MrPromiscous V Car Giant

[mrpromiscous]

Ok I dont know how much help anyone will be able to give me on this one as the whole area is pretty grey to be honest. The story starts back in May 2005 when me and my partner went down to the lovely people at car giant to purchase a used car. Whilst there we saw an MG ZR only a year old, 2k on the clock up for £6000, we thought "very nice, we'll av it". So went through to the sales office to arrange a hp agreement on it. At the same time we were expecting our first child and were therefore moving to a bigger home, we were expecting to complete within a few weeks on the sale of our home and outlined this point to the salesman 'Carlos Gomez'. The point being that we fully expected to be in a position to settle the agreement as soon as the funds were released from the sale of the house and therefore we stipulated that our only requirement was that there were no penalties/early redemption charges payable for doing so rather than grinding out a good APR. He stated categorically that upon early settlement we would only be liable for the outstanding balance plus 1 months interest. However when we applied for a settlement figure 3 months after we were quoted the following :

 

Amount Of Credit - £7544.16

Total Charge For Credit - £4028.32

Total Payable - £11572.48

Rebate Of Future Interest - £2844.72 ( apparently worked out using rule

of 78, leaflet supplied )

Settlement Figure - £8012.71

 

In short I had actually been charged for alot more than the original £6000 plus 1 months interest however when I complained to Forthright Finance about this I recieved a letter stating that this was normal under their agreements and I had signed a contract agreeing to this (no mention of rule of 78 contained within contract) and that I should speak to the dealership about the salesmans claims. I instead wrote to Bank Of Scotland because it was there letterhead on Forthright Finances letters and I recieved a letter back... not from Bank Of Scotland... no that would be far to easy... instead I got a reply from Capital Bank 'a Bank Of Scotland Group Company' stating they had been in touch with Car Giant and they had confirmed that all fee's/APR's/Insurance etc. were discussed and explained with customers before signing contracts, they also added some guff about the rule of 78 which is supported by the FSA and advised me to speak to the dealership also !

Now the point of my letter to both Forthright Finance and Bank Of Scotland outlined that I had effectively been lied to by car giant and yet they both advice me to speak to them !!! In my opinion Car Giant are selling products for Bank Of Scotland, On Bank Of Scotland headed paper and therefore it is their duty to make sure they are doing so legally !

At this point I gave up for a while but then went to the local citizens advice bbut they were unable to provide me with any real help and told me to speak to trading standards. Trading Standards were unable to tell me if they had recieved similar complaints about Car Giant and said how hard it would be for me to prove I was telling the truth in court as it was simply my word against theirs. Where do I stand on this and what should my next steps be ??? All help/advice/views apprieciated.

 

MrP

[MARTIN3030]

Not the first time these people have been in dispute over unfair contract terms.

I am posting you a link which illustrates this.

I have some ideas here but will consult with collegues before replying

[mrpromiscous]

Martin after reading the link you gave me I thought this part supported my view that they should'nt keep sending me back to the dealership to come to an agreement as I feel it is their duty to do so :

 

9(f)REG_7Revised so that consumers are advised they have protection under the Consumer Credit Act 1974, which means that in certain circumstances the supplier will be responsible for mispresentations by negotiating dealers.12.8Reg 7 stipulation about the agency status of dealers and other relevant parties which appeared to exclude the company's liability for misrepresentation or misdescription by them.

[MARTIN3030]

Yes this looks to be the case.

You should get together all communications that you have had with them and go back to your local trading standards.

The trading standards should be able to conatact the trading standards office in the area of the people you are in dispute with.

I would certainly look to find out if they are known already to that office as you will find they will probably assist you if they are.

For a trading standards office in another area to be able to assist you,they need to have what is called a "home relationship " with the guilty party.In my view its quite likely from what I have seen so far that these people are probably very well known to their local trading standards,and may even have ongoing cases with them.

This obviously would help you,especially if those investigations are the same related complaint as yours.

You will need all the copies of info though.....letters names dates of calls etc etc.Keep us updated.

[mrpromiscous]

Martin apprieciated mate, as always a great help

My only concern though is that when I last contacted trading standards regarding this they said they were not allowed to state whether other complaints had been made against car giant.... However I will certainly phone them tommorow and try if they work on saturdays, if not then beginning of next week and I will let you all know what the outcome is.

Once again many thanks.

[esgo]

Hi All,

 

Im sorry to read about your problems with Car Giant, I too have had a similar experience .

 

I bought a VW Golf for £7000 that died the next day and over the course of twoyears has cost in excess of £2000 to keep it running and is now beyond repair!!!

 

The case is obviously a lot more detailed and complex but writing up a detailed account would take over the site

 

I imagine you all have found dealing diret with Car Giant gets no where, and the have probably been clever and made sure through there conduct that your out of time to complain to any relevant bodies or related financers and therefore getting any action or justice seems impossible.

 

Well I for one am not standing for it, if we can't get our own money back, then the least we can do in return for Car Giant is make sure they can't do it again.

 

I plan to take the case to the Trading Standards, The Retail Motor Industry Federation and Watchdog and would like for anybody ho has had similar experiences to join me in doing so.

 

I will do all the work and prepare petitions etc all I'm asking you for is an email of your contact details and a brief description of your experience including dates etc

 

Watchdog will only do something if there is alot of complaints so forwarding them all in bulk is the best way to get there attention

 

This may help with any individual cases you may be persuing but at the least we will get there misconduct publicised causing them headache and loss in return for the headache and loss they caused us.