Hi Scaniaman It's turning into a right saga! The manager of the garage contacted Trading Standards last Friday denying any knowledge about the faults with the car. The manager was not prepared to refund the monies for the repairs stating i had not given him fair opportunity to undertake the repairs himself - he would have recovered the car and got it repaired himself. he did say he would think about any refund over the weekend and get back to TS. Needless to say Monday came and after denying receiving my e-mails said he would carry out his own investigation and get back to TS - needless to say i have heard nothing back since then. Strange - didn't know about my letters, e-mails or phone calls, so he says!!! He also took almost two months to contact TS after 3 letters were sent to him. It's all been a total waste of time, don't seem to have got anywhere with Consumer Direct or TS, makes a mockery of the whole law system if you ask me.

SOGA does not appear to have much standing in my opinion. The garage didn't respond to me, ignored letters from Trading Standards and to date i have got nowhere, the garage are arrogant enough to believe they are above the law. Trading Standards will 'abondon' the case come 31 March 2011 as some Local Authorities have pulled funding with all the budget cuts and it just so happens the local Council in my area is one of them. Small claims court action is now being progressed by me and I have written to the Judge from the Sunday Mail to see if he will get involved. What hope have we got as consumers when the law doesn't punish those traders who think they are a law unto themselves!

Well the garage has ignored intervention from Trading Standards, failing to respond to two letters sent to them. The next step is that their local Trading Standards (Fife) will be requested to visit them at the garage - i just feel the invetiable (court) is being delayed now.

Not a lot to report since i last posted. Trading Standards wrote to the garage who have failed to respond as yet. If no response is received within 14 days then the garage's lcoal Trading Standards will attend the garage. It definitely seems this garage thinks they are above the law! The garage buys cars from main dealers that are traded in and sells them on, mine came from Arnold Clark and after reading other issues on this forum about them, it doesn't install much confidence in the car, which i bought. I will let you know when i hear back from Trading Standards.

Thanks Sailor Sam I have not submitted the claim to court yet. Consumer Direct referred the case to Trading Standards who have been in touch. As u understand it they are going to attempt meidation but i can still see this going to court, the garage seems to be of the opinion they are above the law - to the point they are arrogant. Nothing is ever made easy.

As expected, not a peep from the garage, they have chosen to totally ignore all correspondence so tomorrow i intend to file a claim with the small claims court. It is all compounded by the fact that they have also ignored my requests for evidence of the service history, which i needed to extend the warranty on the car. I wish i could name them to warn other people not to go near them as their after sales is non existent, they just grab your money and run!

Ho hum Royal Mail as it's best failed to deliver my Special Delivery next day letter to the garage - so much for it's guarantee. The original Recorded Delivery has not been returned, it has been 'lost' in the system - great advert for Royal Mail, not! Ever get the feeling, things just aren't going your way?

It appears the dealer has refused delivery of my letter! I have today sent a second 'final letter before action' by Special Delivery to be delivered tomorrow. I have given them seven days to respond and if they fail to do so then i will just start small claims court proceedings. BTW still not received a response to my request for the service history, rogue dealers or what!!!

Hi Crem I did try to phone and posted on twitter but all they could tell me that it is only tracked on delivery, they couldn't even tell me where the letter was. In addition they said deliveries were delayed due to the adverse weather, seems to me like this is just an excuse for Royal Mail now as there has been no snow for almost two weeks now. I will wait until Friday and if still not delivered, then i will try an alternative to Royal Mail, no fiath in them now.

Just to keep you updated, letter has still not been delivered, Royal Mail tracking says it is still being progressed through their network for delivery - sent on 13/12/10 by first class Recorded Delivery so beginning to wonder if maybe the garage has refused delivery, will keep you updated when i hear something. GA

Hi Scaniaman Ahem i am a she tut:lol: Letter still not delivered and still no response to my e-mails requesting the service history - oh and i wrote to the Judge from the Sunday Mail. I can always have the satisfaction that i might just get to name and shame them. GA

Thank you Sailor Sam. I will do as you advise, just need to get the first letter delivered and give them time to respond. I will keep you updated and let you know what the outcome is. GA

Hi Conniff Thank you for your input. I posted the letter on Monday, 13 December 2010 by recorded delivery, but as yet it has not been delivered as there are still postal delays due to the weather. The garage is a large second hand dealer, which takes cars in from main dealers to sell on. Budget ranges from £2000-£50,000. It's not a garage where the salesmen are on commission but get a decent salary no matter how many cars they sell each week - but they do average moving 25-30 cars per week. I doubt very much they will pay up, just a feeling i got from the arrogant salesman when i eventually managed to contact him. two weeks after my original complaint. They have still failed to respond to my e-mails for the service history also so i seriously need to consider my options now. GA

Just to update you Sailor Sam. I spoke to Consumer Direct today and was advised to write a brief letter simply stating i was claiming consequential losses due to the car not being of a satisfactory quality/not fit for purpose. It appears i was within my rights under the Sale of Goods Act to have the car repaired, not only because they failed to respond to my communications but because it caused me great inconvenience. I will keep you updated as to whether the dealer responds or settles my claim but if not i have every intention of taking this to court. Thanks again for your help. GA

Hi Sailor Sam The problem is my communte to work is an 80 mile round trip each day and with public transport unrelaible in such a rural area, i have no alterntive mode of transport should i chose to return the car - how long will it take to refund my money, find another car? It's a catch 22 - also with the repairs, the garage reckons i shouldn't have any further problems. You have been a great help with your responses and it is very much appreciated.

Here goes - hope it makes sense, let me know if there is too much detail. XXXXXXX xxxxxxxxx The Manager XXXXXXXX XXXXXXXX XXXXXXXX 13 December 2010 Dear Sir Madam Vauxhall Corsa Registration XXXXXX I purchased the above detailed vehicle from you on 5 November 2010, which within one month of purchase proved to be of unsatisfactory quality due to the failure of the accelerator throttle pedal. As a result of the severe weather conditions and being unable to return the car to you I telephoned twice during 1-3 December 2010 to be told XXXXX was with a customer/didn’t know where he was and that he would call me back but to date there has been no response. I made these calls using my mobile to ensure they can be evidenced. I followed these calls up by e-mail on 7/9/10 December 2010, again no response. I have since gathered there was a loss of internet connection but I find this unacceptable as a business, e-mails can be checked and followed up by alternative methods. As explained at time of purchase, the car needed to be reliable as it was to be used for commuting to and from work daily. For a period of one week I had to resort to public transport which was not only unreliable but averaging 5-6 hours daily, which was not acceptable. In the meantime I gave you fair opportunity to respond to my communications, which you failed to do. I was left with no alternative but to repair the car at my own cost, which had sat unused for a period of ten days. As I live in a rural area and the car was undriveable it had to be recovered. In addition the vehicle battery was found to be of the wrong voltage when diagnostics was carried out and therefore also had to be replaced. The car was also advertised with a service history, which you have failed to provide evidence of to date and therefore it appears was misrepresented, as detailed in the Sale of Goods Act, at the time of sale. I was told at the time of purchase, this would be forwarded onto me along with any additional keys which were handed in, again my requests for evidence have been ignored. On my third attempt of trying to contact you today (11 December 2010) as XXX had been unavailable, I was advised that XXXXXX had no intention of reimbursing the sum of £475.00 for the repair of the vehicle. I have now been legally advised that as I repaired the car myself, this does not negate your responsibility for the vehicle within the Sale of Goods Act, only that you could dispute the costs. I can only assume that failure to contact me was as a result of the one month warranty you provided was within days of expiring but I understand from Trading Standards that the vehicle, having not been owned for in excess of six months, will automatically be presumed to have had the fault at time of purchase and it is your responsibility to prove otherwise if you refute this claim. If I have not received a response within seven days then I will have been left with no alternative but to progress this in the small claims court. Yours faithfully

Excuse my ignorance but do i just post a copy of the letter on here or do i have to send it privately? Sorry unsure of the etiquette on the forum. GA

Thank you again Sailor Sam. Would you be willing to look over the letter i have drafted, which i will be sending to the garage on Monday, to check if i have missed anything? GA

No Need to apologise Sailor Sam, i am just grateful for your advice and understand advice cannot always be replied to immediately. I did call the garage back and they are not interested, their stance is the Sale of Goods Act works both ways and as far as they are concerned i should have given them fair oppirtunity to inspect the car and carry out any repairs so they are not interested. I will write to them anyway by recorded delivery and intend to progress this legally as a matter of pronciple - surely 10 days waiting for a response is reasonable but as far as they are concerned their internet was not down and messages had not been relayed to the relevant individual so it's not their fault. I sure wouldn't advise anyone to buy a car from this garage, instead to stay well clear of them, most unhelpful and quite arrogant. GA

Thank you Sailor Sam. We managed to contact the salesman today and i have to phone back tomorrow morning. The faults found on the car were the accelerator cable had gone and the voltage on the battery was wrong, which had consequently damaged the electrics. The dealer said today that i should have given them the opportnity to rectify the faults but after 3 phone calls and 3 e-mail messages, i received no response or no return calls. They are saying there internet connection has been down and that no message was passed on to the salesman concerned. As i was paying £25 per day to work and an additional 3 hours travelling on train/bus, how long did they expect me to wait? the whole point of buying the car was to have something reliable to get me to and from work. I admit i went ahead and had the car repaired, pick it up tomorrow, as i could not wait any longer for the dealer to contact me - surely two weeks should have been sufficient time. Where do i stand in relation to the car being repaired without them having seen it, remembering they had made no repsonse to my attempts to contact them over two weeks and i could not drive the car to the garage as the roads were blocked due to severe weather? I will have to see what they say when i phone back in the morning, any idea of what my arguement should be, considering they have also failed to present me with the doumentation for a supposed car with a service history? Thanks for your timely responses Sailor Sam, much appreciated. GA

Hi Sailor Sam Thank you for your response. I originally requested the promised serving documentation reminding them that the car was advertised as such - no response. I followed up, after advice from Trading Standards, quoting the Sale of Goods Act as the car to be sold not as advertised. Prior to this i did telephone and was adviced by one of the sales staff they would let the salesman know and get him to contact me but they have just ignored me to date. I do have hard copies of the e-mails and ensure i called the garage from my mobile so they cannot deny i called. Thanks again GA

I am hoping someone can advice me as to where i stand legally. I purchased a 2006 Vauxhall Corsa on 5 November 2010, which clearly stated on their website (which i have printed off) that the car came with a service history. On viewing the car and requesting the service history i was advised that as the car had only been received by the dealer two days previously they were awaiting the documentation and it would be forwarded to me on receipt. On 4 December 2010, one day from one month of purchasing the car, i started to have problems but the dealer failed to respond to my phone calls and e-mails and due to the adverse weather i could not travel to the dealer. Today i managed to get the car recovered and a diagnostics test carried out and i have been left with a bill of in excess of £400 for the repairs alone. I was asked about the service history but explained the background and was advised these repairs should not have been necessary if the car had a current service history but i can get no response from the dealer who sold me the car so it would be appreciated if you could advise me if there is any recourse i can follow up with the dealer? Thank you in advance for any advise you can provide. GA