Help Dealing With Car Dealer - Faulty Car

k3lvc

MikeJXE said:

It's unbelievable a main Ford dealer does not have access to curtesy cars, what happens when new car buyers bring theirs in for servicing ? 

Of course they have access to them - what they choose to do with them and what they choose to tell a customer are two completely different things.

Good that the OP has now got the Finance company involved and surprised this wasn't mentioned earlier as an option for additional support

HampshireH

MakingLifeMine said:

HampshireH said:

Have you put a complaint in?

There is absolutely no way you should be having to pay finance on a vehicle and additional hire car costs because a garage is too busy to look at your car.

I would be putting my complaint in writing, examining the weekly hire costs as a result of their refusal to offer a replacement vehicle and requesting payment in full us any on going costs associated due to the ongoing delays (I e. Extra hire costs).

Yes, I put in a formal complaint with the finance company and I have kept a copy list of the expenses I have incurred so far plus the receipts. 

Thats good but what about with the dealer? 

photome

MikeJXE said:

It's unbelievable a main Ford dealer does not have access to curtesy cars, what happens when new car buyers bring theirs in for servicing ? 

it seems that many dealers got rid of courtesy cars during Covid and some havent replaced them

MakingLifeMine

HampshireH said:

MakingLifeMine said:

HampshireH said:

Have you put a complaint in?

There is absolutely no way you should be having to pay finance on a vehicle and additional hire car costs because a garage is too busy to look at your car.

I would be putting my complaint in writing, examining the weekly hire costs as a result of their refusal to offer a replacement vehicle and requesting payment in full us any on going costs associated due to the ongoing delays (I e. Extra hire costs).

Yes, I put in a formal complaint with the finance company and I have kept a copy list of the expenses I have incurred so far plus the receipts. 

Thats good but what about with the dealer? 

Oh I put in a formal complaint a week after they had it as before they took it in, they told me they would look at it on the 4th and didn’t.

the service manager advised me to put on a written complaint via email to the dealership manager.

The manager simply has not responded to it. I gave the finance company a copy of the complaint.

I’m a little bit torn as to whether I should be emailing the dealer if the finance company are involved now.

i did email my complaints manager at the lending company to understand if I can peruse the dealership independently as I don’t want to make things complicated.

DE_612183

Is the dealer a franchise that has a head office?

May be worth speaking to them rather than just the dealership where the car is.

DE_612183

Have you heard back from the finance company - I've had experience of similar and the finance companies usually get better traction ( forgive the pun ) that joe bloggs - they should also give you a complaint ref as they are covered by FSA ( I Think ).

Also have you tried your insurnace company - they may be able to do something as well.

MakingLifeMine

DE_612183 said:

Have you heard back from the finance company - I've had experience of similar and the finance companies usually get better traction ( forgive the pun ) that joe bloggs - they should also give you a complaint ref as they are covered by FSA ( I Think ).

Also have you tried your insurnace company - they may be able to do something as well.

I called the finance company today and they had contacted the dealership last Friday and have had no response as of yet. They do have a head office and their website does state that if I do not hear back from the dealership manager, then I am to put a complaint in with them which I will be doing tomorrow morning.

They also told me that if I get a response that I am not satisfied with, I can take this to the ombudsman which I am willing to do, but right now, I really just want my car.

According to my terms of my insurance policy they will not get involved unless the car was involved in an accident, and I wouldn’t want to claim on insurance because then my insurance would likely go up which I really wouldn’t want!!

DE_612183

MakingLifeMine said:

DE_612183 said:

Have you heard back from the finance company - I've had experience of similar and the finance companies usually get better traction ( forgive the pun ) that joe bloggs - they should also give you a complaint ref as they are covered by FSA ( I Think ).

Also have you tried your insurnace company - they may be able to do something as well.

I called the finance company today and they had contacted the dealership last Friday and have had no response as of yet. They do have a head office and their website does state that if I do not hear back from the dealership manager, then I am to put a complaint in with them which I will be doing tomorrow morning.

They also told me that if I get a response that I am not satisfied with, I can take this to the ombudsman which I am willing to do, but right now, I really just want my car.

According to my terms of my insurance policy they will not get involved unless the car was involved in an accident, and I wouldn’t want to claim on insurance because then my insurance would likely go up which I really wouldn’t want!!

I was thinking more of legal protection with the car insurance.

MakingLifeMine

DE_612183 said:

MakingLifeMine said:

DE_612183 said:

Have you heard back from the finance company - I've had experience of similar and the finance companies usually get better traction ( forgive the pun ) that joe bloggs - they should also give you a complaint ref as they are covered by FSA ( I Think ).

Also have you tried your insurnace company - they may be able to do something as well.

I called the finance company today and they had contacted the dealership last Friday and have had no response as of yet. They do have a head office and their website does state that if I do not hear back from the dealership manager, then I am to put a complaint in with them which I will be doing tomorrow morning.

They also told me that if I get a response that I am not satisfied with, I can take this to the ombudsman which I am willing to do, but right now, I really just want my car.

According to my terms of my insurance policy they will not get involved unless the car was involved in an accident, and I wouldn’t want to claim on insurance because then my insurance would likely go up which I really wouldn’t want!!

I was thinking more of legal protection with the car insurance.

got you! Good call, I will check

MakingLifeMine

So new update.

I raised a complaint with head office, only for them to tell me that they are sending the complaint back to the branch that I purchased the car. They did this because they apparently had a new manager. Quite curious to know why it was never relayed to me that the line manager I was emailing had left or when the new manager would review the original complaint.

They started the diagnosis yesterday (only 5 weeks later, lol) and apparently they are doing a bit of back and forth with Ford so they don’t know what that will be completed.

One good thing that came out of this was the fact that the new manager has arranged a courtesy car for me to collect on Monday. 

To cut costs for me, I replaced the battery on an old (but temperamental) car, insured it and taxed it which worked out cheaper than hiring long term.

I hired for the first 3 weeks which cost around £600. Replacing the battery on my old car, insuring and taxing my old car was £300. Then it would have cost around £300 a month to run (for petrol and insurance). 

So not having a car so far has cost me £900 to make alternative arrangements to get around!

Now I don’t have to worry about those additional costs and only have to worry about petrol which will save me money.

Main thing is I will now have a reliable car whilst they figure out what is wrong with mine.

I have kept receipts for all the costs and I will be requesting that I be reimbursed for all reasonable costs incurred due to the car having to go back as they did not fix the issue properly in June AND due to them delaying the repair for no reasonable reason.