jointly responsible.

The dealership, Phantom Motor Company, did an unprofessional job trying to fix the problem. They replaced only the tyres with overstretched ones. Refused to change to OEM wheels, which made things worse. The vibrations didn’t go away, and I started noticing other issues, like unresponsive steering and whining noises. I formally rejected the car because the repair clearly failed, but Alphera just ignored me and focused on irrelevant excuses, like the fact the car passed its MOT or wasn’t bought from a BMW dealer. They completely missed the point and refused to take any responsibility. It’s like they didn’t bother to read my complaint properly.

In the end, I had no choice but to pay out of my own pocket to fit OEM wheels and tyres just to make the car safe enough to drive. Even now, there’s still a slight wobble, and I’m worried that the original tyre issue has caused permanent damage to the drivetrain or transfer box. Alphera’s handling of this has been a disgrace—they’ve left me to deal with everything on my own while continuing to take my money. I wouldn’t recommend them to anyone.

I have now had to take up my complaint with financial ombudsman

Unfortunately I expect others have come in contact with Alphera not by choice, it all depends on who the garage uses!

As like the many, many other reviews on here. My case started mid-October with a formal rejection of the vehicle in December (faulty within first 6 months) as there is evidence the sensors had been tampered with before my purchase to pass an MOT.

I call at least 3 times a week for an update, in the time since my case has been open, I have spoken to my case handler ONCE! The final straw came today when I demanded to speak to my case handler and the person I was speaking to “couldn’t” put me through but was managing to message my case handler and pass messages back to me, when I demanded I speak to him I was yet again told I would get a phone call that never materialised.

The stress this has caused is something I have never experienced and would strongly recommend anyone not to use this company.

All I am waiting on is to be told when my car will be collected but I guess all that will happen is someone will reply to this review advising this has been passed to the complaints team and then surprise surprise, nobody calls!

UPDATE - 07/02/25
So despite someone from Alphera replying that they have requested my details and that someone will be in touch, guess what!? Still no contact from my case handler, I have been told during my many calls again this week that there IS an update but only my case handler can update me and yet again I am still waiting for him to contact me!

Financial Ombudsman has taken on my case, these guys need shutting down!!

Update - 18/06/2025
So after the Financial Obmudsman investigator found heavily in my favour on 12th May 2025, Alphera have not even responded, which is now risking this dragging on another 6 MONTHS before an Ombudsman issues a final decision. All the while I am paying for this vehicle that is faulty, cannot be driven, at over £200 a month!! There is absolutely no duty of care from these guys and have no regard for their customers!! Avoid if you can!!

Update - 25/06/2025
Despite the reply advising of a call within 48 hours and I also emailed the supplied email address, I’ve heard absolutely NOTHING! Having to wait another 6 months because these guys can’t respond to an email is criminal. I now have to pay over £200 a month for something I can’t use for a further 6 months because they can’t reply to an email! Ridiculous doesn’t begin to describe it

Maybe buy taking a payment and not being awkward on the phone I passed all questions asked because I couldn’t remember how much I pay he said can’t do anything for me so I asked for a manager and guess what no manager in shock don’t go with these people they just don’t want to help