Finance claim led to strange offer

BIGANDYT

Hi all, I had a Mercedes c class on finance 2016-2019.

I terminated the finance agreement as I'd payed over half the loan and it worked out better than settling. I was over mileage at the time and Mercedes Benz financial services tried to hit me with a £1400 in excess milage charges. Because the loan has been terminated I was told that the mileage charges didn't apply, but Mercedes argued they did. It went back and forth and we settled on me paying them £1k not £1400. 

I put in a car finance commission complaint a few months ago, using the tool on here and got a stock "we have paused based on guidance" email. 

However today I had a letter from Mercedes Benz related to the excess milage, saying they have investigated my account and I shouldn't have paid excess mileage to them at all, and they'd like to refund me, with 8% interest per year from 2019 on top. I had a separate letter from a firm blake morgan, saying they are acting on Mercedes behalf and want to arrange the payment of around £1500 to me.

Question I've got is do we think this has happened because they are getting their house in order and realized they shouldn't have taken the payment? And it's a result of/prompted by, them being investigated for the commission claim? Looking for any advice really. Do I just contact their solicitors and take the refund, or should I have a solicitor of my own to give me some advice first?

It just seems strange that they are getting in contact with me 5 years later to offer to put this right and there's no way they could have my new address if it wasn't for me putting the misselling complaint in.

Any thoughts or guidance would be appreciated. 

Brie

I think it's like PPI and PBA and other things.  People start by complaining and there's pull and push tussle and then some companies just say "Oh fudge it!" and start proactively sorting it out so there's less paperwork for them.  

There's so many things happening right now with car finance.  In a couple of years it will be finance for heat pumps or something else.

dunstonh

Question I've got is do we think this has happened because they are getting their house in order and realized they shouldn't have taken the payment? And it's a result of/prompted by, them being investigated for the commission claim? Looking for any advice really. Do I just contact their solicitors and take the refund, or should I have a solicitor of my own to give me some advice first?

Are they using solicitors?  That would be unusual.      Many firms use third party companies but the use of solicitors is unusual.

Why do you think you would need a solicitor?  Remember you would have to cover the cost of your own solicitor.
Why do you think their offer may be wrong?

When a complaint is made, it is a regulatory requirement to look at all aspects of the thing being complained about.  So, finding other anomalies is quite normal.

BIGANDYT

Hey to answer your questions. 

Yes, they say they are a solicitors firm called Blake and Morgan acting on behalf of Mercedes Financial Services. It's unusual which has made me wonder why.

Because it's unusual I'm wondering if getting an experts opinion is worth doing. Even if it costs me.

Their offer seems fair, they are offering to pay my money back and pay me interest, which at 8% a year is more than fair.

I've literally no legal experience, so wanted to make sure I wasn't doing anything silly before I contacted their solicitors and accepted their offer

Thanks for the replies.

BIGANDYT

I guess the only thing I'm wondering is if the agreement was voluntarily terminated after 3 years of a 4 year agreement, would it negate me being able to claim for the commission issue, even if I was still affected for the time before I voluntarily terminated. Maybe it's financially better for them to pay me off as it would allow them to say the agreement was fully terminated and pay me the 1800 rather than be liable for whatever the outcome of the commission claim is. I wonder if them doing this gets them out of the claim for commission misselling.

But as you say it might just be them investigating my account and making sure everything on their side is squeaky clean.

dunstonh

Blake and Morgan

Blake Morgan are a full service legal firm.   They don't just do direct legal stuff but also regulatory and compliance. 

I wonder if them doing this gets them out of the claim for commission misselling.

Not at all.  If they identified another issues then the FCA requires them to own up to it and put it right.  If they got caught covering it up then you are talking fines in the millions or tens of millions (Clydesdale bank got fined £20,678,300 for providing false information and not taking all relevant documents into account - their fine has acted as a deterrence to others)

BIGANDYT

Ok fair enough, I'll give them a call Monday and accept the cash. Thanks for your advice. 

fjh

I too had a Mercedes on a lease- had XS miles and I paid these.
Out of the blue a few months ago I had a letter from solicitors acting on behalf of Mercedes saying I was owed a refund.
Initially thought it was a scam. 
Very nice surprise when not a scam and monies paid to me quickly .