Section 75 - Claim rejected unfairly

benwade

Hi,

I filed a section 75 claim with Tesco bank for an alloy wheel refurbishment where the company damaged the wheels and are refusing to resolve even though they have accepted they caused the damage. I paid £300 for the service and the damage has cost me ~£100 in diagnostics. Unfortunately the wheels are damaged beyond repair and will cost ~£2000 to replace.

My claim has been rejected because Tesco Bank say my claim is under £100 per item as the £300 covered 4 wheels. I’ve disputed this twice showing them evidence that the quote I received was for a complete set of alloys to be refurbished and was not priced per wheel. I also showed them many screenshots from the company’s social media account with quotes for full sets. The company’s website does quote per wheel at less than £100 per wheel but I booked in through Facebook messenger where they only quote full sets. I don’t even know if their website had that pricing structure when I booked in and Tesco also won’t know. All we have is the quote for a single set from the time that I booked in.

Am I correct that I am covered as I was quoted for 1 complete set at £300 rather than 4 wheels at £75 each?

Thanks,
Ben

molerat

It seems to be one of those arguable cases - have they damaged all 4 wheels beyond repair ?  How could they even actually do that ?  Anyway, your only option now is a complaint to the bank then on to the FOS.

benwade

Yes, all 4 wheels damaged. Looks like they forgot to mask the hub area and they’ve taken a file to them to remove the paint and unfortunately a load of metal too, now the wheels don’t locate on the wheel hub properly. They’ve accepted it happened during their process.

I have an open complaint with Tesco but am expecting them to agree with their Section 75 team. Can I open a case with FOS before Tesco conclude within their complaints team or do I need to wait for that to conclude first?

molerat

You need to wait for their final response or 8 weeks whichever comes sooner.

DullGreyGuy

How does it show on the invoice? 

S75 only covers it when individual items are over £100... there is often a debate on what an item is -v- a set etc. If it says "wheel refurbish" and has 4 in the quantity column etc you are almost certainly going to lose. If you can show they do individual tyres for £100 but have a "Set of 4 tyres" for £300 then maybe you've a better change unless its worded as buy 3 get the 4th free in which case its pointing to individual items again

benwade

Unfortunately I don’t have an invoice, I wasn’t given one and I didn’t think to ask for one as everything looked good when I collected.
What I do have is the transaction on my credit card statement and screenshots of how the job was quoted, one set at £300.
The company has plenty of deals advertised for sets of wheels on their Facebook (which is where I booked), actually they only quote for sets of wheels there. The tricky bit is that their website (which isn’t where I booked) only quotes individual wheels.

My view is that I had a quote for a set of wheels through Facebook and that’s what I booked in for and paid for. Tesco however divided this by 4 even though it wasn’t quoted per wheel.

Olinda99

This is obviously wrong and Tesco are trying it on

It's like them saying your kitchen refurb quote is 12 different jobs - one for each kitchen unit installed

Complain to them

born_again

benwade said:

Unfortunately I don’t have an invoice, I wasn’t given one and I didn’t think to ask for one as everything looked good when I collected.
What I do have is the transaction on my credit card statement and screenshots of how the job was quoted, one set at £300.
The company has plenty of deals advertised for sets of wheels on their Facebook (which is where I booked), actually they only quote for sets of wheels there. The tricky bit is that their website (which isn’t where I booked) only quotes individual wheels.

My view is that I had a quote for a set of wheels through Facebook and that’s what I booked in for and paid for. Tesco however divided this by 4 even though it wasn’t quoted per wheel.

If you do not have a invoice. Then Tesco are going to look at the amount debited the account. Divide by 4 = under £100.

What did the retailer say when you went back to them, given they damages them?

For S75 you need to prove your case.

benwade

Olinda99 said:

This is obviously wrong and Tesco are trying it on

It's like them saying your kitchen refurb quote is 12 different jobs - one for each kitchen unit installed

Complain to them

That’s how I see it too, pleased I’m not alone

born_again said:

benwade said:

Unfortunately I don’t have an invoice, I wasn’t given one and I didn’t think to ask for one as everything looked good when I collected.
What I do have is the transaction on my credit card statement and screenshots of how the job was quoted, one set at £300.
The company has plenty of deals advertised for sets of wheels on their Facebook (which is where I booked), actually they only quote for sets of wheels there. The tricky bit is that their website (which isn’t where I booked) only quotes individual wheels.

My view is that I had a quote for a set of wheels through Facebook and that’s what I booked in for and paid for. Tesco however divided this by 4 even though it wasn’t quoted per wheel.

If you do not have a invoice. Then Tesco are going to look at the amount debited the account. Divide by 4 = under £100.

What did the retailer say when you went back to them, given they damages them?

For S75 you need to prove your case.

Surely they should look at the proof of how the job was quoted given the lack of an invoice?

The retailer offered a repair of the wheels but I was not happy with their proposal, they wanted to machine some of the metal away and replace with plastic spigot rings - this modification would affect the part of the wheel which bolted to the wheel hub of the car, this is a highly stressed area. I wasn’t happy with the proposal so I checked with BMW if this was an approved method and they told me it’s not. I have all of this in writing. The retailer told me the only other option was “to put them in the bin”. I told them the only way to fix this is to replace the wheels which they’ve refused as they think their offer of a repair is acceptable, despite my proof that it’s not.

400ixl

What they are proposing is totally acceptable. Its the way that millions of multi fit wheels are manufactured every year. BMW wouldn't do it that way as they are a manufacturer and their response will be to replace them.

Some OEM manufactured wheels even use spigot rings.

The spigot ring only helps locate the wheel evenly to align with the wheel nuts. The wheel nuts / bolts then hold the wheel in place and take the stress. The spigot rings are under no stress at all.

They could very easily provide counter reports which show it is perfectly safe and commonly used.

benwade

Thanks for your comments. 
There are more reasons why I can’t accept the spigot rings but I’m not looking to discuss the technical details, I am looking for financial advice.