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Car dealership not providing evidence of warranty repair!
ellemarie
Posts: 3 Newbie
So this is my first post and first time dealing with this sort of thing, please be gentle!
My partner and I purchased a second hand car from a dealership in July 2015 - within a week of purchase, it broke down. Turns out the cam belt had failed (the car had 95,000 miles on the clock) however, checking the -incomplete- service history, showed it had a cam belt replaced 20,000 miles-ish prior. So with it being the first week, we called the dealership and had it all sorted under warranty. Because this was a warranty repair, we foolishly did not get any paperwork for the repair.
Fast forward to April 2016 - we're driving along and the same noise comes rattling and the car breaks down, RAC confirmed another cam belt failure! We tried contacting the dealership for help as we assumed the first cam belt repair would be under warranty, they were no help whatsoever, refusing to answer emails, calls, letters, AND the ombudsman so unfortunately we forked out for the repair at our own garage.
Fast forward again to last week (2nd August) - same breakdown, same cam belt failure, except this time we might not be so lucky and the engine may be beyond repair.
Since April 2016, I am much more informed about consumer rights, etc and have begun a claim with the finance company who financed half the car upon purchase (we deposited £4000, the remaining £3950 was financed) under the Consumer Act, stating the car was not fit for purpose, etc upon purchase. They have requested evidence to support our claim... We have evidence for the two most recent failures but as stated before - no paperwork for the first failure.
I have approached the dealer for a copy of the invoice, they are refusing stating that they do not keep invoices for longer than a year (correct me if i'm wrong, i thought limited businesses had to keep financial invoices, etc for 6 years??) - I approached the garage who completed the repair, and they will not hand anything over as we were not the paying customer and this breaches data protection laws apparently?
They are currently looking again but I have a feeling they won't give me the evidence i need to get this claim sorted.
What are my rights here? Are they allowed to withhold evidence relating to my car?
My partner and I purchased a second hand car from a dealership in July 2015 - within a week of purchase, it broke down. Turns out the cam belt had failed (the car had 95,000 miles on the clock) however, checking the -incomplete- service history, showed it had a cam belt replaced 20,000 miles-ish prior. So with it being the first week, we called the dealership and had it all sorted under warranty. Because this was a warranty repair, we foolishly did not get any paperwork for the repair.
Fast forward to April 2016 - we're driving along and the same noise comes rattling and the car breaks down, RAC confirmed another cam belt failure! We tried contacting the dealership for help as we assumed the first cam belt repair would be under warranty, they were no help whatsoever, refusing to answer emails, calls, letters, AND the ombudsman so unfortunately we forked out for the repair at our own garage.
Fast forward again to last week (2nd August) - same breakdown, same cam belt failure, except this time we might not be so lucky and the engine may be beyond repair.
Since April 2016, I am much more informed about consumer rights, etc and have begun a claim with the finance company who financed half the car upon purchase (we deposited £4000, the remaining £3950 was financed) under the Consumer Act, stating the car was not fit for purpose, etc upon purchase. They have requested evidence to support our claim... We have evidence for the two most recent failures but as stated before - no paperwork for the first failure.
I have approached the dealer for a copy of the invoice, they are refusing stating that they do not keep invoices for longer than a year (correct me if i'm wrong, i thought limited businesses had to keep financial invoices, etc for 6 years??) - I approached the garage who completed the repair, and they will not hand anything over as we were not the paying customer and this breaches data protection laws apparently?
They are currently looking again but I have a feeling they won't give me the evidence i need to get this claim sorted.
What are my rights here? Are they allowed to withhold evidence relating to my car?
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