Direct Auto Finance

[cazpoppies]

Hi Folks,

This is a long story but I'll try to keep it brief!!
Bought a car from YCC in September last year, cost me £5,500. It came with a 12 month warranty. ( I was lucky that on the day I bought it they had some sort of training on and were unable to sell me extra warranty.)

Anyway at the beginning of January the engine "blew". Not a problem I thought, the warranty will kick in. Not a chance, they claim that the radiator was badly corroded and this caused it to leak, leading to the engine overheating and causing the con rods to be damaged, result, a new engine required.

The galling thing is that they claim that I must have been aware of this and continued to drive the car whilst it gave out poor performance. What a lot of nonsense. The car was going fine up until this happened, and it happened all of a sudden! The AA man who picked me up said that he checked the radiator and there was water in it, and is willing to give this in writing.

Anyway, the car has been lying in a garage since 15th January, and I have had to continue with the payments. DAF have given me their final correspondance on this and are refusing to budge from their position that "it's my fault and my responsibility"

I was wondering if anyone thinks that I have a case for taking them to court under the sale of goods act as I am convinced that this car was sold "not fit for purpose" bearing in mind how long I had it and how much I paid for it.

Any advice would be gratefully received.

[sequenci]

Originally Posted by cazpoppies

Hi Folks,

This is a long story but I'll try to keep it brief!!
Bought a car from YCC in September last year, cost me £5,500. It came with a 12 month warranty. ( I was lucky that on the day I bought it they had some sort of training on and were unable to sell me extra warranty.)

Anyway at the beginning of January the engine "blew". Not a problem I thought, the warranty will kick in. Not a chance, they claim that the radiator was badly corroded and this caused it to leak, leading to the engine overheating and causing the con rods to be damaged, result, a new engine required.

The galling thing is that they claim that I must have been aware of this and continued to drive the car whilst it gave out poor performance. What a lot of nonsense. The car was going fine up until this happened, and it happened all of a sudden! The AA man who picked me up said that he checked the radiator and there was water in it, and is willing to give this in writing.

Anyway, the car has been lying in a garage since 15th January, and I have had to continue with the payments. DAF have given me their final correspondance on this and are refusing to budge from their position that "it's my fault and my responsibility"

I was wondering if anyone thinks that I have a case for taking them to court under the sale of goods act as I am convinced that this car was sold "not fit for purpose" bearing in mind how long I had it and how much I paid for it.

Any advice would be gratefully received.

i would certainly say you have a very strong case indeed!

[buzz]

Hi Cazpoppies,

I am sure you have a good case. Unfortunately, you are not alone with your bad experience.
I had a very similar experience to you.
My engine broke after four months, At first, they would not accept responsibility. However, after pestering them for three weeks, I eventually managed to get them to pay for it and even ended up £400 better off at the end of it!

DAF / Yes Car Credit treated a lot of customers very badly.
The atrocious "customer service", false promises,bullying etc., eventually led to their downfall and eventual closure in December 2005.

We have a site dedicated specifically to get justice and fair play for our members and visitors, many of which were in the same situation as you.

Please visit us on www.saynotoyes.co.uk.

I am sure we will be able to help you.

Buzz.

[bakedalasker]

Hi Buzz, thought I would catch you in here.

Cazpoppies,

As Buzz mentioned above we have a number of users on our siter that is dedicated to helping out victims of Yes Car Credit. Why not give us a visit.

Going on your story I would say you have a very good case against YCC. My advice to you is make an appointment with Trading Standards. They are familiar with the antics of YCC and should be able to help you out considerable.

[cazpoppies]

Thanks for the advice guys.
Went to my local trading standards today, very helpful. They took a copy of all my correspondance with DAF.
The advice they gave me was to concentrate on fighting my claim with MB&G (warranty company). I am to get in touch with the financial services ombudsman to explain my case.
Meanwile the guy at TS will get in touch with the office nearest to DAF and ask if they can put some pressure on from their side.

Taking DAF to court is a last resort due to cost and difficulty of actually winning.

TS also asked me to research similar cases that have been brought to court so if anyone can point me in the right direction it would help.

ps. Thanks for pointing out the saynotoyes website.

[cazpoppies]

RESULT!!!!

Can't believe it but got a call from Trading Standards this morning. Basically Trading Standards in West Sussex have a contact at DAF and after explaining my case to them they have admitted that I have been treated unfairly and had made 2 offers to resolve the issue.

1. They will make out a cheque to me for the quoted amount of the repair, £1817.91 allowing me to choose where I get it repaired.

2. Get a garage to carry out the repairs and send an invoice to them and they will pay it.

My only concerns are that as the car has been lying dormant for 6 months there may be associated problems (brake seizure etc.) Ideally I would get the garage to fully repair the car and send an invoice but because of all the problems they are not willing to take the risk of not getting paid.
I also want them to reimburse me the £250 that it cost me to have the engine stripped down so that they could inspect it.
I dont want to go to another garage as they have been very good to me, loaning me a car for the first month and storing mine since January.

[bakedalasker]

Thats great news Caz. See you have posted this info on our website Saynoytoyes. Also thanks for doing that as its good to receive encouraging news.

My only slight concern in your lasrt post was TS's idea of going to the warrenty company and not DAF. As its a HP agreement the car is owned by DAF and it is up to them to ensure the third party carry out their responsibilities. The third party would not do anything without consulting DAF first.

Anyhow, its great news, hope everything goes smoothly from here. Any other problems you know where we are.

[cazpoppies]

Hi Bakedalasker,

Thanks for your comments.
Just to confirm, I have had it confirmed by TS this morning, this is what happened.
TS didn't get as far as tackling the warranty company. They spoke to someone who has been contracted by DAF to resolve any customer issues and he has looked at my case and suggested that they settle. Unfortunately TS have been asked not to give out his name or I would gladly pass it on.
DAf have told TS that a letter of apology and a cheque for the full amount will be sent out to me today so I will let you know when (if!) I receive it.

As you know, I have posted in saynotoyes under a different user name. I have spent a lot of time on this site so I am well aware what type of company I am dealing with, so if they do what they say they are going to do I think I am very lucky!!

Hope some people can take encouragement from this.

[deemacperth]

Who was your contact in Trading Standards that dealt with your case?

[cazpoppies]

Hi Deemacperth,

Not sure if it will help because I'm in Scotland (although maybe you are as well if your user name is anything to go by!!).
I dealt with Chris Patterson in TS East Lothian in Haddington, don't have the name of his contact at TS in West Sussex but I can confirm that I received the cheque earlier this week and the covering letter was signed by Niall Gilhooley who is the Chief Operating Officer at DAF.

Hope this helps.

[KAB]

Can somebody please help me...

I had a car from DAF to which I returned after I had reached the 2 year mark; I had to buy a complete new engine & Exhaust system (£1296) I also had to replace the gear box (after only having it 2 months) at a cost of £800. I informed DAF warranty dept (Not covered). I have recieved in the post this morning a letter from a debt company informing me that I owe £1900 for a warranty (even though I no longer have the car)....they have suggested I can pay half of this payment and they will close the account. I am desperate for help as I dont think I should pay any of this money for a worthless warranty.

[bakedalasker]

Originally Posted by KAB

Can somebody please help me...

I had a car from DAF to which I returned after I had reached the 2 year mark; I had to buy a complete new engine & Exhaust system (£1296) I also had to replace the gear box (after only having it 2 months) at a cost of £800. I informed DAF warranty dept (Not covered). I have recieved in the post this morning a letter from a debt company informing me that I owe £1900 for a warranty (even though I no longer have the car)....they have suggested I can pay half of this payment and they will close the account. I am desperate for help as I dont think I should pay any of this money for a worthless warranty.

Hello KAB,

When you brought the car from DAF what you perhaps did not realise was that you were also purchasing 4 years worth of warranty upfront. If it is any consolation to you there are many victims of DAF who are in the same position as you but not all is lost.

There are a number of legal arguments making there rounds in the law courts against the DAF contract. These arguments are forcing these debt collection agencies to "set aside" the debt they are chasing you for. To find out if you have a case against your contract using these legal arguments there are a number of avenues you can go down: -

a. Make an appointment with your local CAB and ask to speak to a specialist advisor regarding DAF/YCC. These guys are leading the fight against DAF and have had a number of successes against them.

b. Call Stephensons solicitors on 01942 777777. Quote No2Yes to them and ask to speak to Joanne McKay. They have over 60 cases against DAF and will give you a free initial assessment.

If you want to feel you are not the only one out there why not visit our site www.saynotoyes.co.uk.

Good luck with your case.

[KAB]

Thanks a lot, shall check out website and keep all informed. Great advice its much appreicated.

[BEANIE2050]

This company has now gone bankrupt, if you still have outstanding debt with them then WARNING you will recieve a leeter from a debt company asking you to contact them.
This company is not aware of all contracts that have been issued to all of the customers. My partner is now having to take legal advice as all his options given to him by direct auto have now been removed.

[chaplinsbabe]

hi there beanie could you please confirm your source for this info that DAF have gone bankrupt? as far as I was aware from my solicitor they have sold a lot of the debts on to a compny called Direct Legal and Collections but I had not heard they had been made bankrupt. Any info you have on this would be appreciated as I would need to speak to my solicitor about it and where it leaves my case ASAP

[BEANIE2050]

I Was Told This By The Company That Has Taken On The Debt. I Have Also Found Out That Daf Closed My Partners Account In January And They Have Still Been Taken Payment From Us The Are Now Refusing To Provide Us With Any Account Details.

[daveintheuk2000]

Something must be going on as they have not taken any payments from me this month

[oneofakind]

I am still in regular contact with DAF. Is there any concrete evidence that they are out of business? I know Yes Car Credit disappeared a while ago, but DAF still seem to be around... and taking my payments...