Car Finance Company Screw Up

delirious

My wife has a car on Finance and the agreement is currently in arrears due to her losing her job and we had to make a choice between pay out for the finance each month or eat (basically). We informed the finance company (verbally) that we intended to Voluntarily Terminate the finance agreement, but hadn't got round to sending it in writing.

In the meantime, the finance company sent an internal email to my wife by accident. The email was rude about a non-english speaking customer and contained the address, agreement number and vehicle registration number of the customer, in addition to the fact that the customer was on holiday until x date.

Although this may well have been a genuine mistake, it is clearly a serious breach and has led to serious concerns regarding the safety of our data, so we wrote a letter requesting to voluntarily terminate the finance agreement and at the same time made a complaint about the email we received and noted the concerns we had. We also explained that it would be very easy to find out the customers name and date of birth from the Internet so now had all the information required to discuss another persons account with the finance company.

The finance company have since responded to our complaint by offering to credit the finance agreement with £200, and sent a form for my wife to sign confirming that accepting the £200 is full and final settlement.

My question is not so much, should we be happy with £200 as compensation, but it seems they think they can throw a relatively small amount at the problem to make it go away, and I think they should be hit harder for such a serious breach.

Any thoughts?

Pixie5740

What exactly do you want to achieve here? Certainly someone at the car finance company has screwed up and hopefully a P45 is winging its way to them.


If you think that the car finance company should be hit hard for this breach what do you think should happen to people who breach their contracts by falling into arrears for whatever reason?

poppasmurf_bewdley

Yes, you should be happy with the offer.

As you were in arrears on your HP agreement, the finance company did not need to accept your request for Voluntary or Early Termination, as you had broken the terms of the agreement by getting into arrears.

Quit while you are ahead.

delirious

I'm not trying to achieve anything other than making the finance company responsible for their error. I am not saying they should pay out more compensation, but I don't believe they should be able to make an offer to 'shut my wife up'. Surely the guy who's details my wife received deserves to know that his details had been passed to another customer.

The contract states my wife can voluntarily terminate after she's paid 50% which is exactly what she's doing.

poppasmurf_bewdley

delirious wrote: »

The contract states my wife can voluntarily terminate after she's paid 50% which is exactly what she's doing.

The moment you failed to pay an instalment, you had broken the agreement, which leaves the finance company in the position that with you breaking the agreement, they don't have to honour their parts with you. That they have agreed to Voluntary Terminate is a goodwill gesture on their behalf.

Failing to pay an instalment has far reaching consequences, way beyond just owing a few quid.

Pixie5740

How do you know that the finance company haven't already taken responsibility for the error by dealing with the member of staff in question? What exactly is it you would like the finance company to do?


If you feel so strongly about it then you could refuse the £200 and contact the other customer since it's easy for you to find out their name and you already have the address.

pheonix254

A single email about one customer wrongly sent to another isn't likely to be considered a serious breach if it goes to the ICO in my humble opinion, even if it does contain personal information protected under the Data Protection act.

They will probably recieve a slap on the wrist as opposed to a fine, unless it is uncovered to be endemic within the company. For example, look at the types of things companies are actually fined for: https://ico.org.uk/action-weve-taken/enforcement/?facet_type=Monetary+penalties&facet_date=&date_from=&date_to=
Not too many "mis-sent emails" in there. A few "lost 26,000 customers bank details" but that's kind of a different kettle of fish, don't you agree? If you're unhappy, tell the company, but just be careful what you say - if you go too far you're opening up yourselves to accusations of blackmail.

For the sake of pursuing it, you'd probably end up with a best case scenario of a fine of a few thousand being levied on the company, and would forgo any settlement in exchange, unless an investigation uncovered endemic data mismanagement. From what you've said, it's pretty easy to argue that this was a simple oversight, indeed I'm surprised that you got offered compensation at all.

The fact that they did that could be interpretted in two ways - either they acknowledge that there was an issue which was embarrassing here and have made a goodwill payment to you for informing them as an indication that they are taking this seriously, or as an admission of guilt and they don't want you digging any deeper. However, going this way will involve a fight, and exactly what do you stand to gain aside from a moral victory? - indeed, even that has caveats if you cause employees to lose their jobs as a result. From a purely selfish point of view - pursuing this further is unlikely to net you anything, whereas they've already offered you a pretty reasonable settlement.

Personally, I'd take the £200 as a victory and move on - stroke of luck to get it when you're in financial difficulty. Something about not looking a gift horse in the mouth or something to that effect.

burlington6

Wow, if you had anything about you other than your greed for more money you'd send the £200 to the person the email was about

ConsumerWizkid

The ICO would do nothing over a minor breach like this & I think £200 is plenty of compensation if not over and above what someone in breach of contract should receive.

I think it would be a waste of energy to try and engage the company any further, that energy could be spent on more pressing things in your life

forgotmyname

Take the £200. The loss is not even yours. The person you have the data on is the person that should be getting the compensation.

If you have enough of their data drop them a line and tell them the company have given the info to you so they can get a free £200 also.

Can you VT if your in arrears? Have you paid more than 50%?

Gaz83

delirious wrote: »

and has led to serious concerns regarding the safety of our data

Let's be honest here - no it hasn't.