VWFS Mis Selling Claim

MrsM2016

Hi,
This is my first post and I have one eye on my rampaging toddler so please excuse me if I am unclear or not explaining myself well.
I am just in the process of starting a Mis Selling claim against VWFS and I am *amazed* at how uncooperative they are being. It's like they deliberately misunderstand anything you say and never answer my questions. They went as far as to issue me a "final resolution" without actually receiving the body of my complaint. I'm 4 emails in and havent even submitted my actual evidence yet and am already frustrated. Is this a deliberate ploy of theirs to try and get me to drop it? Has anyone else had this experience when dealing with them?
I've done a data protection request to check I have all the paperwork here to build my argument on, but on looking through my paperwork today there are some anomalies I wasnt expecting. Like my car finance contract states my cars mileage was 0, the precar hand over check says 3 and my add ons like Gap insurance say 10? Doesnt that mean I wasnt covered for the first 7 miles driving it? Surely that's not allowed? I also have a receipt for Gap insurance but on the document where they list all add ons and say which ones you have accepted, they state I've declined Gap insurance and have opted for "Purchase Price Protection"? Everything is just so shoddily done. I also have another customers purchase price break down, including car reg, full name and address stapled to the back of my paperwork.
The big one though is that the initial quote I was given compares HP to PCP but doesnt include any APRs, cost of credit or total repayable. They've quoted PCP as 66% cheaper so that is what we went with. Yet my SECCI is for a Hire Purchase? If I havent been given a SECCI for my actual method of finance surely that breaches all the rules? My contract also states I'm on Hire Purchase but I'm not. It is so confusing! (The toddler in the background doesnt help either).
Has anyone else experienced this? Or can you give me a more knowledgable explanation as to why this could be? Anyone with a successful experience of claimig misselling against VWFS, I would be so grateful to hear from you.
The main body of my case is that we were actively misled through the selling process, plus the normal Plevin for not declaring commission etc. But all these paperwork errors have me wondering if I even need to go down that route because if my paperwork is done incorrectly surely it is all void anyway?
Thanks in advance!

jonesMUFCforever

Oh god where do we start?
Basically you signed an agreement to buy a car you have to pay it back - simples - from what you have written (and it is very difficult to read to be honest) there is no void contract and you will not get a free car.

normanna

I really suggest you wait until you can focus and repost.  Your post is a bit all over the place and no-one will be able to help if they don't understand your issues.  If you've written to your loan companies in this way I'm afraid they will be equally confused. 

MrsM2016

Thank you Normanna for being constructive in your reply. 

In short: I am in the process of building my case for mis selling against VWFS. I have lots of examples of how we were misled in the sales process, but when consulting my paperwork I noticed lots of discrepancies, which I thought would potentially be an easier route to complain over as it removes the "he said, she said" element. I have done my research into misselling so know about things like Plevin and commission, but what I would like help on is around whether their administrative errors on my paperwork have any bearing on it being missold? If they havent given me the legally required documents prior to setting up a finance agreement, what happens?

So the example I listed above, in proper English, would be that the pre-contract credit information (or SECCI) we were given was for Hire Purchase not PCP. As this is a legal requirement, if they have given it with the wrong method of finance on it, does that mean that therefore havent provided us with the correct pre contract information? From what I can gleam online, as PCP is a type of HP, they use the terms interchangeably but that is very confusing. The fact they managed to give me all of another customers purchase details demonstrates they weren't completing the paperwork with the correct amount of care and attention.

A lot of what I have read online suggests that PCP misselling is the next scandal like PPI as so many lies were told, heavy handed tactics used and incorrect and misleading information given. Has anyone successfully managed to claim for this already? A host of solicitors seem to be jumping on the bandwagon as there are a plethora of "no win, no fee" offers, but does anyone have any actual experience of it?
 
My online research says that the main bone of contention is that car dealers pushed PCP onto customers, and sometimes even gave them higher interest rates, to gain a larger commission. All the paperwork I have clearly demonstrates that they were heavily pushing us towards PCP. Has anyone else done any online research and would be happy to share helpful forum posts etc?

Please rest assured that when I write to VWFS I also ensure my child is asleep so I can concentrate. The fact they are being illusive in their replies has nothing to do with my emails being unclear. Has anyone else found them evasive? Did you succeed in your case despite this? 

Many thanks.

[Deleted User]

I agree that you need to focus your complaint, rather than throwing in everything you've read about online.  For example, there's not going to be any 'normal Plevin' aspect to your complain - and if there had been, it would be far too late.

There's no large scale mis selling around PCP, so avoid jumping on any bandwagon unless you have deep pockets.  The PPI claims companies have learned to take advance fees from their customer now, as they know there is little chance of any payout.

The SECCI may be an administrative failure - but it;s not going to get the loan written off.  You also need to focus on the outcome - at best, it would be to unwind the contract, which would mean estimating an amount you owe the company for use of the car before handing it back to them. So ensure you have an exit plan.

MrsM2016

Thank you for your reply zx81. The fact PCP is considered to be an up and coming scandal is written about by reliable sources, it isnt just for the ambulance chasing "no win, no fee" ilk. I'm not allowed to post links as a newbie, but its covered by money expert if you wanted to read their take on it. I've deliberately come to this forum as I perceived it to be the most knowledgable and reputable.

It is such a confusing topic. To give some more background information, I'm at the end of my lease term, have made all the payments on time and have been happy with the car. I became unhappy with the agreement after looking into how high my balloon payment was vs the cars actual value now. We were told that we would have "equity" in the car if we kept the mileage well below the agreed 12000 a year, which we have. The Money Expert link says this notion of "equity" is one of examples of misleading sales and there were many, many others.

As the garbled nature of my first post demonstrates, I have my hands rather full at the moment (toddler, key worker and a PhD in progress) so hadn't really thought about it until that point. Then once I sat down and looked into it I realised just how much we had been pushed towards PCP and told some things that were not true. We talked to our friends who own the same make of car from the same dealer and apparently a few people have already started taking action against them for being so heavy handed and misleading in the sales process.

I originally contacted VWFS to ask about my options as the car is due to be returned at the end of this month and I wanted to discuss my options because of covid, being a keyworker and a mother. I mentioned in my original contact that I was unhappy with some elements of how the car had been sold to us so we could have an open dialogue, but instead of dealing with it as a covid finance enquiry and replying in their stated 2 weeks, they filed it as a complaint and took 6 weeks to reply, taking me much closer to the end of my contract. Their tone was then "sorry you were unhappy, but we've done nothing wrong" without asking why I was unhappy or if I had any evidence. I think I might be quite naive, but I've never purchased anything on an APR credit agreement before (I'm organised with my money apart from this) and I used to handle complaints on specific matters for my region when I had my career, so I assumed that by classifying it as a complaint they'd want to work with me to resolve it. I feel very wet behind the ears over that now as they are just being flat out obstructive.

My ideal outcome would be that they accept the finance was missold and reduce the interest charged as a result and we end up making a reduced balloon payment and keep the car. I'm not trying to get a free car as jonesMUFCforever suggested. As it stands we will be handing the car back because I'm not paying £3000 more for a car than it is actually worth. We have family members who work in the finance industry and are FCA registered and whilst car finance isnt their field, they've heard from those with links to it that they believe that PCP mis selling will blow up. They also recommended we included the Plevin claim because if the car sales person pushed us to go for PCP (and potentially put us on an unfavourable apr) to increase their commission payment then under Plevin that is mis selling and we are due compensation. 

What I am really struggling with is what to complain over as there are just so many example to chose from! My drafts at the moment run into multiple pages and use footnotes. I don't want to be scatter gun in my approach, but at the same time I am so angry about the many, many ways they misled us that I just want something to stick so we can get this resolved. 

I hope that additional information helps generate more constructive replies, thank you in advance

jonesMUFCforever

The part I find difficult to comprehend from your argument is that the balloon payment would have been shown on your credit agreement from day 1 - this has not changed now it is the same amount as then.
Nobody can guarantee future values of anything especially after what has gone on now. In my book you have 2 choices - pay the balloon payment or use the 'value' of the balloon as a deposit on another car, then start all over again.
Misselling - no - Misbought perhaps?

MrsM2016

JonesMUFCforever there is no "equity" in the car. Despite it being 5000 miles below the mileage threshold and in excellent condition, it is worth £3000 less than the balloon payment, so to take out another finance deal would be to start off on a negative equity setting, which would make horrendous finance sense. As part of the sales pitch they said "don't go with X car brand, they are  notorious for putting you on low monthly payments and having a balloon payment for more than the car is worth so people just hand them back and that is how they make their money."

That is exactly what they have done to us. Like I said, there are so many examples of BS like this. Missold? Maybe. Misled? Definitely.

[Deleted User]

I'm no expert on car finance but surely if the GFV on the vehicle was set high, this would have reduced your monthly payments.

Nebulous2

There may be no equity in the car because the market is very different from anyone thought it would be when you took the loan out. 

If if you want to make a case you need to be succinct, use bullet points and detail why you were missold. 3-4 clear points are always better than 10-12 complicated, lengthy ones. 

jonesMUFCforever

MrsM2016 said:

JonesMUFCforever there is no "equity" in the car. Despite it being 5000 miles below the mileage threshold and in excellent condition, it is worth £3000 less than the balloon payment, so to take out another finance deal would be to start off on a negative equity setting, which would make horrendous finance sense. As part of the sales pitch they said "don't go with X car brand, they are  notorious for putting you on low monthly payments and having a balloon payment for more than the car is worth so people just hand them back and that is how they make their money."

That is exactly what they have done to us. Like I said, there are so many examples of BS like this. Missold? Maybe. Misled? Definitely.

IMO you still don't get it.

You bought a car for say £15k

You signed an agreement to pay say 24 x £xy and then a balloon of £z

Fast forward to today you have paid 24 x £xy now you need to pay £z.

You were happy with the price two years ago, indeed had you paid cash two years ago your car would be worth exactly the same today.
The fact that you now find yourself having to pay the balance which you say is more than the car's worth is irrelevant.