Cinch repairs complaint

bearded_dragon123 · 10 July at 12:24PM

We bought a car from cinch which we have discovered has a severe mechanical malfunction. Interested to find out what our rights are on this? Can we get refunded for the PCP finance payments we've made whilst we haven't been able to use the car?

17 April – Collected car from Cinch, purchased on finance.
Immediately after purchase – Noticed gearbox fault: difficult to engage second gear; sometimes pops out.
Contacted Cinch – Reported fault; Cinch said they would arrange diagnostics.
Late April–May – Chased Cinch via email due to lack of updates. Responses were vague or unhelpful.
30 May – Car broke down: couldn’t go into second gear, strange noise, burning smell, and oil leak.
- Car became undriveable.
- Called Cinch – they claimed it was booked into a garage but never told you, and garage had no contact details for you.
4 June - Hire car arranged by Cinch via Thrify arrives after 4 days of no vehicle (which was incredibly stressful as we have a disabled son who we need to/from transport to nursery).
5 June – Cinch said recovery was scheduled for the morning – we stayed home until 1:30pm the day before our wedding and nobody showed up.
6 June – This was our wedding day.
8 June – Left for honeymoon, still trying to sort recovery while abroad.
12 June – Car was finally recovered to a garage.
13 June – Garage diagnosed:
- Gearbox had severe damage (three holes), needs replacing.
- Brake discs also lipped.
- Garage stated this damage was not caused by your use.
13 June–7 July – Car remained at the garage while Cinch’s warranty team delayed decision.
7 July (Monday) – Cinch said they would recover car to another garage and provide updates in 48 hours.
10 July (Thursday) – Followed up – car still not transferred, no update on repair timescale.
Ongoing: We're still paying PCP finance while the car is unusable but raised a complaint with the finance company on the 14th June after receiving the diagnostic

During this time, we've had to use taxis to transport our son to/from his nursery and to medical appointments, and I have also had to pay for my own insurance on the hire car as Cinch only insured my husband who bought the car and took out the finance. All of this, has left us unexpectedly out of pocket and frustrated by the customer service we've received and the fact we were sold a car that had such a major issue.