Arnold Clark - Failure to repair damage to infotainment screen

[adz740]

Hi,

Purchased a car from Arnold Clark, Nottingham branch, on 5th April this year. Car was located in a different branch of Arnold Clark (Glasgow I believe) so was purchased on the standard proviso that it would be checked over by them etc. 

Collected the car on 12th April,

when I inspected it prior to handover it was noted that there was a ding/paint chip on the driver's door, a mark on the roof and damage to the screen of the infotainment (radio) where there was a chunk taken out of the touch screen. At the time I was told by the staff member who did the handover all these would be fixed as I had pointed them out to him, I even sent follow up photos of the damage a few days after. I drove the car away, signed the paper work etc.

After some delays on their part the paint work was eventually booked in and fixed last Friday. The roof is still apparently being looked into (it's a standard wrap that appears to be a common issue with the car). The major issue here is the damage and chunk out of the touch screen infotainment system. This forms a major part of the car as you can change settings etc. in there.

Arnold Clark are now advising me, after having a few people, including a manager there look at it, that they won't fix this, despite advising that they would during the handover. I have raised this with their internal complaints team but am receiving the same response. The general manager of the branch, who already had a very aggressive/blase attitude, which has been downright rude at points to this whole thing, treating it like's a trivial little mark.

All this has left me with a very sour taste in my mouth and I'm now at a loss as to how to proceed and get this work repaired by them.

Do I go to the Motor Ombudsman/finance company or?

Thanks in advance for any advice you can give

[AndyOrch]

Probably very expensive to replace what car and model who is your finance with ?

 

Andy

[adz740]

It's a GR Yaris - Finance is with Alphera, who are part of BMW I believe.

I'm sure the unit is very expensive to repair, I have even told them I would be happy with a refurbished/reconditioned unit, in trying to be reasonable as well.

[dx100uk]

do you want to keep the car or reject it ?

 

[adz740]

I'd like to keep it, ideally.

[dx100uk]

ok

as to date your have not involved the finance co.

as it's THEIR CAR, i would be writing a simple, brief letter to them, outlining what to date with bullet points has happened and asking them to get it sorted FOC to you.

[adz740]

Perfect thank you. I will try that next then.

Thanks for the advice

[Nicky Boy]

Maybe post a draft up here for the team to take a quick looksee before you send it?

[adz740]

No worries. Will do

[BankFodder]

I think you may as well take the opportunity in your letter to tell them that if they won't take responsibility for it then you will see quotations for the repair, provide copies of the quotations to them and then proceed with your own repair and recover the money back from them in the courts if necessary.

Separately, can I ask you whether this is the car that you then bought unseen and at some distance from you?

Has it come with an MOT and if so what date was the MOT and who gave it the MOT?

Have you read our used car guide

[Hammy1962]

Can we have a picture of the damage. It might be a lot easier than you think to do a cosmetic repair.

[dx100uk]

good idea

take some pix and put them in a PDF

read UPLOAD

dx

[AndyOrch]

21 hours ago, adz740 said:

damage to the screen of the infotainment (radio) where there was a chunk taken out of the touch screen.

Does it affect the working of the head unit ?

[adz740]

Thank you. bankfodder

The car was purchased unseen, yes.

It was from another branch of Arnold Clark in Glasgow and I purchased it from their Nottingham branch.

The first time I saw the car in person was on handover.

It came with an MOT, carried out by Arnold Clark in Glasgow on 18th March this year.

I'm just travelling so will add some photos later on this evening.

Andy:

In the sense it's a touch screen, yes.

Does it stop the unit working completely? No

Here's the photo of the mark as well...

 

screen dink.pdf

[dx100uk]

11 hours ago, adz740 said:

In the sense it's a touch screen, yes.

that dink is prob <4mm looking at the 5 above

when something one the screen is behind that or near it, can you touch and select it ok?

there are easy ways to fill those screen dinks.

pers i think you are gonna have a hardtime getting a new one or refurbished for such a small dink if the unit functions ok. 

[adz740]

It's a fair bit bigger than that - Hard to show context but I'd say it was about 10-12mm and it's not just a mark, it's a chunk. Right where you use a lot of the touch functions for carplay etc.

You can but my concern is it will have damaged the capacitive bit (there's probably a better word for that!) behind the screen and will get worse over time. I've seen this plenty of times on other touch screens.

I understand what you're saying but to say they would repair it just so I'd drive away is poor. Especially without even offering any alternatives, which I'm more than reasonable enough to discuss with them.

[dx100uk]

there are methods to fill that the same as a windscreen repair , like epoxy etc to stabilise it.

there are firms they could employ to do it.

i'e> £150.

Toyota Yaris touch screen repair service 2019-2022

WWW.MAGPIEAUTOS.COM

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Touch screen repair service compatible with the following Toyota vehicles (2018-2022) - Yaris Symptoms of a faulty touchscreen - touch operation...

 

[adz740]

Thanks for that. Much appreciated.

I would have assumed they would have had contacts to do such work as well.

I think it's just the general rubbish attitude from Arnold Clark as the amount of times the General Manager of the place was rude or kept referring to "it would have to come out of my margin" to fix issues.

Like it was my fault.

Oh well - Won't be buying anything from them again.

[dx100uk]

clarks are just like the rest of 'em.

couldn't careless, your advantage here is it's not legally your car, the finance co. should be bought into play .

as i think BF eluded too , or has in other threads, if dealer/finance co. dont sort it between themselves FOC to you, another option is to get it fixed then bill both for it, if they refuse, then a court claim is very simple and cheap option to recoup your losses.

see where it goes.

just musing.

dx