Car Finance Goodwill Payment From Repayment Difficulties

gregc77

I have received a letter from VWFS regarding a car I purchased on PCP in 2015 and subsequently refinanced in the car in 2019 to fully repay and purchase the car.  

During COVID I struggled with repayments and they have now written to advising that they are offering me a goodwill payment and I am unsure if I should accept it or not.  

I would be grateful of any advice.

Thanks
Greg


The letter is worded as follows:- 

We strive to provide customers with high quality services, and to ensure we are achieving this we carry out internal reviews.  We've recently looked at how we have previously supported customers who contacted us about repayment difficulties or have missed payments in relations to motor finance products. 

Whilst we have not specifically review our interactions with all our customers, our finding show that we may not have provided you with a service that meets the standards we aim to deliver.  

We are deeply sorry if this was not the case and to make amends for an unnecessary inconvenience we are making a goodwill payment to you of £400.

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MorningcoffeeIV

If you'd like £400, then accept it.

Clive_Woody

Free money sounds nice. I would accept and say thank you very much.

Cloth_of_Gold

It's not clear from your post in what way their service failed to meet their standards. Why are you questioning whether you should accept it? Do you feel it should be more?

hopeless94

gregc77 said:

I have received a letter from VWFS regarding a car I purchased on PCP in 2015 and subsequently refinanced in the car in 2019 to fully repay and purchase the car.  

During COVID I struggled with repayments and they have now written to advising that they are offering me a goodwill payment and I am unsure if I should accept it or not.  

I would be grateful of any advice.

Thanks
Greg


The letter is worded as follows:- 

We strive to provide customers with high quality services, and to ensure we are achieving this we carry out internal reviews.  We've recently looked at how we have previously supported customers who contacted us about repayment difficulties or have missed payments in relations to motor finance products. 

Whilst we have not specifically review our interactions with all our customers, our finding show that we may not have provided you with a service that meets the standards we aim to deliver.  

We are deeply sorry if this was not the case and to make amends for an unnecessary inconvenience we are making a goodwill payment to you of £400.

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I've just received this email too. Did you get the money in the end? I'm hoping it's true and not spam

Grumpy_chap

Assuming the letter is genuine, then accept the £400.  It is money for nothing.
If you don't want the £400, still accept it and then donate to charity.

ManyWays

You can also use the MSE tool to check if VWFS (and any other finance lenders) charged you any discretionary commission, it's here https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/reclaim/reclaim-car-finance/. 

400ixl

ManyWays said:

You can also use the MSE tool to check if VWFS (and any other finance lenders) charged you any discretionary commission, it's here https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/reclaim/reclaim-car-finance/. 

Thought that the VAG group including VWFS had already confirmed they did not do discretionary finance.

Sdj92

Did you accept the payment?

barnishroader

I received the same letter, and while I am going to accept it as £400 is hard to turn down, I did wonder why they would do this as a seemingly goodwill gesture.

My hesitation is should the payment have been higher and they are fobbing me off with this?

Will acceptance of this exclude me from a future payout that could have been more?

Nasqueron

barnishroader said:

I received the same letter, and while I am going to accept it as £400 is hard to turn down, I did wonder why they would do this as a seemingly goodwill gesture.

My hesitation is should the payment have been higher and they are fobbing me off with this?

Will acceptance of this exclude me from a future payout that could have been more?

Goodwill gestures are non-negotiable and are not tied to anything material. Reject it and you'll probably end up with nothing. It is completely independent of your right to complain about a service