Mercedes Finance asking me to sign to voluntary terminate Agreement

Keezing

So BCA came to inspect and collect the car today. The set up is the inspector comes and does his thing then a driver comes shortly after to collect the car. Or at least that's what's supposed to happen.

Inspector turns up on time, does his thing and hands me a report that he has signed saying that car is up to standard and there are no charges.

Shortly after he leaves I get a knock on the door and it's another BCA inspector. Not a driver. He tells me that he'll need 30 minutes to inspect the car.

Me: "The inspector has just been"

Him: "I know I saw the email last night"

Me: "email?"

Him: "Email to arrange the job"

Me: "no the car has already been inspected just a few minutes ago by another inspector. He literally just left"

Him: *confused face*

He then proceeds to inspect the car and finds a bunch of chargeable items that the other guy didn't. I refused to sign.

I'm now waiting for the driver.

I have no idea how this is gonna play out. Presumably I will get a bill and it's not going to be fun explaining this situation to MBFS.

Herzlos

Do you have a copy of both inspection reports?

Keezing

Herzlos wrote: »

Do you have a copy of both inspection reports?

I do.

I feel confident that I have enough evidence to get out of this charge.

I do not feel confident that Mercedes will understand the issue and not sell the 'debt' to a debt collector if it comes to that.

Hopefully the first report will count and this is the end of it.

One thing this does highlight is the subjective nature of the vehicle return standards.

MobileSaver

Keezing wrote: »

He then proceeds to inspect the car and finds a bunch of chargeable items that the other guy didn't. I refused to sign.

Great, this was absolutely the right thing to do.

Keezing wrote: »

Presumably I will get a bill and it's not going to be fun explaining this situation to MBFS.

Wait and see what, if anything, turns up but the single most important bit of advice is do not phone MBFS; keep all correspondence polite, courteous and in writing, either email or letters.

Assuming the allegedly chargeable items are actually reasonable wear, tear, damage for the car (e.g. there's not a huge dent where you side-swiped a bollard that you hadn't told us about ) then what normally happens is a bit of correspondence ping pong where they keep saying you owe us £x and you keep saying "no I don't according to section 99 of the Consumer Credit Act 1974." They'll ignore the CCA and say you agreed to the PCP terms and conditions; you'll respond that their terms and conditions cannot override statute.

Once you are bored of repeating yourself several times you can ramp it up a little and remind them that any further demands for payment will be treated as harassment which is a criminal offence under the Protection from Harassment Act 1997... this normally gets them to finally back down with a "as a gesture of goodwill we have decided to waive these charges in this instance."

MobileSaver

Keezing wrote: »

I do not feel confident that Mercedes will understand the issue and not sell the 'debt' to a debt collector if it comes to that.

Mercedes understand full well that they are not legally entitled to a single penny more than the 50% of the PCP you have already paid, so absolutely anything extra they can persuade you to give them is pure profit.

In the unlikely event that Mercedes involve a debt collector you would simply write back to them denying the debt and refer the debt collector back to Mercedes.

SJard31

I have just given my notice to voluntary terminate and just wanted to know if you did end up signing the pack if not what you sent in response ?

Also if you have had any further correspondence for the charges.

Thanks in advance

BIGANDYT

Will doing this negatively affect your credit rating, im considering doing this and a little wary.

neilmcl

BIGANDYT wrote: »

Will doing this negatively affect your credit rating, im considering doing this and a little wary.

The lender may put a marker on your file to state that you've VT'd but this won't affect your credit score and shouldn't stop you from getting finance in the future.

If you have any further questions can I suggest you start a new thread as this one is over a year old.

BIGANDYT

No thanks thats what i was hoping, i thought id add it to this thread as while its a great thread and helped me a lot, it was missing that question/answer which is pretty important i would have thought in this scenario. Hopefully helps the next person who's in this situation and is reading through, so thanks for the reply

johnrogerson

I've just been told by BMW that if I don't sign the VT pack they won't collect the car - end of. They'll keep charging me until I sign it. They've also said they can't guarantee it'll be collected on or by the date I specified in my VT letter - that means more insurance, a possible MOT and parking permit charges. Surely this can't be right???