Well it seems a little rediculous to me. The car is due a service - actually it's due two as it should have been serviced last year and it wasn't done. I'm prepared to get it MOT'd and serviced as that is in my control and I accept that the service at least should have been done. I can get this done at a local garage for £100. It's more the paint on the roof that I'm concerned about. I can't accept that a 2" square area of bird poo should be classed as unreasonable wear and tear on a 3 year old car, especially as the rest of it is absolutely pristine. Unfortunately, the paint has actually bubbled and will not t-cut out. The terms and conditions in the HP agreement are nondescript regarding damage to the car.

Hi everyone, I need some advice if you could help me out please? We're in the process of VT'ing the girlfriend's ford fiesta. The company sent a man out to inspect it, who now says that the car is in poor condition and wants to charge the following : £100 for an MOT (which I'm disputing as it ran out yesterday and they took their time getting to me in the first place...) £100 for no service £200 for bird dropping damage to the roof. All in all - £400 for a car that's just bang on three years old. The one I want to dispute is the bird dropping damage to the roof. As far as I can see, after cleaning and polishing the car, the damage is a slightly bubbled paint effect on the top of the roof of the car. I'm prepared to get the car MOT'd and serviced, that's no problem, but what are the rules on paintwork? My understanding was that the car had to be in reasonable condition for it's age, and at three years old I'd expect there to be some minor paintwork damage. If necessary I can take a picture for you to look at, but I wouldn't say it needed £200 worth of remedial work. Any and all help would be gratefully received. Many thanks, Paul

If you voluntarily hand back your vehicle half way though, does this impact your credit record in any way?

Hello, My girlfriend bought a ford fiesta on a four year credit deal exactly a year ago from a ford dealership. We've just discovered that the model sold to her is actually different to what is on the credit agreement (albeit in our favour). More seriously, it looks like the wrong car description has been entered into the DVLA database. The model bought is a Fiesta Freedom but the model received is a Fiesta Zetec. What is the situation - i.e. as the goods supplied do not match the description on the agreement, is she within her rights to hand the car back and cancel the agreement (with no penalty on her credit record)? Or are they able to simply supply her with a correct vehicle? Many thanks Paul

So do we just wait until after the OFT case is completed? All the best to everyone! (belated...)

Well, I've had an execution of stay put onto the claim. I guess I've just gotta sit and wait it out until after the test case?

Absolutely right, it's just an acknowledgement of service. Woo, nearly! Thanks Pete Paul

Right! I didn't realise that after I had my claim modified I had to reserve the claim (duh), but now that's all been done. This is still all because I didn't get it right in the first place, but I'm over that now and everything is going smoothly again. N1 posted to HSBC, second copy to MCOL and a charges breakdown attached to the lot. One thing that did make me wonder is that HSBC filed a defence within a week of receiving the claim (well, I've just received a copy of the document from the courts that states DG is filing a defence). Within a week though? I'm right in thinking that now I sit back and wait for directions, right? Lol, I hope I can get there.

Thanks Pete Sent my charges schedule with my N244 and new N1 after I ballsed up first time around, just waiting for the letter to say that D&G are defending before I send a copy to them too. Although I did send a further copy of them to HSBC when I attempted to negotiate with them. Silly me! Yet more waiting, lol. Fingers crossed, as always.

Just to let you know that I've received a letter from MCOL that's sending the case to the local county court. They've advised that I'll receive contact in the next 3-4 weeks. Woohoo!

Right, they've sent a letter back saying that since I've already registered with the courts, they're no longer prepared to converse with me and will now leave that to their solicitors. Wonderful! One question I do have is about the refunded charges. They refunded £200 worth of charges in October last year so on the spreadsheet I've reduced the charges for that month to 0, and reduced the month after to £25 (they were orgininally £100 and £125 respectively). This shouldn't have any bearing on the amount claimed or interest charged should it?

Ok, round two is on. I've replied to the letter, indicating that I would accept the amount they've offered plus my court fee in relation to the fact they took such a long time to reply. If I get that, I'll settle. Which saves them about £470 if they accept too, and I hope they'll see that point too! Are we taking bets as to how long it is before I get a reply? I'm thinking...three weeks (maybe months ) Thanks again for the advice, fingers crossed time!!

How easy is it to correspond with HSBC? I mean, if they're prepared to add £120 for a wasted court cost then I think I'd rather just settle and let them get on with it.

Progress is a wonderful thing Got up this morning and there's a letter from HSBC. They're prepared to offer me £2377 (against the £2722 i'm claiming for). Their reasons for this is that I've already had a £200 refund of charges already (as an incentive to get into their premium plus bank accounts scheme) and £200 in charges upto and including today. What would you guys do? I'm not sure, I didn't remember the refund but going through the statements again, they're definately there. However - the court would allocate, in respect of interest and full amount, approx £3100. Any suggestions?

And we're away! I've sent a new claim, including the charges sheet and a claim amend form to get my case going. The only downside is that it's cost me £35, but another way to look at this is that I get that back in the interest charges claimed back from the original case. Woohoo, one more to D&G (with an egg enclosed :grin:) and we've got another case on our hands! Paul

Haha feel free to chuck a couple of eggs at them while you're at it! If they're going to try to justify charging £125 per month in charges they can count that in their costs!! Thanks for your help again guys, just waiting for some help with the N244 form (made a friend at the MCOL helpline, lol!) and then we're back on track. Just hoping that guy in Hull hasn't set precident for future cases!!

Right, situation possibly saved. I've spoken to the court, I have to submit an N244 form to amend the claim, but also filling out an N1 too. When filling out the form on moneyclaim, where it says amount claimed, do I put in the amount including the 8% interest to date, or just the amount that's actually been debited? Cheers Paul

Disaster. Somehow, and I don't know how I've done it, I've got the claimant and defendant stages the wrong way round when filling out the online form. When the claim came through this morning, I nearly had a heart attack when I read that I was the defendant. How in god's name do I recover myself from this!!

Thanks for the adviced, processed my MCOL claim this morning so it's now ongoing. Do I need to post any information in here regarding this?

I know we talk about sticking to time tables, but what if I can't afford the £120 MCOL fee for a few weeks? Sounds daft, but I don't have that cash to spare at this stage...is it going to cause problems?

At this stage, no I'm not. I'm about to post my second letter via recorded delivery so hopefully, this will motivate them into some sort of positive result. I've received the standard "we're looking into it, bear with us" letter, I'm choosing to stick to our timetable so far. Thanks for everyone's advice, this forum is brilliant. Hopefully there's one more result to come. I'll keep you informed - letter posted on day 15 recorded delivery.

Hellooooooooo! I sent my first letter two weeks ago exactly, and I've just (on the 14 day mark) received a letter stating that my case is being looked into. Therefore, I'm today going to send my letter before action via recorded delivery. Any tips on anything I need to do? In fairness, so far, I've not added the interest onto the outstanding charges, do I need to yet? Here goes nothing Paul (The Large Portion)