Mislead by the Funding Corporation

[LazyBadger]

Hi

 

I'm looking for some advice and hopefully making sure other people dont make the same mistake as me in dealing with this organisation.

 

My story starts in March 2007 when my business partner and I bought 2 new cars from Subaru on lease with a company called County Leasing & Finance, the deal was reasonable so we signed for a 4 year lease with a balloon payment at the end. We insisted on County Leasing putting in writing that at the end of the lease we could sell the cars to a third party and 95% of the proceeds would be returned to us, which we could use as a deposit on our next vehicle. We made all the payments on time and County Leasing wrote to us regarding our ballon payment which was £3600 per car, this was also taken on our direct debit and on time.

So all paid up and the lease almost finished I called County Leasing to let them know i had a buyer for the cars and we just had to agree a price with them, So this is when I find out that County Leasing is actually the dreaded Funding Corporation, They originally asked when they could collect the cars but we sent them the copy of the letter from the original agreement stating we could sell and would be sent 95% of the proceeds.

They agreed this was ok (in writing) and they would accept the price of £7000.00 for each car, this means I now have 2 letters agreeing to pay me 95% of the sale price, so I sold the cars and sent them the £14,000.00 now comes the fun bit.

 

They originally assured me that my refund would take about 3-5 working days so when it dragged on for a couple of weeks I called them, I got loads of excuses and they said they would have to put it to the financial director to approve the refund, to my disbelief the person who i had been dealing with called me today to tell me that the finance director had deicded that he wasn't going to pay the refund, I asked why and was told i would need to ask him in writing.

 

Needless to say I wasn't very happy as I have now paid for the cars twice and still have no car, Just this month the ballon payment for the 2 cars was around £7000 and on top of that I sent them the proceeds of the sale, another £14000, so they've had £21000 off us this month alone, surely this is not legal?

 

anyone else had a problem like this?

[TFC Customer Relations]

Dear Customer

We are sorry to hear of your concerns and wish to discuss these with you directly. Please call our Complaints Department on 0845 271 7896. Please note County Leasing & Finance was purchased by The Funding Corporation group in 2005 and is now part of the same group of companies as The Funding Corporation but they are not the same company.

The sooner we can verify your identity and log details of your complaint, the sooner we can investigate and hopefully resolve the matter.

Thank you

County Leasing & Finance

[Edinburgh7]

I sympathise my friend.......... I currently have a complaint logged with the FOS regarding the Funding Corporation. They basically lied and manipulated me, by providing grossly inaccurate information that resulted in them both securing my vehicle to sell at auction and now demanding a further £3000!!!

 

All this even though I had paid half of the full amount owed on the credit agreement, was only a couple of hundred pounds in arrears and offered to either voluntary terminate or pay them back the arrears in full/continue with full contractual monthly payments.

 

I was told "sorry - you cannot do this and HAVE TO voluntary surrender the vehicle". Key words VOLUNTARY / HAVE TO!!! I just wish I knew about this site before I gave in to there demands.

 

I wish you the very best of luck!!

[LazyBadger]

Dear Customer

We are sorry to hear of your concerns and wish to discuss these with you directly. Please call our Complaints Department on 0845 271 7896. Please note County Leasing & Finance was purchased by The Funding Corporation group in 2005 and is now part of the same group of companies as The Funding Corporation but they are not the same company.

The sooner we can verify your identity and log details of your complaint, the sooner we can investigate and hopefully resolve the matter.

Thank you

County Leasing & Finance

 

Cant call I'm afraid ALL correspondence now has to be in writing.

 

As you have read the above post I'm sure you know exactly who I am. So the sooner you can investigate and hopefully resolve the matter the sooner I can come back here and give you some good feedback.

 

Thank you

[lordie]

May I clearly point out that the funding corporation involved, being County Leasing and Finance has no connection whatsoever with County Leasing of Gayton Northamptonshire

[LazyBadger]

Got my refund in full, but not without threatening further action. They hung it out till the last minute before paying. I'm sure they would have not paid if there was any chance they could get away with it.

 

I think it could have been handled better. So still no glowing report for County Leasing or The Funding Corp which although they insist it's not the same company they do operate within the same group and have the same finance director so make your own mind up.

 

Dont sign anything without reading it thoroughly and make sure you get everything in writing that you are promised, dont assume it will just happen! and if you dont get what you want just walk away.

[LazyBadger]

As lordie points out above this has no connection with County Leasing of Gayton Northamptonshire

[nish40]

Hellooo TFC..............................IM BACKKKKKKKKKK!!!!!!!!!

 

Lazy Badger, the TFC know who I am, heh heh, hope they are reading this.

 

The Funding Corporation are a bunch of Shysters, and through all their hot air about wanting to be better connected with customers (yes Mr Nick 'Arrogant' Cherry) It's all to buy some time for their troubled firm.

 

I have some contact details for a guy at Hereford Council Trading Standards I will PM you.

 

Dont worry about it being Hereford, he is willing to help anyone as he is building a good dossier up on these muppets to bring them down.

[Edinburgh7]

Mate I'd very much appreciate if you could also forward these details onto me. Unfortunately with my case, the financial ombudsman have ruled in favour of the Funding Corporation, basically due to lack of evidence to support my claim............ The only reason I cant provide the evidence (several call recordings) is because TFC ignored my written requests for transcripts of these calls for the best part of a year and then finally when they did write, it was to let me know the recordings were conveniently unavailable!!!Ive contested the decision with the FOS but I dont hold out much hope.

[LazyBadger]

Thanks for the info Nish

 

As I have posted above I got my refund in full, but only because I was squeaky clean and had all the evidence I needed, (I'm used to dealing with photocopier salesmen, say no more)

 

I have to say that the people I dealt with at County Leasing (TFC) seemed to be arrogant and unhelpful, one time when I called about my refund the guy I was speaking to was unhelpful so I asked to speak to a manager who came on the phone and straight away was dismissive and obstructive and gave one word answers, and threatened to end the call as 'I had a bad attitude' (bloody cheeky cow), I soon got the message of the sort of company I was dealing with.

 

I have a lot of sympathy for anyone having to deal with these people they seem to be happier when someone defaults as they can then start handing out their extortionate charges, to be honest I didn't realise these sort of companies still existed, there should be better legislation to protect consumers from these companies. i dont mean just let people get away with not paying, just a more reasonable attitude (and charges) toward people who have problems, not the kick them when they are down approach that I seem to have read about on various forums.

 

Good luck to all, and keep posting your experiences and maybe it will save others the pain and grief of dealing with the funding corp.

[Smileymiley]

Nish,Can you send me details for Hereford Trading Standards so that I can send them my caseRegardsSmileymiley