Carcraft Complaint

[geordie_mark]

Hi,

I recently made my second biggest financial purchase (after my house). I paid £8,101 to Carcraft for a 06 plate VW Golf 1.9TDi (40,000 miles, no service history - I intend to get it services soon). I thought I had got a great deal from them. With the car I got a 3 month warranty - they tried to sell me the extra warranty regardless of the fact that I only had £8,101 to spend.
Anyway, within a week of owning the car i noticed a quiet scraping noise coming from the clutch - as i pushed the pedal. I also noticed a rattling noise while the car was stationary. These were tell tale signs of something gearbox related but I didn't know how serious the fault was.
Within the 1st week of owning the car, I called Carcraft/Carcraft Services and arranged to put my car into their garage to have this checked out. I put the car in on monday the 8th of June (2009).
Carcraft have investigated and diagnosed that the car requires a new gearbox and clutch.
To cut this story short, here are my complaints:

- It's now the 28th June (sunday) and I still don't have the car I bought. I've been without my car for 20 days. They gave me a 1ltr Vauxhall Corsa as a temporary replacement for a VW Golf - thanks ! The garage have ordered the wrong part twice in the time they've had the car. This has led me to evaluate the competency of the mechanic's ability to fix the fault properly. The 3 month warranty that I bought the car with is dwindling away as each day passes with the car in the carcraft garage.

- Carcraft assured me that the mechanics had done a 150 point check on the car to deem it fit for sale. They seemed to have missed a job that would set me back upwards of £1000 to pay a VW garage to fix. If it wasn't for the 3 month warranty, I'd be counting down the days/miles until the gearbox failed. The positive is that the warrantly company agreed to front costs to repair my car - however I still dont have the car so things might change dramatically when I pick it up !
- Carcraft have rang me with an update only once in the 3 weeks that they've had my car - POOR COMMUNICATIONS. I've been the one having to calling them for updates - shocking.

- My confidence in the car has fallen massively. I'm no mechanic but I'd assume that any car that requires a new gearbox after 40,000 miles is either crap (not likely, VW's are quite reliable) or has been driven hard by it's previous owner. This makes me worry about other potential faults on the car (e.g. head gasket, wishbones etc).

The funny thing is that the tax on my car expires on the 30th June 2009 (2 days from now). I have the replacement tax disc ready for getting the car back - but I wont take it to them unless they ring me to request it.
The even funnier thing is that the tax on the courtesy car (Corsa) also expires on the 30th June 2009. I'm not going to ring them to let them know. If I get caught, they'll get the fine.

I plan to ring up customer services to raise my complaint tomorrow morning. I will also be putting some demands in. Here they are:

1. I'd like for Carcraft to pay for an Independant mechanic (of my choice) to run a full check of the car. That way, I'll be able to give Carcraft the report of any work that needs doing on the car. Basically I want assurance that the car is fit for purpose.
2. Extend the warranty by 2 weeks.
3. Have the car ready for me to pick up before Wednesday the 1st of July. If it's going to take longer, take it to a VW garage and pay them to do the work.

If the above cannot be met, my request will change to:

1. Transfer £8,101 into my bank account and keep the car.

Does anyone think that I'm being unreasonable with my complaint/demands?

[Conniff]

First off, NO phone calls, do things in writing and by recorded at that, then any problems in later life will give you the strict proof required should they have said something that later turns out to be false.

Don't worry about the warranty. Any warranty is extra to your statutory rights.

The thing to do this morning is to write to them and give them seven days to return you car to you in a (as the regs say) 'satisfactory' condition.

You can't demand that they take it to another garage of your choice for a check and then pay for that check. You can, of course, take it there and pay for it yourself.

Tell them in todays letter, that if the car isn't returned in 7 days then you will reject is as is your right and want a full refund of all costs. No 'please' or 'request', just direct talk.

You must insist that you get a complete bill of repair from them, that is parts and labour but especially the parts used, and from whome they got them. You don't want parts fitted that came from a scrappy which is what this sort of company usually does.
Maybe that's why the delay, none of the scrappys have that particular gearbox in stock, so be very careful on this and why you should never do this on the phone or verbally.

If you look around this site you will see hundreds of complaints about 'Carcraft', and if you google carcraft problem you will see thousands. Don't be one of those statistics, demand your rights from the very start.

[geordie_mark]

Thanks for the advice Connif. It's all been taken on board. Me and my fiancee put a letter together last night. The letter contains a list of our concerns with regards to the service that we've been receiving from Carcraft.
I'll be asking for every piece of documentation associated with the work done on the car - including extras like guarentees on parts.

If I'm not happy with the reply that I get, am I in a good position to ask for my money (£8,101) back for the car?

Thanks again,

Mark & Holly

[geordie_mark]

Do you think that I should ask Carcraft to do their 150 point check again and give me a full report of the findings?
That way I could take the car to VW for a checkup and compare the information.

[markyg30]

Hi im Mark from devon and i am going to start a action against car craft by going to thee sales centres and keep wrting letters to them and have solicitos write letters to them to and i have also got trading standards on there case now to

[NotFrankRizzo]

Hi there- you may have already done this, but I would take steps to try and verify that mileage, too. A VW should not be spitting gearbox parts- not even a clutch which is a 'wear item'- after only 40000 miles. The service history might be missing because it records a much higher mileage...

If that car was VAG serviced previously, they should be able to run you a service record print out which will show any previous work done, and record the mileage at that time. Just a thought, and possibly it is all as seems in the mileage department- but worth checking out too.

[geordie_mark]

I've got my car back now. It's working fine. The clutch problem seems to have been erradicated. They've said they're sending me the receipts/invoices for new parts that were used.

I still don't think I can trust them though, so I've booked my car in for a service (this friday) at a local garage. I've been to that garage before so the mechanic/owner knows me and he's agreed to inspect the engine, transmission, gearbox, brakes, stearing, suspension etc and give me a report containing anything serious that I can take to carcraft before my warranty runs out.

markyg30: don't back down to them. But make sure you check up the various trading acts (i.e. wieghts and measures act, descriptions act etc) to find out where CC are in breach of law - then you've got them by the balls.
Could you let me know why you are starting action against them?

Surely there must be some people who've bought from CC and been completely happy with their purchase/the quality of service they've received. Are there?

[geordie_mark]

Originally Posted by NotFrankRizzo

Hi there- you may have already done this, but I would take steps to try and verify that mileage, too. A VW should not be spitting gearbox parts- not even a clutch which is a 'wear item'- after only 40000 miles. The service history might be missing because it records a much higher mileage...

If that car was VAG serviced previously, they should be able to run you a service record print out which will show any previous work done, and record the mileage at that time. Just a thought, and possibly it is all as seems in the mileage department- but worth checking out too.

Hi Frank,

I'm getting the car serviced (independantly of CC) on friday. They've agreed to check over the motor - including the job that CC have done.

How would I go about getting access to a Service Record Print for my car baring in mind that I have no service history?

Cheers

Mark

[NotFrankRizzo]

Hi Mark

I can't be 100% sure it's the same for VAG, but for MG Rover (when they existed) and also BMW I was able to persuade the service manager at the dealerships to print me out the internally held (in both these cases on a central computer system) service records for two cars which I was disposing of for the company I work for.

You'll need the V5 as proof of ownership/interest, and it won't have hurt if you've just had the motor serviced at the VAG garage concerned. From their records, they should be able to tell you what was the last VAG service your car had (regardless of which dealership, so long as it was part of the VW/Audi network) and therefore what it now needs. I don't think they're under any obligation to do it, but the two experiences I've had of it they have been very accomodating.

The only difficulty you'll have is if it's been service outside of the Volkswagen dealer network- but to be honest most owners do the first few services with the network to make any warranty claims more straightforward.

Hope this is helpful- I'd be interested to know how you get on...

[geordie_mark]

The car's been serviced and checked thoroughly. The mechanic said that the car was in good shape, suspension is fine, job looked to have been done properly on the gearbox (inc clutch), brakes have been changed... All is fine - the car has been given a clean bill of health. I've managed to put my mind at rest.
The way I see it, I bought a 3 year old Golf with a slightly high mileage (40,000) for it's age for £8k - which is very good for a Golf. The car had a major problem when i bought it, which Carcraft sorted out for me free of charge. I've raised a complaint that it took them 3 weeks to replace the gearbox and clutch. I reckon the car is worth more than £8k now that the major fault has been resolved.
I'm happy now

Cheers for your words of advice