non-contracted charge from Lease deal - RCI/Nissan Finance

s.Smith_2

Hi guys strange problem, I have looked it up but believe this a newer issue due to covid.
My three year deal finished on the 2nd of November. no issues except i didn't get it serviced this year so rightfully received a charge for that. Separately, their collection process due to covid has been book an inspection only, then the car will be physically collected up to 3 days later by a different team.  Inspection was booked for the 9th of NOV. on  the 8th my wife took it out to be cleaned etc as per the rules no problems. The morning after when the inspector came, Battery flat. He couldn't complete the inspection.
Since then the inspection has been rebooked and the car is now gone. A few days later i received a "failed inspection" charge of £168 in the form of an invoice in the post.
Even worse, they have updated experian as my november monthly payment as 1 month late.
I have emailed the credit team and told them to remove it considering it was actually paid on time. Their response was due to this unpaid charge.
Ive also emailed the customer services team and asked them how or why this is being charged.
My contract states the fees for all charges. "failed collection" is £100 and there is no mention of the inspection whatsoever.
They also quoted another section quoted verbatim

“You will pay us for any reasonable costs that we incur (which are current at the time we incur them), including cost that we pay to a third party, for enforcement or our rights under this Agreement, for the repayment of the money you owe us including, without limitation, legal costs and expenses (including court action), auction fees/storage fees, insurance fees and agent’s fees for tracing you, the Goods and/or collecting the Goods.
 
You will reimburse us on demand for any costs we incur in respect of the payment by us of any penalty charge notice, parking fine, infringement fine and/or charge incurred by you whilst Goods are in your possession together with the administration fee of £12,00 referred to the above.”

My argument is they aren't enforcing anything on that front, the without limitation may include a failed inspection fee but It also states "Reasonable costs" of which £168 is not! (I have mentioned if they reduced it to a reasonable cost id be happy to pay)
I have argued too and fro and today they have brushed me aside and just said the charge stands.

Where can I go from here, Does that section give them the right to bill me for that? Do I keep arguing? I obviously dont need to take it further legally for 170, it would probably cost more in fees however Im not prepared to be pushed aside.
My last ditch effort is to invoice them a charge for keeping the vehicle on private land for longer than needed. I think £170 would be "reasonable"
I know its a long post but any help is much appreciated

frost500

Hi sorry to hear this. My advice would be just pay the 168 & get your credit file fixed. It is not worth having a bad credit file for the sake of 168 quid. 

You could always wright to them after you have paid up and explain and see if they will offer any compensation. 

s.Smith_2

frost500 said:

Hi sorry to hear this. My advice would be just pay the 168 & get your credit file fixed. It is not worth having a bad credit file for the sake of 168 quid. 

You could always wright to them after you have paid up and explain and see if they will offer any compensation. 

thanks for your reply, i cant see that as a good result at the moment. My credit file has been clean as whistle for many years, im confident if this is unjust i can get it removed. Im more bothered about just rolling over! it infuriates me that businesses like this take liberties against the little men.

flashg67

If this is personal finance then a complaint followed by raising with the FCA if you're still not happy once RCI have given  you their outcome might be an option

AdrianC

This isn't even a dispute over £168. It's a dispute over £68 - you agree that your version of the contract includes a "failed collection" charge of £100.

So this sounds like a question of different terms in different versions of the contract. One says £100, one says "reasonable costs" (and if you don't think £168 is reasonable, you've never paid to get a car collected - several hours of time, plus at least two people and a second vehicle - or a transporter), perhaps they've changed over time. One of you is applying the wrong version of the contract. I presume yours was safely filed at the time of the finance being taken out, and there's been no other changes to the contract since then? Either something you've initiated (a difference in the mileage or some other detail), or a notification from them that new terms apply? The pandemic has affected a lot of details, so complaining about separation of inspection and collection is futile.

Sandtree

flashg67 said:

If this is personal finance then a complaint followed by raising with the FCA if you're still not happy once RCI have given  you their outcome might be an option

The FCA is the regulator and doesnt engage directly with customers.

The OP can raise the matter with the Financial Ombudsman but only after receiving a final response to a complaint with the company itself (or after 8 weeks of making the complaint, which ever is sooner). The FOS reports major issues or systemic problems to the FCA.

I have to say that the costs don’t sound that vast, a former client used to charge its commercial clients £40 + VAT for a desktop engineer and £120 +VAT for an on the road one... similar reports for a one off are normally £200+. They’d probably also include in there an admin fee for billing etc.

s.Smith_2

AdrianC said:

This isn't even a dispute over £168. It's a dispute over £68 - you agree that your version of the contract includes a "failed collection" charge of £100.

So this sounds like a question of different terms in different versions of the contract. One says £100, one says "reasonable costs" (and if you don't think £168 is reasonable, you've never paid to get a car collected - several hours of time, plus at least two people and a second vehicle - or a transporter), perhaps they've changed over time. One of you is applying the wrong version of the contract. I presume yours was safely filed at the time of the finance being taken out, and there's been no other changes to the contract since then? Either something you've initiated (a difference in the mileage or some other detail), or a notification from them that new terms apply? The pandemic has affected a lot of details, so complaining about separation of inspection and collection is futile.

both of the quoted sections are from the same unchanged contract (that i print off myself)
Nothing else has changed. to clarify i argued that a failed inspection isnt written in there,only the failed collection and would be happy to pay the charge of £100.
they counter argued that it came under the reasonable charges section. 

Ectophile

You won't get anywhere trying to charge them for storage as you have no contract with them to pay for storage.

Making a formal complaint against them costs you nothing.  It also costs nothing to contact the credit reference agency and dispute the late payment.

s.Smith_2

Sandtree said:

flashg67 said:

If this is personal finance then a complaint followed by raising with the FCA if you're still not happy once RCI have given  you their outcome might be an option

The FCA is the regulator and doesnt engage directly with customers.

The OP can raise the matter with the Financial Ombudsman but only after receiving a final response to a complaint with the company itself (or after 8 weeks of making the complaint, which ever is sooner). The FOS reports major issues or systemic problems to the FCA.

I have to say that the costs don’t sound that vast, a former client used to charge its commercial clients £40 + VAT for a desktop engineer and £120 +VAT for an on the road one... similar reports for a one off are normally £200+. They’d probably also include in there an admin fee for billing etc.

ive emailed again requesting if not changed to let me know the complaints procedure.
I work in skilled Labour, its £60p/h flat rate regardless. £168 minus the VAT is £140.
It hasn't cost admin (i booked it myself), fuel, manpower (2 minutes on site) for £140. They even referred to reasonable charge section. That's wholly unreasonable in anyone's mind. Theres an admin fee to be added for anything thats outside the normal operation but doesnt list this reason as succeptible to that, its more for change of information.

Im not in a situation that i cant pay £168 however i see it as an absolute p*take for big firms to just charge whatever they like. I really didn't want to kick up a fuss but according to what i can see its unjust,

s.Smith_2

Thought I would update more so after receiving my final bill and the underhand tactics, sent a detailed letter explaining the details to the customer services manager. They confirmed that it was under the reasonable charge section.
However upon receipt of my final bill which was extremely excessive - I found out they did try to charge almost £1000 for damage that actually didn't exist on the car, (I do look after my cars anyway) and the late payment charge was completely unjust, 0 late payments from me..it left me with only the remainder of £168 aforementioned charge which they squashed as a "gesture of goodwill."