Item taken from car while with dealer

itm2

Our car was left for 90 minutes with a Mazda dealer a few weeks ago, to have the airbags replaced due to a manufacturer recall. While it was there an item was removed from the glovebox and not replaced (a car jump starter/power pack). I emailed the dealership when we first noticed it missing (a couple of weeks later) to make them aware, and to ask them if they could locate the item so that we could come and collect it. Having not had any reply from them by the Tuesday afternoon I phoned and asked to speak to the service manager, but they were unable to connect me. Eventually I contacted a Customer Relations Executive at Mazda, who said that they would ask the dealer to call me back. I received a call back shortly afterwards but was told that , having asked around, there was no recollection from anyone there of seeing or handling the item. I asked if they could check the CCTV for the 90 minute period in question, but they were reluctant to do this as they said it would be very time consuming. I did point out that the vehicle was only with them for a specific 90 minute period. We are absolutely sure that the item was in the glovebox, as it is an emergency item which we never remove from the glovebox - we routinely check that it is fully charged prior to every longer trip. We are also absolutely sure that nobody else had access to the car or glovebox in the intervening period, and that the car had been left locked whenever parked up or unattended.

I've reported it to the police, but if the dealer refuses to look at the CCTV do we have any other options??

[Deleted User]

You have waited far too long in my opinion. You have no way to prove it was in there or they have taken it.

itm2

camelot1971 wrote: »

You have waited far too long in my opinion. You have no way to prove it was in there or they have taken it.

We were on holiday for 2 of the 3 weeks in between (during which time the car was parked up and locked) so we didn't have much call to check it.

[Deleted User]

The police can request the CCTV, but you can as well. You may have to pay a nominal fee like £10.

I'd suggest taking a letter in asking for the CCTV footage and mentioning that you reported the incident to the police. Ask to speak to the manager and give it to him. If he isn't around just leave the letter with them. Chances are they will just look at the CCTV, figure out who did it and pay up.

Don't wait too long or they might delete the old CCTV footage. Many places delete after 30 days.

itm2

DELETED USER wrote:

The police can request the CCTV, but you can as well. You may have to pay a nominal fee like £10.

I'd suggest taking a letter in asking for the CCTV footage and mentioning that you reported the incident to the police. Ask to speak to the manager and give it to him. If he isn't around just leave the letter with them. Chances are they will just look at the CCTV, figure out who did it and pay up.

Don't wait too long or they might delete the old CCTV footage. Many places delete after 30 days.

Thanks for that. I wasn't aware that I was able to view the CCTV footage myself. Would that apply even if I was only featured in the footage for a few seconds at the beginning and end? (i.e. picking up and dropping off the car)

neilmcl

How do you keep it fully charged if you never take it out of the glovebox?

itm2

neilmcl wrote: »

How do you keep it fully charged if you never take it out of the glovebox?

We've never had to charge it

AndyMc.....

DELETED USER wrote:

The police can request the CCTV, but you can as well. You may have to pay a nominal fee like £10.

I'd suggest taking a letter in asking for the CCTV footage and mentioning that you reported the incident to the police. Ask to speak to the manager and give it to him. If he isn't around just leave the letter with them. Chances are they will just look at the CCTV, figure out who did it and pay up.

Don't wait too long or they might delete the old CCTV footage. Many places delete after 30 days.

Chances are the the police won't bother it could have gone any time within the three weeks.

AdrianC

I'd be very surprised if they had any kind of useful CCTV weeks after the event.

I assume the car has more than a single airbag, so it's entirely probable the glovebox would need to be emptied to replace the passenger frontal bag. So the CCTV will show that anyway.

The question is where the jump box then went, why it didn't make its way back into the glovebox, where it is now, and why... And proving that is going to be next to impossible. It's entirely feasible it was a totally innocent error, and it's either lurking elsewhere in the car (have you checked everywhere?) or it got forgotten and left lying around the workshop.

itm2

Yes the airbag is just above the glovebox so they would have needed to empty the glovebox (still kicking ourselves for not thinking of that before we took it in). There was one other item in the glovebox which was still there (a cheap tyre inflater) - only the somewhat pricier battery pack was missing.
There would have been no real need to remove it from the car - it would have been far easier to throw it onto one of the rear seats if it was in the way.
Yeah we've scoured the car and it isn't there. House likewise (although we've never removed it from the car since we bought it).

unforeseen

itm2 wrote: »

We've never had to charge it

How did you know that? Was it ever checked?