After sale customer service - franchise dealer

brainiack

Evening all, after a few opinions/thoughts on this situation:

Bought a used car, cash, spending over £10k, for a model less than 5 years old from the manufacturer/franchise dealership locally. At time of purchase the sales person promised to send a paint touch up pen for some minor marks/scratches, which we had also had some negotiation of the price over.

Now, 3 weeks later, no pen has arrived, despite the promise on sale handover day, and despite me chasing this up several times - given its rather bizarre a main dealer cannot source a touch up pen within max 2 weeks, let alone 3!

To add to this, I began hearing a rattling noise from the car, which I've worked out is due to a missing damper on the parcel shelf of the car, making it unstable and bouncing/rattling over bumps occasionally. I requested the dealer provide this part free of charge and send it, as I had evidence from photos and video that it had been missing since handover. Again, nothing since being promised this and chasing several times.

So, how annoyed would you be? I am not sure whether to escalate to a formal complaint out of principle, spent a lot of cash for a used car and the after sale customer service is minimal!

Or, be glad there isn't worse with the car and sort my own issues out? I have never experienced such poor after sale customer service, and lack of any updates or communication has compounded this.

Ayr_Rage

Confront them face to face without losing your temper.

born_again

5 year old car.

Not at all annoyed.

Pen can be picked up cheaply.

Damper make one up out of same foam, they will not have been aware it was missing.

Frozen_up_north

"Confront them face to face without losing your temper." I did on two occasions and it made no difference. Speak to the dealer principle, or whatever they call the boss these days.

I had an even more frustrating experience with my car bought new from a main dealer. One of the "free" extras (yes I know it's smoke and mirrors) was 3 year alloy and tyre insurance. Well I managed to kerb a wheel parking offside on a bend, guess what? No sign of the insurance, no amount of chasing the salesman produced a result and as far as I could ascertain you had to claim within 30 days of the damage occurring. I emailed the head office of the dealership and they phoned back saying they had no details of the insurance ever having been paid and did not seem to be interested in chasing it up… Fortunately they did mention the insurance company they use, I contacted them and send a copy of the invoice for the car clearly showing the insurance and an amount "paid". The very next day the insurance company contacted me back and said a wheel repairer would be in touch and it was all sorted, sure enough by the end of the week the job was done.

So it's not just you, even a minor issue should be attended to.

LightFlare

For a car that age - I would have asked for the dealership to sort the chips/scratches out.

Touch up pens rarely do a very good job

Was the parcel shelf damper present at time of test drive ?

If it was, then you should have a reasonable expectation for it to be there now

If it wasn’t - not so much

Either way - as suggested, a bit of foam or a visit to a breakers yard may be the most pragmatic solution

brainiack

Thanks all, seems like I should just leave it. Not too fussed about the paint pen, as others have said its minor, doesn't make much difference and really should have pushed them to sort it properly anyway.

For the damper part, this is more annoying as it is causing a specific issue (noise) and is really incompetence/negligence on their part (and arguably mine not to detect earlier) - but still, its an issue detected within the 30 days and essentially by ignoring me so far they are in breach of that.

As per suggestions, I can and will just get a rubber and stick it on the parcel shelf for £1, as the official part itself is over £20 plus postage for something the dealer should have sorted and said they would.

Bigphil1474

Don't forget to give them an honest review. Might change their mind. Some companies do respond to negative but honest reviews.

Mildly_Miffed

"but still, its an issue detected within the 30 days and essentially by ignoring me so far they are in breach of that."

Don't forget that all consumer rights are tempered by reasonable expectations for used goods of that age, relative price, and apparent condition.

Is it realistic to have expected a minor bit of foam to have gone AWOL in a five year old car? Yes.