Mercedes Lease Hire charges dispute 26 January 2021 at 5:32PM in Motoring 19 replies 2.3K views

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What happened when you originally tried to get the seat fixed under warranty?  That is the poor quality faux leather cracking where it flexes and should have been a warranty fix, it didn't appear overnight. (Although you might have had to do some stamping of your feet as MB will claim it is normal wear & tear- in which case they can hardly claim it is excessive at hand back)

There is no way to repair that without changing the cover, an upholsterer would just roll their eyes and make a sharp intake of breath. Most won't work with faux leather.

derobe

I didn't even think of getting it fixed under warranty at the time! I don't recall receiving and warranty information either although there should have been one as it was a brand new car. It happened fairly near the end of my lease whilst getting out my car my keys had half fallen out of my pocket and dragged along it and scratched it. 

Anyway I was under the assumption that if it was warranty repairable they would have said that.. 

The rest of the Alcantara is perfect and untouched - if a court is going to see it as a replacement as well I may as well get this over with and pay the fine off.

Can any advice be provided on best route to do this now without Mortimer Clarke enforcing their CCJ. I've already submitted an admission form.

ontheroad1970

If you pay the claim off in full within a certain period (and  this includes after Judgement has been obtained) then a CCJ will not show on your credit report.  After that period (I think it is 28 days from my memory of having one many years ago) paying it off in full will only show it as satisfied.  

SaverRate

From the photo the tear in the seat looks alot longer than 25mm. 
Based on this I would just accept the decision and pay up. Thats not a minor tear thats a major one, but thats just my opinion. 

Tucosalamanca

That seat is obviously chargeable.
It's been damaged by a key (your words) so can't possibly be a manufacturing defect or suitable for a warranty claim.
I don't think the fee charged is excessive and I can't imagine that a judge will find in your favour, it's not even borderline. Sorry.

derobe

Thank you for your contributions.

happyc84

I had cars before that were PCP, these after lease costs are a money pit. User is charge max price for work that is unlikely to be done, car goes to auction. The last car I paid cash and trade in that way if I damage it its my call.
That is some scratch on the seat.

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happyc84 said:

That is some scratch on the seat.

Maybe it is my glasses, but to me it looks like faux leather cracking along a creaseline. Maybe the OPs keys caught under the edge of the crack  and ripped the "leather" off the backing. I wouldn't expect just dragging a few keys across a smooth seat to rip it to pieces, unless it wasn't fit for purpose in the first place.

The cracking is on the driver's seat as that is the one that gets the wear, it happens when you slide in and out and crush the side of the bolster.

derobe

Hi all, I wonder if anyone can assist.

The Ombudsman did not uphold my complaint and state the full amount is payable, no huge surprise.

The original balance is £1912.52.
However in their latest email the Solicitor states that MBFS have requested the full balance of £2107.52 is payabale.

The difference in debt is because Mortimer Clarke entered into a CCO (they say MBFS instructed them to do this) and added the following costs:

Court fees £115.00
Legal representive costs £80.00

Bringing the total to £2107.52

In the meantime, I have received a full apology from Mortimer Clarke Solicitors and an offer of compensation of £75.00 for enforcing a CCO even though I was co-operating with their agent DLC and updating them on the ombudsman position.

I believe this is unfair, that compensation amount does not add up to the extra £195 added to my bill because of their mistake.

Below is their apology letter. Please can someone advise on my position, should I be pushing them for more compensation here (I think a minimum of the £195 to cancel out the fees, plus potential damages for the stress caused)

Thank you!!!!

****************************************************************************************************************************************************************

Dear ***

Re: Mercedes Benz Financial Services (UK) Limited

And: Mr ****

Ref: ***

Claim No: ****

I am writing further to our letter dated 10 January 2023.

My name is ***** and I am the Customer Care Consultant that has

investigated your concerns and I hope to help you now by providing a resolution to this

matter.

My understanding of your complaint

I understand that were unhappy with the County Court Claim (claim) being issued

because you said DLC informed this firm of a live dispute that you had with the Financial

Ombudsman Service (FOS).

You would like the court fees and charges to be reversed.

Background

This firm is instructed by its client, Mercedes Benz Financial Services (UK) Limited, to

recover a debt owed to it by you, in relation to End of Lease Charges which originated

with Mercedes Benz Financial Services (UK) LTD.

We sent you a letter dated 7 September 2022 introducing ourselves to you. The letter

requested you contact our office or complete an income and expenditure form. The

letter also informed you of our client’s instructions should we not hear from you.

We spoke with a person we believed was you on 14 September 2022, however as you

were not sure who we were you declined to complete the security questions. We agreed

to send a letter to you.

A letter dated 15 September 2022 was sent to you providing you with our details and

asking you to contact us.

In an effort to establish contact with you to discuss this matter, we telephoned you

between 15 September 2022 and 10 October 2022. On a couple of occasions, the call

was answered but you were not able to speak with us.

As we did not receive a response from you, our client instructed us to request the court

issue a County Court Claim (claim). The claim was issued on 12 October 2022.

On 1 November 2022 an email was forwarded to the Customer Care department stating

that you had raised a complaint with FOS. We were instructed that the complaint was

raised in September 2022. Due to this your file was placed on hold.

We spoke with you on 7 November 2022. You stated that FOS had responded to you six

days ago. You were informed that our application to request the County Court Judgment

had been reversed. It was agreed that we would send a letter to confirm the application

had been reversed.

On 8 November 2022 we received copies of emails sent to and from DLC.

We received your completed part admission form on 10 November 2022 admitting to

£1306.00 of the claimed amount. You completed section 3. Defence, stating that you

believed that the claim was reversed however as there was no evidence of this you

completed the court documentation.

A letter dated 15 November 2022 was sent to you providing you with confirmation that

the CCJ had not been obtained and your file was on hold until FOS had investigated your

concerns.

On 16 November 2022 we received your email asking for confirmation that the CCJ

application had been reversed and that the file was on hold.

We spoke with you on 9 January 2023, you stated you were told that the claim would be

reversed. You were informed that the CCJ application had been reversed and the file

was on hold due to the FOS complaint.

You stated that you felt that this matter should not be at claim stage due to the FOS

complaint. During this conversation you raised your complaint with this firm.

We received your email dated 9 January 2023 on 12 January 2023 providing us with a

copy of an email from DLC confirming that on 3 October 2022 they had forwarded to us

evidence that you had taken this matter to FOS.

My investigation

Our client forwarded to us a copy of the FOS acknowledgement on 3 October 2022. This

email was not actioned until 1 November 2022.

This firm spoke with you on 7 November 2022 and confirmed that the application for the

CCJ had been reversed. We did not confirm that the claim had been reversed. Our

letter of 15 November stated that Judgment had not yet been obtained.

This firm’s position

I am sorry that when our client informed us of your compliant with FOS we did not act

on this information and a claim was issued. Feedback will be provided to prevent this

from happening in the future. I therefore am upholding your complaint and offering you

a full apology.

I further propose to pay you £75.00 in compensation of your complaint.

The way forward

Your account

We are not currently instructed to proceed with the court proceedings.

Your file is on hold until we receive further instructions from our client which will be

dependent upon the outcome of the FOS investigation.

Compensation

We would like to send the compensation to you by bank transfer (BACS). Please contact

our office to provide your bank details so the compensation can be paid directly into your

nominated bank account. We are currently unable to provide cheques. Our Litigation

Customer Consultant team is available from 8:00 am to 8:00 pm Monday to Friday and

9:00 am to 1:00 pm on Saturdays on 0333 121 4454.

Conclusion

This is my final response under the terms of our complaints process. You are welcome

to contact me if you wish to discuss this response or raise any other queries.

Should you feel that your complaint has not been resolved satisfactorily through our

complaint procedure, you have the right to refer the matter to:

The Financial Ombudsman Service

You have the right to refer your complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service free of

charge – but you must do so within six months from the date of this letter.

If you do not refer your complaint in time, the Ombudsman will not have our permission

to consider your complaint and so will only be able to do so in very limited

circumstances. For example, if the Ombudsman believes that the delay was as a result

of exceptional circumstances.

For more information please click the following link regarding the guide ‘Your Complaint

and the Ombudsman’ https://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/publications/ordering-

leaflet/leaflet; you can also access the Financial Ombudsman Service’s website at

www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk.

I’d like to take this opportunity to thank you for bringing this to my attention and I hope

I have resolved the concerns that you had.

If you do wish to talk about any element of this letter, I would be more than happy to

discuss this with you so please do call 0333 1214454 and ask to speak to the Customer

Care Team. We are available from 8:00am to 4:30pm Monday to Friday.

Yours faithfully

****
Customer Care Consultant

Mortimer Clarke Solicitors