Welcome Car Finance problem!

tosmod123

Hi all,

Long story Ill try and condense..

• Got a car from WCF, went to trade in for 1k, got £1. My fault for being naive.
• Had the car from Oct 2006 - Feb 2007 payments all made fine.
• Wrote car off Feb 2007. Lots of problems with insurer and WCF and gap insurance, including the insurer saying the cheque had been sent to WCF and them saying it hadnt.
• May/June by this point and Im still trying to find out what I need to do re payments, have WCF had the cheque etc etc. No response from WCF
• Sent letters, called (no one ever answered the phone) my account was held in bracknell. After alot of googling, I found out they had no manager and were looking to recruit. July by this point and still nothing from them. Insurance company confirmed cheque had been cashed.
• Sent yet more letters asking what next of WCF. None of which I have now just to note....
• I heard nothing else, and moved house in dec of that year. Now, I was young and naive and didnt think to check through the paperwork and consult citizens advice etc, hence todays problem.
• i received a letter from them in August this year, saying i owed them 5k (I think the original finance was only for about 7k) I called them and got a really nice lady (who has since left) who explained that I actually owed £1k and it was the insurances I was owing on. Annoyed, but said yes fine Ill pay, send me the paperwork.
• Got another letter saying I still owed £5k and no sign of the brakedown of costs I had asked for.
• Spoke to horrible woman, asked again for breakdown of costs - got another letter with £5k on it, and she said there had never been a 1k offer made! I said I was sure 5k on insurance was a bit steep.
• Have since had a letter (HP statement) with an opening balance of £5k and now a load of costs for letters etc! Opening balance started October 2008. I cant for the life of me get a balance from them to show me exactly what it is I am meant to owe them and what for.

Is this normal?! Any advice greatly appreciated. Please dont tell me how silly I was - i now know that...:mad:

Sol00

tosmod123 wrote: »

Hi all,

Long story Ill try and condense..

• Got a car from WCF, went to trade in for 1k, got £1. My fault for being naive.
• Had the car from Oct 2006 - Feb 2007 payments all made fine.
• Wrote car off Feb 2007. Lots of problems with insurer and WCF and gap insurance, including the insurer saying the cheque had been sent to WCF and them saying it hadnt.
• May/June by this point and Im still trying to find out what I need to do re payments, have WCF had the cheque etc etc. No response from WCF
• Sent letters, called (no one ever answered the phone) my account was held in bracknell. After alot of googling, I found out they had no manager and were looking to recruit. July by this point and still nothing from them. Insurance company confirmed cheque had been cashed.
• Sent yet more letters asking what next of WCF. None of which I have now just to note....
• I heard nothing else, and moved house in dec of that year. Now, I was young and naive and didnt think to check through the paperwork and consult citizens advice etc, hence todays problem.
• i received a letter from them in August this year, saying i owed them 5k (I think the original finance was only for about 7k) I called them and got a really nice lady (who has since left) who explained that I actually owed £1k and it was the insurances I was owing on. Annoyed, but said yes fine Ill pay, send me the paperwork.
• Got another letter saying I still owed £5k and no sign of the brakedown of costs I had asked for.
• Spoke to horrible woman, asked again for breakdown of costs - got another letter with £5k on it, and she said there had never been a 1k offer made! I said I was sure 5k on insurance was a bit steep.
• Have since had a letter (HP statement) with an opening balance of £5k and now a load of costs for letters etc! Opening balance started October 2008. I cant for the life of me get a balance from them to show me exactly what it is I am meant to owe them and what for.

Is this normal?! Any advice greatly appreciated. Please dont tell me how silly I was - i now know that...:mad:

What about the insurance payment? Has this never been properly been confirmed as being received by WCF? Have you checked with the insurance company and asked for written confirmation that you can use?

mithuthecat

And people wonder why Welcome Finance had to close all there showrooms,They did not employ carsalesmen as we know it but so called financial advisers.I have been having all manner of problems with their Castle Donnington showroom for over 2 years,letters to the branch,local office,Nottingham,Batley as well as Rugby Collections office totalling over 60 pages have amounted to nothing.There legal department is now trying to get money off me over £18500 for a car that was returned after a few weeks(another long story) car value£5k Ive said,take me to court but I want every member of the staff that you employed at the branch when I bought the car to be in court.They have not got back to me yet.I would never ever deal with such a company like Welcome again,they are Pond Life

searcher1

mithuthecat wrote: »

And people wonder why Welcome Finance had to close all there showrooms,They did not employ carsalesmen as we know it but so called financial advisers.I have been having all manner of problems with their Castle Donnington showroom for over 2 years,letters to the branch,local office,Nottingham,Batley as well as Rugby Collections office totalling over 60 pages have amounted to nothing.There legal department is now trying to get money off me over £18500 for a car that was returned after a few weeks(another long story) car value£5k Ive said,take me to court but I want every member of the staff that you employed at the branch when I bought the car to be in court.They have not got back to me yet.I would never ever deal with such a company like Welcome again,they are Pond Life

There's so many complaints about WCF seen on the web. Your post and the others give a sad story about their sharp practises. Their miss selling of insurances (most of which are worthless) and aftersales to be equal with a fantasy film.
I myself bough a car in 2003 from them. I never missed a payment over 4 years BUT one day I got a call from some nasty young lady saying I had. They had in fact moved offices and lost payment details for a month! Never an apology nor anything else.
What people do not quite realise is WCF salepeople (like 'yes' and the like) got amazing payments for their sales. A good friend was chatting once to (I'm sure) make me angry by telling me it was not unusual for a top financial sales advisor to earn £40k (!!) in a good month. Kind of tells you a story there me thinks.

Michael

rh1_3

CLAPTON wrote: »

In any event changing a car every year is the nearest I can think of to simply burning money.

Welcome Car Finance is nearer with zany APR's

Kazipoo

rh1 wrote: »

Welcome Car Finance is nearer with zany APR's

I got a 4% flat rate from them.... which I don't think was that bad at the time, just over 2 years ago In fact, when I recently went into a main dealer, they laughed when I told them what my current rate was, and told me not to bother looking at a new car just yet, as their best rate was currently around 19% (VW main dealer!!!), don't know whether he just couldn't be bothered doing a deal, or whether he was actually telling the truth, in any event I decided that I wasn't going to get a new car if it meant my payments would rise so significantly, so I shall stick with my golf for the time being.

PeggyMitchell

rh1 wrote: »

Welcome Car Finance is nearer with zany APR's

Extremely 'Zany' in my opinion.

BigD63

I bought my Jaguar from WCF, just over a year ago I was happy with it until things started to happen. Oct to Nov 2009 I had serious problems with my car, which I didn't think Jaguars had major problems. Having read through some of the articles here, WCF don't have car salesman they have money advisers...thats if you want to call them that.

To date I ended up paying just over £2k for works to be sorted on my engine, the latest being a dual flywheel, before that I had my clutch went, before that there was a split in a pipe which leads to the turbo, before that I had to have it service, then my main lights went even though when I got it, it had all the ticks, to say the car is fine.

I beg to differ on all this, even though I've had the car for just over a year, and I right to complain to WCF?, even though I feel they'll do nothing about it.

Also what are your views on things being sold to you (PPI & Recovery car breakdown) when buying a car from WCF, coz you end up paying twice as much for the car.