Santander Consumer Finance for PCH - are they OK?

retireetobe

Hi, I am looking at getting a new car on Personal Contract Hire, and Santander Consumer Finance have given a really good quote - substantially cheaper than anyone else including the main dealers. 
I've just looked on Trustpilot though and they have lots of really bad reviews!  They are part of the Santander group, so I can't imagine they're 'scammy', and I know reviews can be skewed by all sorts of things - but it is making me a bit wary. I'm just wondering if anyone has taken car finance via them and would recommend them or otherwise?
Thanks in advance if anyone can help or share experiences

BoGoF

Their customer service can be pants but in reality how many people actually contact customer service. Unless you are wanting to pay more for (maybe) getting a better customer service should you need it then ignore reviews.

cpbackhouse

I'm pretty sure that Volvo finance is all handled by Santander. They certainly have my car. The odd times I've had to contact them to get permission to add a towbar and to get the paperwork for driving in France I had no issues.

EssexExile

cpbackhouse said:

I'm pretty sure that Volvo finance is all handled by Santander. They certainly have my car. The odd times I've had to contact them to get permission to add a towbar and to get the paperwork for driving in France I had no issues.

Yes it is, no problems here although I had no reason to contact them.

Nasqueron

Customers often don't leave reviews if they are satisfied with the service, people who don't read terms and conditions or do stuff like not pay their bills on time and get black marks on their credit file or don't realise what a balloon payment is or other mistakes on their part will leave bad reviews. Santander as a lender are perfectly fine, I had car finance through them and had no issues at all but then I read stuff and pay my bills on time.

BMH64

I leased a new VW Tiguan from Santander Consumer Finance in October. The car broke down in December and January, and has been at the local VW dealer since January 10. VW confirmed in writing that they don’t know the root cause of the problem and don’t know how to fix the car. I have kept Santander informed all along.

The Consumer Rights Act requires that goods are fit for purpose and of satisfactory quality. As this clearly is not the case I asked Santander for a replacement. They agreed the car wasn’t fit for purpose but cannot replace it unless the VW dealership who supplied it agree to do so and that VW hadn’t agreed to this. I pointed out that this makes no sense as my contract is with Santander not VW. After speaking to Citizen’s Advice I sent a recorded delivery letter to Santander to tell them I am using my Final Right To Reject under the Consumer Rights Act. They always play for time and have not given me an answer. Their staff promise to call me back but never do it and they appear to have no knowledge of the Consumer Rights Act. I wished I had never leased from them,

Ectophile

BMH64 said:

I leased a new VW Tiguan from Santander Consumer Finance in October. The car broke down in December and January, and has been at the local VW dealer since January 10. VW confirmed in writing that they don’t know the root cause of the problem and don’t know how to fix the car. I have kept Santander informed all along.

The Consumer Rights Act requires that goods are fit for purpose and of satisfactory quality. As this clearly is not the case I asked Santander for a replacement. They agreed the car wasn’t fit for purpose but cannot replace it unless the VW dealership who supplied it agree to do so and that VW hadn’t agreed to this. I pointed out that this makes no sense as my contract is with Santander not VW. After speaking to Citizen’s Advice I sent a recorded delivery letter to Santander to tell them I am using my Final Right To Reject under the Consumer Rights Act. They always play for time and have not given me an answer. Their staff promise to call me back but never do it and they appear to have no knowledge of the Consumer Rights Act. I wished I had never leased from them,

Realistically, Santander won't have a stock of replacement cars to hand out.  All they can do if the car is unrepairable is to cancel the finance.  So you can buy another car elsewhere.