Hi all,

My partner and I purchased a car from a second hand car dealer in sept 13. The car was continuously causing issues (electric hand brake, power issues and not starting regularly). We instantly contacted the dealer on every occasion and eventually he tried to repair to no avail. We then asked for a full refund, to which he agreed.

Once we arrived at the dealer to return the car, he stated he wasnt in a position to give us a refund and we had no choice but to chose a different car. With the dealer being fairly pushy and not wanting to be stranded with my partner and two children and no car, also the dealer is about 25 miles away from our home. My partner went for the best pick of a bad bunch, without test driving. As it was her car and i was minding the children. date of exchange was 19th oct 13.

After getting the car home I took it out and discovered the clutch was slipping. I called the dealer and informed him straight away, he was extremely reluctant to agree, but after taking it to an independent garage, he informed us all the clutch issues. I passed this on to the dealer, he then agreed to let his mechanic look at it, to which they then agreed to repair it ONLY if we paid £200 extra. We then agreed, as all we wanted was a working vehicle.

The work was carried out and our £200 was paid to the dealer. A few weeks later the clutch was even worse than to begin with, the dealer was informed once it became apparent that the clutch was in a bad way still. He offered to have it looked at ONLY if we brought it over when it the issue was happening (the issue this time wasnt the clutch slipping, it was the gear box/clutch unable to select any gear, but then a day or so later it would work for a while). The car was only driven small distances after this, shopping and essential travel. As the vehicle was temperamental she was reluctant to drive 25 miles in it.

I'd also like to add that the dealer was constantly stating the mechanic is at fault and not him so deal with him, when we called the mechanic he would then stat it was the dealer at fault, constant circle. At this point i was extremely frustrated and vented at him down the phone and demanded a refund. He refused.

My partner and I have since written him a letter stating the situation, although we didnt state any sale of goods act. Hes replied, lying and its clear he doesnt feel hes in the wrong.

Since the vehicle has been out of action we had to borrow family members vehicles and have now had to purchase a new car.

If you'd like to view the letters im more than happy to post them.

Do we have a chance in winning if we took it to court? Are we entitled to a full refund?

cheers,

Kenny

Hi kenny

Welcome to CAG

How did you pay for the car?

Have a read of the following:-

http://www.oft.gov.uk/shared_oft/reports/676408/oft1241.pdf

Hi rebel11, thanks for the reply.

I paid for it with with my debit card.

Have read through the info youve provided. I think we've got a case to fight here. would you agree?

Im now going to compose a new letter highlighting the areas I believe theyre at fault and ask his intentions for resolving the case, before going via the courts.

would this be an acceptable route?

cheers,

Kenny

Hi kenny

I think so, although you should have rejected the car immediately, then maybe call family / friend to pick you up.

Send a Letter Before Action, you need to show the court that you've tired everything to resolve the matter.

Have you got any correspondence with the dealer regards the issues you've been having?

Hi rebel11, thanks for the reply.

I paid for it with with my debit card.

Have read through the info youve provided. I think we've got a case to fight here. would you agree?

Im now going to compose a new letter highlighting the areas I believe theyre at fault and ask his intentions for resolving the case, before going via the courts.

would this be an acceptable route?

cheers,

Kenny

I know i should have rejected it now. Although at the time i kind of felt bad for the bloke (although i really dont now, suppose im a softy) i also never expected this much bad luck especially with the same garage (2 faulty cars!!!)

we have exchanged a letter each and i sent another friday. The last letter was stating our wanting to resolve the matter asap and how unwilling he has been. We offered him him a chance to resolve, and asked how he saw the matter getting resolved. We explained if he had no resolution to this matter then we'd have no other option other than to go to court.

Kenny

Hi all,

just wanted to post an update.

we've sent the trader a letter trying to resolve the matter and stating that if we didnt receive a reply then we are going to take them to court to resolve the matter. We not received a reply for 14 days so we now want to try and get our money back via the courts.

I was considering legal advise before continuing, im i right in thinking im entitled to 15-30 mins free legal advise, if so could someone point me in the right direction. Im going to look at local solicitors and citizens advice first.

Is there anything id need to do/know before taking these xxxxxxx to court?

cheers,

Kenny

Hi kennykenn7

I'd give it a few more days.

Hi all,

just wanted to post an update.

we've sent the trader a letter trying to resolve the matter and stating that if we didnt receive a reply then we are going to take them to court to resolve the matter. We not received a reply for 14 days so we now want to try and get our money back via the courts.

I was considering legal advise before continuing, im i right in thinking im entitled to 15-30 mins free legal advise, if so could someone point me in the right direction. Im going to look at local solicitors and citizens advice first.

Is there anything id need to do/know before taking these xxxxxxx to court?

cheers,

Kenny

Nothing stopping you getting the ball rolling, while you wait for a response.

You can do it yourself, even on line (MCOL ). minimal set up cost about £35

thanks for the reply guys!

The last letter they received was on the 10/5/14 (signed for). So tomorrow will be 14 working days, although we stated a response within 7 working days. I have no problem leaving it a few more days. but how long?

im pretty sure he is the type of guy who thinks we are just bluffing. So to be honest i dont expect a response from him.

thanks again

Kenny

If paid by VISA debit card, phone them and ask to do chargeback.

Think phone number is on back of card, if not get contact details from your bank.

We did pay by visa debit, but this was done the back end of last year. Is it still possible to do a chargeback? Purchased in October 13, but the case has been on going since, December 13.

How does that work for me?

Cheers,

Kenny

Chargeback on debit cards, has no legal basis as do credit cards ( section 75 ); it is purely discretionary by either the bank or VIsa! and is internal, one of the rules are that any claim must be within 120 days of purchase.

I don't see anywhere the problem with the clutch, (except slipping), or what was done to repair it. Was the clutch replaced ??

right, we've left it a little longer to see if the dealer was going to reply. Its now blatent he doesnt intend too, we've warned him of legal action in our previous letter. What should our next steps be? we've registered with MCOL.

all help appreciated

conniff - the clutch was worn when purchased and the garage have tried to repair it twice to no avail. We even paid a portion of the replacement (£200). The car physically wont go into gear due to the clutch not working properly. its broken down multiple times due to the clutch and the garage arent willing to acknowledge this!

It won't go into gear as the clutch must have some drag on it, it's not throwing out fully. This says to me they did not repair it but tried to get around the problem with adjustments.

You should send (recorded) a Letter Before Action. This could be an almost identical letter to your last one but Letter Before Action in bold at the start of the text.

At the bottom you should say that 'further action will be taken and no further correspondence will be entered into.

£200 would get you a new replacement clutch.

i agree conniff. its been a horrible ordeal dealing with these guys.

I'll get that letter written and posted asap.

Just for reference, if theres no reply for settlement or help from the garage, take the case to MCOL?

Kenny

Most certainly, there is no point making the threat if you aren't willing to go through with it.

The other way would be to send a letter giving one more chance or you will take it to the dealer and send them the bill. It's always easier to make a claim for money.

Hi Guys,

Just updating.

The garage in question received our letter before action on friday. Clearly stated are unhappiness with the level of service and asked how they plan on resolving our case. Hopefully will able us when/if it goes to court. He's yet to even offer a solution and is ignoring us. does this work in our favor.

Is there anything else we should do to ensure all avenues have been tried to resolve this?

we've registered with MCOL and will be opening the case on friday....is this too early?

cheers,

Hi Guys,

sorry for the delay ive been away.

we recieved a letter from the car sales and they've stated that they're willing to repair the car. although we'd still prefer our money back.

So a few of questions -

Do i take him up on the solution? we would get the car repaired and then sell it or do we continue to take him to court?

If we did take him to court would we need to respond to his last letter before applying to take the matter to court first?

to be honest this issue is dragging out. we're just getting fed up with all this and just want the matter resolved.

many thanks

Did you go ahead with your claim ??

i was holding out for his reply email and havent submitted the claim yet.

Hi, for those that are still following this thread. The MCOL claim has been submitted. not enough space for the claim but im sure i put enough down regarding the issues.

lets see how it goes.

cheers to all those that helped

Hi, yes we did go ahead with the claim.

The 14 days was up on 17th august, but as stated they have up until the next working day 18th august to file an acknowledgement or defence. Although they filed an acknowledgement first thing this morning. Called the courts and they said this is ok for him to do it. Any have any info on this?

His acknowledgement has stated he is going to defend the whole claim. And i can only assume hes going to take it all the way.

So now he has 28 days from the date of service to file a defence (31st august, which will then be the 1st sept) if he hasnt filed a defence, do i request judgement.

or

Is it now just a matter of waiting and going to court?

thanks all.