Can I request some form of compensation?

zoeymarie

I had taken my car in to Lookers Fiat for a service on the morning of 12/03/16. I had a call from the dealership to say that my car would be ready to collect at 11am. Shortly after I collected my car, I then got a call from my insurance company (because I have a black box) - telling me I had been speeding. My insurance company told me that whoever was driving my car at 09:58am was doing 37mph in a 30 zone.

As I have a black box, I am scored out of 10 for my driving. Because of the speeding, this was scored at a -10 for speed, which has resulted in me losing my quarterly cash reward paid to me from my insurance company for driving safely. (My cash reward was at £50.00).

I called the dealership immediately - but they had told me I would have to wait until Monday now to speak to the service manager, so I wrote to the dealership to tell them how I am absolutely disgusted with what they have done and I feel that I should be compensated in some way.

The dealership has emailed me back today to apologise - but has offered me no form of compensation what so ever. I feel as though I should be entitled to at least something? As I am out of pocket from losing my cash reward from my insurance company and I have paid £225.00 for my car to be serviced and been completely and utterly disrespected.

Can anybody help me and advise how I can respond to the email requesting some form of compensation?

Thanks!
Zoey

[Deleted User]

Write to them clearly asking for £50 to cover your proven loss. It will focus them on giving a clear yes or no, more than the 'compensated in some way' route.

I wouldn't go down the 'disrespected' route, whatever that means.

zoeymarie

Thanks, I will respond requesting the £50.00 I have lost out on. I will not on the other hand be putting my car in for a service at this dealership again.

However, I wasn't going down a "disrespected route" I was just expressing my feelings as I feel I have been disrespected as a customer. I had taken my car in to the main dealer expecting I would have peace of mind and receive a professional service from Fiat, instead I received a call from my insurance company accusing me of driving recklessly.

Poppie68

zoeymarie wrote: »

Thanks, I will respond requesting the £50.00 I have lost out on. I will not on the other hand be putting my car in for a service at this dealership again.

However, I wasn't going down a "disrespected route" I was just expressing my feelings as I feel I have been disrespected as a customer. I had taken my car in to the main dealer expecting I would have peace of mind and receive a professional service from Fiat, instead I received a call from my insurance company accusing me of driving recklessly.

You can't just call them and say " I've lost £50 give it to me" you will have to provide proof from your insurance company to start with and give Lookers a chance to investigate the issue.

zoeymarie

Obviously I have proof that I have lost out on this money, so I would be providing them with this. They have "looked in to it" and simply emailed me apologising, telling me that this isn't "the norm."

It isn't however really good enough as the point I am getting at is you do not expect this, from any dealer when you take your car in for a service. It's very poor customer service and extremely unprofessional.

Malthusian

Insurer snooping devices are a relatively recent phenomenon and most mechanics probably aren't expecting that if they exceed the speed limit while taking the customer's car for a test drive it will cost the customer £50.

You certainly have a valid complaint as the mechanic shouldn't have been breaking the speed limit and you've suffered a loss as a result, but "disrespect" is going a bit far. They aren't disrespecting you, someone on their staff just drives too fast and doesn't know about black boxes.

Does your insurance company really ring you up if you go at 37 through a 30 zone? That's a bit creepy, frankly. (I did that recently and got flashed by a camera for it - it was on the outskirts of a Welsh village in the dead of night and I hadn't noticed the change from 40 to 30. Poor awareness on my part, and I took my fine and penalty points like a man. But if my insurer rang me up to lecture me about safe driving, without any idea of the circumstances, I would ask them who the hell they thought they were.)

bod1467

Contact the insurance company and ask if they'll waive this "penalty" due to the circumstances (it wasn't you driving, it was a garage employee). If they say No then ask them for written confirmation of the loss of safe driving cash reward. (Basically you need some written proof of your loss).

Then contact the garage in writing with a Letter Before Action claiming the £50 loss you have suffered due to their negligence, giving them 14 days to pay else court proceedings will commence and the cost of bringing the claim will be added to the claim value. If they don't pay/say they won't pay then raise a MCOL claim.

zoeymarie

Malthusian wrote: »

Insurer snooping devices are a relatively recent phenomenon and most mechanics probably aren't expecting that if they exceed the speed limit while taking the customer's car for a test drive it will cost the customer £50.

You certainly have a valid complaint as the mechanic shouldn't have been breaking the speed limit and you've suffered a loss as a result, but "disrespect" is going a bit far. They aren't disrespecting you, someone on their staff just drives too fast and doesn't know about black boxes.

Does your insurance company really ring you up if you go at 37 through a 30 zone? That's a bit creepy, frankly. (I did that recently and got flashed by a camera for it - it was on the outskirts of a Welsh village in the dead of night and I hadn't noticed the change from 40 to 30. Poor awareness on my part, and I took my fine and penalty points like a man. But if my insurer rang me up to lecture me about safe driving, without any idea of the circumstances, I would ask them who the hell they thought they were.)

I am a young and relatively new driver (I'm 23 and been driving for a year.) - So they are just being vigilant I guess? However I do agree it is a little bit creepy! I felt very embarrassed when trying to persuade them that I wasn't actually driving the car. I have requested the dealership write to my insurance company to inform them it was their technician driving.

The way it works with the rewards is they score you on every journey you go on out of 10 and with every journey the reward goes up and it gets paid to you quarterly. My reward was at £56.00 but with the score of -10 because of the speeding, my reward is now standing at £6.00.

Poppie68

The dealership aren't going to write to your insurance company or get into any type of correspondence with them. You need to obtain a letter from your IC with proof and details of loss and present it to the dealership, they may hold back any payment until the end of your policy.

zoeymarie

Poppie68 wrote: »

The dealership aren't going to write to your insurance company or get into any type of correspondence with them. You need to obtain a letter from your IC with proof and details of loss and present it to the dealership, they may hold back any payment until the end of your policy.

The dealership actually emailed me to say they are happy to correspond with my insurance company to ensure them I wasn't driving at that time as they don't want me to be penalised.

lincroft1710

zoeymarie wrote: »

The dealership actually emailed me to say they are happy to correspond with my insurance company to ensure them I wasn't driving at that time as they don't want me to be penalised.

Shall I translate that for you :

The dealership actually emailed me to say they are happy to correspond with my insurance company to ensure them I wasn't driving at that time as they don't want to pay out £50