Puma Gen E order issues with Hartwells / ALD Automative - advice on verbal contract in UK

shakeitGB

New joiner today, but a long term reader, so thank you in advance for reading this thread and for any guidance you may offer. 

Around 6-7 weeks ago I saw the fabulous offer on the Ford Puma Gen E electric car which many Ford dealers were offering for £139 per month on a lease, with a £139 month deposit. The deal was for 5k miles per annum. I called my local Ford garage who confirmed the offer was real and I placed an order then and there on the phone. I was informed duly that my order was accepted. I provided finance information, typical with that which you'd provide when making a finance application. 

All was well until a few days later, when no paper work had been sent, nor any hard or soft searches on my credit file. I visited the Ford dealer, spoke to the general manager who happened to be on site and had it confirmed to both myself and my wife that the order was accepted and paperwork will follow. 

In the following weeks there was zero proactive communications from the garage. I called them myself once to twice per week, leaving messages and being promised call backs. 3 weeks ago the sales person called me to let me know there was an order back log with delays at ALD but then again confirming that the order was accepted. They would send paperwork through. It never came. 

The chasing on my side started again a week later, making several calls every few days. I finally got through to a sales person last week, again, confirming the order was in hand. We discovered the sales person had the wrong email address, which was correct and order forms were signed. Missing however was the details of the lease including the pay monthly amount and deposit amount. I was told I'd receive this by Friday last week, nothing came. 

I visited the garage in person on Saturday. I was told at the point, 7 weeks after the order was placed and accepted that due to ALD having a back log, that they were cancelling orders under the guise of finance not being approved as they did not want to fulfil all the orders. In the 7 weeks since ordering there have been no hard or soft searches on my credit file. 

The garage are now escalating to ALD but have mentioned that if the order was rejected, that they would not be able to honour the price. 

Please can someone give me some guidance here? I have contacted the garage 15+ times over the 7 week period since ordered and been told 4 separate times that the order was accepted and will be honoured. Does this constitute as a verbal contract acceptance?

I have no doubt I would have passed the finance had they actually done a check, I have very high earnings, zero bad debt and high equity in my house. I can prove through my Experian and Clearscore accounts that no searches have taken place. 

Mildly_Miffed

Can I clarify, please?

You placed an order verbally 7 weeks ago, around the start of September.
No written communication was received.
After six weeks, well into October, the wrong email address was discovered on file and corrected.
You then received and signed paperwork, but with no price on it.

No finance checks were ever made.
The offer is no longer available.

You want to know if you're eligible for compensation for loss of bargain? Or able to force the original offer to be accepted?

Simple answer: No.

Longer answer:
This appears to be the offer you were after.
https://www.facebook.com/hartwellplc/posts/drive-away-in-the-uks-best-selling-vehicle-gone-electric-for-just-139-per-month-/1206768218136067/
Read the small print: "All vehicles subject to availability at a Ford UK Authorised Dealer for all vehicles contracted between 1st July and 30th September 2025 ... Hartwell Automotive Group reserves the right to withdraw or amend this offer at any time without prior notice.
You did not contract the vehicle before 30th September.
That may have been down to the email address error meaning you missed the deadline by a fortnight or so, or even without that error it may have been down to lack of availability. Either way, I cannot see any way for you to pursue anything.

Car_54

Mildly_Miffed said:

Can I clarify, please?

You placed an order verbally 7 weeks ago, around the start of September.
No written communication was received.
After six weeks, well into October, the wrong email address was discovered on file and corrected.
You then received and signed paperwork, but with no price on it.

No finance checks were ever made.
The offer is no longer available.

You want to know if you're eligible for compensation for loss of bargain? Or able to force the original offer to be accepted?

Simple answer: No.

Longer answer:
This appears to be the offer you were after.
https://www.facebook.com/hartwellplc/posts/drive-away-in-the-uks-best-selling-vehicle-gone-electric-for-just-139-per-month-/1206768218136067/
Read the small print: "All vehicles subject to availability at a Ford UK Authorised Dealer for all vehicles contracted between 1st July and 30th September 2025 ... Hartwell Automotive Group reserves the right to withdraw or amend this offer at any time without prior notice.
You did not contract the vehicle before 30th September.
That may have been down to the email address error meaning you missed the deadline by a fortnight or so, or even without that error it may have been down to lack of availability. Either way, I cannot see any way for you to pursue anything.

I'd suggest the OP had a contract from the day in September when he ordered the car and his order was accepted.  The dealer don't seem to be disputing that.

Mildly_Miffed

I'd suggest a 2yr lease would not be contracted until financial qualification had been established.

letom

Any agreement will be subject to passing financing checks, those checks did not commence hence the contract wouldn't have been formed. To be clear it's not that you'd have 0% chance of winning a claim, but it's fairly close to that. You're effectively saying that you'd like to take them up on the offer, the counterparty, through incompetence hasn't progressed it, it's hard to see a world where that entitles you to form and complete a contract. Ultimately the dealer didn't 'accept your order', they 'accepted it, subject to conditions', those conditions need to be satisfied.

user1977

So the verbal contract was superseded by the written one. What do the terms of that say about cancellation? I would expect (almost) any contract to buy a new vehicle to allow the dealer to cancel if there is a problem with supply, or possibly for any reason at all.

shakeitGB

Thanks for the replies. Looking at the detail provided, it feels like more of a very poor customer services execution vs an agreement formed. 

The garage confirmed on several occasions that there was a back log with the finance company, everything was in hand and the offer would be honoured. Its only when pushing for greater clarity and getting official documentation outlining this has a problem surfaced. 

I think I have a good case as I can demonstrate all my communications to them. 

I wonder, has anyone else had anything similar happen to them? If so, what was the outcome?

user1977

A good case for what? Can we see the contract?

shakeitGB

user1977 said:

A good case for what? Can we see the contract?

A good case to prove wrong do-ing by the garage. 

From a legal pov there is no contract as mentioned in my post. Maybe worth a re-read?

The ethics of several times informing me the order was accepted, that there was a backlog with the finance company then pulling the price weeks later is clearly questionable. Unless you have experience this is a standard practise? 

For context this is our 6 or 7th car that we've leased, which not a huge number in the volume of cars leased every day, in our experience this isn't a great outcome.  

jimjames

shakeitGB said:

user1977 said:

A good case for what? Can we see the contract?

A good case to prove wrong do-ing by the garage. 

That might be the case but what exactly does it gain you?

user1977

shakeitGB said:

user1977 said:

A good case for what? Can we see the contract?

A good case to prove wrong do-ing by the garage. 

From a legal pov there is no contract as mentioned in my post. Maybe worth a re-read?

Yes, I spotted that you said "order forms were signed". What did they say?