Major problem with Mercedes finance

[ICY]

Quite a long story, started 3 years ago when my wife wanted a new car, so we went to the local Smart dealers as thats the car she wanted, evnetually we chose a car and got the finance sorted, and went away.

 

About a year ago we discovered that we werent on a finance deal at all, in fact we had a PCP deal on the car, whereby in 3 years time we would need to virtually pay for the car again or give it back, They sent us a pack about 6 months ago telling us that we would need to pay around £6000 to keep the car (the car was around £8000 to buy 3 years ago) because we didnt know it was a PCP we didnt bother going to the dealers to get the car serviced, the car got collected last week and they have inspected it and have just sent us a bill for nearly £700 for a missed service and for a worn carpet under the pedals (cars only done 15,000 miles btw.

 

The big issue is we had no idea that we werent buying the car outright, the guy doing the finance paperwork just told us how much the monthly payments would be and said its over 3 years then lined all the papers up that required signing in a line 1 on top of the other with the bits they want signed showing, had we been told that this was a PCP lease agreement there is no way we would have gone ahead with it.

 

The bill is broken down as follows

 

Damage fees, £184.50 this is for the carpet being worn, this should happen to the extent it has in just 15,000 miles

Missing service charge, £344.50 + £60.29vat

Brake fluid change £76.70 + £13.42vat

Air filter replace (surely should be part of the service cost £65.00 + £11.38vat

 

Now I have been doing some rigning around to find out the price of a service and the most expensive price I have found for a service including air filter AND brake fluid change is £280, over £200 cheaper than they are trying to charge us the cheapest price I have found is £233 including everything, £253 cheaper.

 

According to somthing on the paperwork they have just sent us "New parts, listed below, will be charged at makers list price, and all the prices may not be available at this time, The prices shown are subject to change without notice"

 

Elsewhere on the paperwork it says "These charges are in accordance with the Return conditions, which were communicated to you at the beginning of the contract" This is completely false, as I have already said we did not know that this was a PCP lease we had been led to believe it was a standard HP agreement, we werent made aware of any mileage restrictions, service requirements or how the vehicle was to be returned (as far as we were concerned it was our car and in 3 years the finance would be paid off and was ours to do with how we feel.

 

I am just so annmopyed because I am unable to find any paperwork at the moment from when we got the car, there is no way it will have been thrown out, I am assuming that we received a copy of the paperwork when we got the car ???

 

In the photos of the damage they sent us the carpets are filthy, we had the car valeted and it had only been driven from the valet company back to our house which is only about 1 mile before they came to collect it, there was also a paper mat put on the floors by the valet company, the car was spotless this doesnt match the state of the car in the photos.

 

I have attached the paperwork they sent us the orrying bit is one of the pages is headed NOTICE OF DEFAULT SUM, I fail to see how this is a default.

 

[ICY]

Forgot to mention, the monthly payments are all finished we paid the final payment before they collected the car, this worries me seeing them using the word default, as far as we know we havent defaulted anything.

[ICY]

Anyone, they have given us a maximum of 14 days 9from the date they sent the letter to pay this bill of nearly £700, we need a bit of help with this.

[Conniff]

Challenge it. First off challenge the filthy condition they say the carpets are in and insist that is not your car and the reason it is not.

 

Next challenge the mis-selling of the agreement on the ground it was not explained to you. Make all correspondence to the supplying dealer copied to the finance company and visa versa and use recorded delivery.

 

Can't read your jpegs, they are too small.

 

Where is the car now ?

[ICY]

I will put the scans onto photobucket, at full size.

 

The car was collected from us by there contractor last week and driven to Milton Keynes defleet centre for a full inspection, after doing a 30 minute inspection here, obviously the carpet being worn we knew about but on the they have taken a picture of the same car its just they have made it loo much dirtier than it was probably for effect to try and make it look worse. The carpet has worn through in just 15,000 miles over 3 years so its hardly had heavy use.

 

Is there draft template for this kind of thing, I would have thought it would have been too late to challenge the sale of the car, esp as we only noticed it was this kind of deal about 2 years later, apparently on the return pack they sent us the car MUST be serviced at a mercedes approved service centre, and any accident repairs MUST be carried out at one of their repair centres, we have a big issue with this too.

 

Basically because we didnt realise it was a PCP when sorting the insurance we obviously said that my wife was the owner and registered keeper, clearly NOW it is apparent that this is not the case, therefore we were risking the car not being insurared in the event of a big claim and the insurance company investigating.

 

Secondly we had an insurance claim (luckily it wasnt a major claim so they didnt look into legal ownership) and the car got repaired at the insurance companies repairer, we had no idea the car would have had to go to mercedes, luckily it doesnt look like there will be any comeback on this as nothing has been mentioned about it, but there is the potential here for huge problems all because we werent told about any of the conditions.

[ICY]

 

 

 

 

[ICY]

Had we known that we HAD to service the car at Mercedes we would have, it wouldnt have made any sense not to if they were conditions, because of this for a service we could have had done for £200 they are trying to charge almost £500

 

Now I dont have such a big issue with the carpet other than it shouldnt be of such inferior quality that it disintegrates so quick, obviously that does need to be replaced, the issue we have is with the servicing

[ICY]

Bump

[ICY]

I need help with this guys, time is running out fast, I dont know how to go forward with this, we cant afford a bill like this.

[Conniff]

The difficulty here is 'was the information available to you'. If all these things are available in the agreement, you should have known about them, if not at the time of signing up, then within a few days of receiving your copy of the agreement as you should have read it word for word so that you were aware of what it contained.

 

Yes there are certain things that should be brought to your attention at the time, but you are going to find it hard, if not impossible, to show that you were led to believe if was a finance agreement after all this time.

 

Unless you can show that you were led to believe it was finance, and times not on your side, then I can't see a way out of that unless you can come up with some paperwork to show that ie; maybe a photo of the dealer you took at the time of purchase with signs in the background or an advert saying 'great finance deals' or words to that effect. Then again, will that help as monthly payments of PCP can be classed as finance.

 

The repair bill might be easier to get around as it should be relatively easy to show that the carpet was not of satisfactory quality if it has worn through within 15,000 miles, but that can also depend on the type of footwear that was used when driving.

 

Sift through all the paperwork you have again looking for the tiniest of clues that will help. Other than that, I can't personally see any way forward. Others may have some idea that will help, if so, lets hope they come forwared and contribute.

 

There is one thing, when you had it serviced, did the servicing dealer stamp the service book? If so and it was done on time, then there is no 'missing service history'. Does it actually say in the agreement you signed that you 'must' use a Merc garage for the servicing? if so, you might find that is unenforceable in accordance with the UTCCR. Car manufacturers cannot insist that you use them or lose your warranty so I assume it will be the same with your situation.

Edited October 5, 2010 by Conniff

[ICY]

Ok, thats not good, I cant believe we have been treated like this, we bought 4 new cars from this dealer in 2 years and expected better.

 

How about the issue of them charging me so much for the service, as said in the OP its up to £200 more than it should be, that doesnt seem fair to me. I didnt realise the service had been missed