Tyre purchase help

[Evbelari]

Hi,

 

We purchased some tyres online to be fitted by an online company (not sure if I’m allowed to state the company) on the website it enables you to input your registration number and it then finds tyres which are suitable for your car. We picked a tyre and then on the day of fitting the technician said they couldn’t be fitted to our car as they were specifically for BMW cars. He said we wouldn’t be charged because we picked the right size etc. We rung up a few days later to re-book fitting and were told we were going to be charged £40 for the call out. The website did not state on the tyre that we picked that they were only suitable for BMW, or that they weren’t suitable for “a,b,c” type cars.  I feel it’s unfair we have been charged this fee. I have no idea about tyres and they seem to have aligned their T&C’s to excuse them of any blame in this sort of situation.. Is there even anything I can do? :(

 

Thanks

[BankFodder]

Have you paid the £40? How did you pay?

 

Please will you tell us which company you are dealing with and a website link

[Evbelari]

Hi, we paid by PayPal before the tyre fitting, and when we phoned them she told us she would be refunding us minus the £40 because we were asking to speak to her manager and she got annoyed. The company is “tyres on the drive” and you pick your tyres through the Halfords website https://www.tyresonthedrive.com/?sv_tax1=Google&sv_tax2=Brand&sv_tax3=Brand&sv_tax4=tyres on the drive-e&sv_campaign_id=1748016413&gclid=CjwKCAiAzanuBRAZEiwA5yf4ukFdQf4--AkLndcWk0RlkvgMHfvwPVObQ0w8RVaY6KItAdvRMr05FRoC8AcQAvD_BwE

 

Thanks again

[BankFodder]

Was your money paid to them or to Halfords?

Have you started a PayPal dispute? That would be my first step – but eventually you may have to take legal action.

It will be very helpful if you could visit their website again and go through the same steps but this time take screenshots. If you read our customer services guide, you will see information there about recording calls but also in a later post you will see how to record video of your screen moves. Practice it and then once you think you understand it, go through the same moves again. Hopefully you will get the same result and that will be excellent evidence.

[stu007]

Hi

 

Just so you are aware tyresonthedrive.com & Halford are one and the same if you look at there website Terms and Conditions for tyresonthedrive.com 'THE CONTRACT BETWEEN US': 

https://www.tyresonthedrive.com/about-us/terms-and-conditions

[BankFodder]

That's very helpful. Thanks.

It seems that this would be a dispute against Halfords who are far more likely either to act responsibly or to put their hands up because it's not economical.

All we need now is for the OP to come and engage with this thread

[Evbelari]

hj sorry for not responding sooner. So I’ve started a pay pal dispute and they just keep firing back the same some terms and conditions at me that I provided inaccurate information (I didn’t, I inputted my registration number and it came up with a list of tyres recommended for my car). I did think they were part of Halfords, when the PayPal payment went through it went to a company called victor holdings limited, not sure if that’s the same as Halfords or if they’re partly owned by victor holdings. I will escalate the PayPal dispute at some point, it says I have until 30th November to do this. If they come back to me and paste the same terms and conditions then I will escalate as that will have been the third time they have done this. I have taken screenshots of the product I ordered and also of other tyres that do actually mention that they are for BMW, so it’s not impossible for them to add it in the description.

 

I will try contact Halfords instead.

 

Thanks

[BankFodder]

We may have a contact within the Halfords customer service function. I have sent them an email to have a look at this. It seems to me to be a bit crazy if Halfords are going to push this issue to a disproportionate level.

[Evbelari]

They simply keep stating the terms and conditions. Their recent response has been that they will not be contacting us further on PayPal regarding this. I don’t know anything about tyres.. I picked a tyre that was recommended for my car as I assumed the website was competent enough to provide the correct tyre for my car considering they were able to distinguish what brand/type/engine size my car was  .I assumed wrongly sadly

[BankFodder]

Don't worry. We will help you sort it out – either by reasonable discussion with Halfords or else by threats and an eventual small claim to which they will almost certainly put up their hands but if they want to be completely stupid then your chances of success are much better than 95%.

You will learn some transferable skills in respect of being small claims actions so that you won't need to be treated in this way again.

[BankFodder]

Well I received a reply to my email and I have to say that I'm quite surprised. Maybe Halfords have been taken over by PC World/Currys.

 

Quote

Thank you for your email below.

 

I have since spoken with our colleagues at Tyres on the Drive and confirmed that the customers vehicle in question had standard tyres fitted. However, having 2 tyres fitted which are a different compound can cause major handling issues for the vehicle. If the vehicle didn’t have TPMS either, the customer could have got a puncture and would have resulted in a potentially dangerous situation, which we of course would not want to happen.

 

As the customer confirmed in their thread of the conversation that they didn’t know anything about the tyres and that they had made an assumption, a call to our colleagues at Tyres on the Drive could have resolved any uncertainty he had regarding this.

 

In regards to the terms and conditons that have been advised upon, it does confirm the owners responsibility to order the correct product as I am sure you can appreciate, we won’t know what has already been fitted to the vehicle. The call out charge in this case is therefore applicable for them to cover attendance costs and sadly a reimbursement will not be considered.

 

I understand that the customer has raised a disute with PayPal, however he is more than welcome to contact our colleagues at Tyres on the Drive, should he wish to discuss this further.

 

Kind regards,

Andrea Botha | Executive Contact Manager

 

Can we confirm that I understand that you put in all the correct details onto their website and they made the recommendation of a particular set of tyres which you were later told were not suitable for your vehicle?

 

Can we confirm that you have gone back to the website and you have put in the same details and has come up with the same tyres

 

What make is your car?

[Evbelari]

Hi, yes this is the same sort of response I keep getting about this. Yes so it asked for the registration number of the car, and this was inputted correctly. It’s then “found” the brand and type of car “Kia carens 1.6” etc and then came up with the “Recommended” list we then selected the tyres from. I have checked it since we bought them and the same tyre still comes up. In response to the lady above where we “assumed” we did assume the tyres would be correct in the list so didn’t see any need to ring to confirm if you see what I mean. We did try ringing the company but they were unwilling to provide information of supervisor. It seems like the company isn’t going to do anything about this..

[BankFodder]

Okay. We are very happy to help you get your money back. If you have the evidence that I have indicated then there is absolutely no problem and frankly I don't know why Halfords seems to be prepared to cause such a fuss to deny you your consumer rights and to save her company 40 quid – simply on a callout fee.  Now that I've called their attention to this thread I expect that they they will be following it.

If you are prepared to issue a small claim then we will help you all the way including helping you draft your documents. Halfords will be crazy to allow this to continue – but if they decide to get personal about it then they will see you in court but the chances of them winning are negligible. It's up to you. Bringing a small claim is very easy. Your risk would be the claim fee which in this case would be £25, I think and then if they push it to a hearing about a hundred quid which when you win – if you win – you will get back. Of course we will publish the result here and show Halfords up as we have done before.

It's amazing to have to go to this kind of trouble.

 

Once again, I just want to confirm that your case will be that you inputted all the correct details into their website and Halfords returned a particular specification to you which was incorrect. Effectively this means that they are in breach of their contractual duty to supply goods which are fit for their purpose.

However, have you checked elsewhere in fact Halfords are correct and that the tyres are not fit for your vehicle. It occurs to me that maybe Halfords have told you that they're not fit for your vehicle when in fact they are. This would also put Halfords in breach but in a rather different way.

 

[BankFodder]

By the way, please will you send a subject access request to Halfords and make sure you asked them for call recordings as well as any of the details that you input in respect to your tyre order and any other personal data which they hold on you in any form.

Get this letter off to them by email tomorrow and confirm in writing.

 

I suggest that you send the letter for the attention of Andrea Botha | Executive Contact Manager who will be aware of this situation.

 

https://uk.linkedin.com/in/andrea-botha-96b565143

 

I've written to her again and suggested that maybe she doublecheck the situation because of my understanding what you say is correct, then I think that she must badly have misunderstood the circumstances of this.

Once again, I understand that you input the details of a Kia and Halfords recommended tyres fit for a BMW. They only informed you of this error after the tyre fitting had been booked.

Your initial contact with Halfords after this resulted in a promise to reimburse you and it was only a subsequent contact with another customer services person that they renege on the promise.

Is that correct?

[Evbelari]

Hi, yes that is what has happened. The technician originally said that the tyres were for BMW, it came to light in the PayPal disputes I’ve had with them that it’s not only for BMW but certainly not for my car. It seems like everyone I speak to has a different sort of opinion on what the tyres are for. We looked for a branded tyre within a good price range and chose that tyre assuming any tyre on the list would have fit our car.. I shall do that yes I would like the call recording as I am actually quite upset how the lady spoke to us about it when we contacted customer services anyway. Thanks for helping. 

[BankFodder]

Fine. Have a quick think and decide whether you want to bring a small claim.

If you do then it is worth spending a little bit of time looking through this forum and discovering the steps of how to bring a small claim in the County Court.

You would have to start with a letter of claim which would give them 14 days to provide you with your refund or else you will start a small claim against them and without any further notice. Day 15 you issue the papers. Don't make the threat unless you are prepared to go ahead and carry it out.

As I've already said, bringing a small claim is extremely easy and on the basis of what you say, your chances of success are much better than 95% – and in my view Halfords will put their hands up unless they really want to waste their money and their time.

Does Halfords really want to spend their time and money losing a case in which they will have to draft the defence document, respond to various papers from the court, put you to the trouble of paying the hearing fee, instructing lawyers to go and attend at your local court which I believe is in the North west of England, losing their case, having to pay your £40 plus interest plus your court fee plus the hearing fee – and then suffer the indignity of having their name plastered even further all over this forum and over Twitter and Facebook and trust pilot.

If this is what they want then they really don't value their reputation very highly.

 

I have sent the following response to Halfords

Quote

Andrea, thank you for this.

 

Naturally I'm very disappointed by your response.

 

I'm doublechecking on the thread with your customer that as I understand it, your customer entered all the correct details into your tyre finder database and it returned certain results. Apparently he has a Kia. He booked the tyre fitting and was then told that the tyres that he had ordered were only fit for a BMW.

 

According to my understanding, it is your website which has recommended the BMW tyres and that resulted in the cancellation.

 

Also, according to my understanding there was originally an undertaking to provide him with a refund and then another customer service person reneged on that promise.

 

I'm going to recommend to your customer that he sends you a subject access request which presumably will produce the call recordings as well as any computer records of his tyre choice and the details that he input.

 

I'm sure that you are following the thread and you will see that we will be encouraging him to take a small claim against Halfords. If the story from your customer all pans out then frankly Halfords position is extremely weak to say the least.

 

Maybe you would like to doublecheck for yourself. On the story so far as it has been related to us on the forum, I think you may have misunderstood the situation.

 

Regards

 

 

[Manxman in exile]

I suspect this has probably been resolved by now(?) but one thing strikes me about the email from Andrea Botha.

 

Reading between the lines (the email is not very well expressed) I understand her to mean that the problem does not lie with the choice of tyres thrown up by the Halford's website, but with the tyres the OP already has on their car.  To me, she is saying that the OP is trying to purchase two tyres only, but that they would not fit them because the rubber compounds of the new tyres are not compatible with the compounds of the two tyres not being replaced.  (It's like the old advice of not mixing cross-ply with radial tyres).

 

I understand her to be saying it would have been potentially dangerous to mix the selected tyres with the existing tyres. 

 

I have absolutely no idea why she thinks there could be an increased puncture risk (or why the OP was told the selected tyres were only for use with BMWs - that sounds like a load of rubbish to me if that's what they were told).

 

I may be completely wrong, but it seems to me that it might be a simple misunderstanding as to why the tyres couldn't be fitted, and that that reason has not been properly communicated to the OP.

 

If the existing tyres on the OP's car are "unusual" in some way this could explain the confusion.  Not really anybody at fault but I'd expect Halford's to be able to sort it out.