Willagecb
Standard Member
Take a seat everyone - this is a long read, so I apologise!
So, I’ve not publicly posted regarding this, but unfortunately it’s got to the point I’m not sure how to move it forward.
You might be able to see from a previous post here I put a pre-order for an MG4 back in Aug with a deposit of £100 and the dealer managed to get one in the first allocation which I could have providing I was happy with the test drive.
I took a test drive in late Sep and said I was happy to proceed, I explained that I was going away on holiday and then for work and didn’t have a confirmed return date, therefore wanted to move forward upon my return, however the dealer explained that even though they had the £100 deposit - unfortunately I would need to complete the paperwork and pay the full finance deposit then prior to leaving the country, however everything could then be completed when I returned which looked at that point to be late Oct, early Nov.
although I wasn’t happy with this, I also didn’t want to lose the car especially considering my polestar was booked to be returned and I didn’t want to end up without a car.
Fast forward a couple of weeks and I started to see posts on here about issues with oil leaks and electrical issues and did post here to temp check and get advise on if I should be thinking about cancelling or retaining the order.
I did want to proceed, but I was wobbling, so I put a call into the dealer which walked me through the oil leak and electrical issues and explained that if the car did have a fault they would rectify immediately and they would always ensure I had a loan car as I explained I needed to be able to reach a elderly relative in the case of an emergency which is over 200 miles away and we are currently only a one car household.
In that call he also confirmed that the final process needed to be completed and until I collected the car when back in the country everything was still pending. He then when on to say actually due to a problem with the vin they were not able to action the car any further at that point anyway and everything would just be sorted upon my return.
So now with concerns set aside I got on with my work abroad and agreed to update when I was back.
but this is when things all go wrong:
I get an email towards the end of Oct asking if I’ve booked a flight and if I knew when I was returning and asking for a date which I could collect the car, at that point I say that I’ve booked a flight back and propose a date however would need to confirm everything up.
A couple of basic emails go back and forth with me constantly checking if the car can be collected as there was no commitment from the dealers - it was always phrased as ‘should be ok but I need to check’
Then on the 26th Oct I notice that MG has placed a table on their website with a new projected range; remember the elderly relative mentioned above? well this was spoken about with the dealer at length during the test drive along with the fact that we needed a better boot space than the polestar offered for our dogs.
but all of a sudden the new predicted range on the website now puts being able to reach the relative in the event of an emergency without a charge out of reach.
So with the new range, my previous concerns with the car and the fact I had the call being told that the processing of the car would take place when I got back, I sadly emailed the dealer informing them that due to the above and as per our discussion I’d not be able to move forward and collect the car and requesting to term the order.
Initially the dealer was polite and stated that despite the conversation they had started to process everything when they got the email saying I had a confirmed flight so he would have to escalate it to the director, in tandem I contacted the finance company (Santander for MG) which explained that actually the funds had already been pulled down for the car weeks previously (which they couldn’t understand why if no collection date had been agreed or I wasn’t in possession of the car) and that I just needed to request the dealer to ‘wind back’ the agreement and they could work with me to sort everything out.
So I emailed the dealer confirming that the order was cancelled and requesting a ‘wind back’ and confirmed by the finance company.
What I received back though I wasn’t prepared for: an email basically saying there’s nothing I can do, I was due to collect the car and that I should take legal advise!
- wow ok, that came out of the blue, until that point all the communication was quite casual and in my request to wind back I apologised about the situation but unfortunately the car was not able to do what it was purchased for.
But needless to say, I did take legal advise and I was informed if they had registered the car (at that point I didn’t believe they had, and still not sure of that status at this point) then I would need to legally reject the car as a) it was prior to collection, b) not able to perform for the purpose in which is was intended and c) that the estimated range had changed post the order.
But the quickest and easiest way would be to raise this with the finance company and they would liaise with the dealer to reject and then cancel the agreement down, but to keep things informal and friendly; so I did just that - on the same day, the 26th Oct I had a really helpful complaint handler with Santander and she took all the information and went back to the dealer with the additional legal information.
But following a couple of weeks of negotiations with the dealer she found herself no further forward with the dealer refusing to acknowledge the rejection and therefore requested that I send all the information in written form detailing the reasons why I was rejecting the car.
On the 26th Nov the first ‘formal’ correspondence (complaint) outlining the full rejection and highlighting all of the discrepancies between what had been communicated to me vrs what then transpired and to confirm that I have never taken receipt of the car (at this point I do not even know it exists), was sent to the dealers HQ, MG UK HQ and the finance company.
I had an acknowledgment from the dealers HQ and informed that they would look into the complaint and come back to me.
I then had a series of telephone calls with the finance company, but basically stating the same, the dealer wouldn’t acknowledge the rejection.
On the 14th Dec I received a missed call from the local dealer, the following week I was called by the finance company stating that the dealers had emailed back the response to my complaint and what my thoughts are - nothing had been received, the last communication as other than a missed call and a couple of automated emails asking for feedback on how they had performed nothing at all had been received.
Following the call I search my junk mail to eventually find an email from a member of the sales team asking me to call them following the receipt of my complaint.
I contacted my solicitor which advised me to not call and keep correspondence in written form.
I then received the recall notification dated 6/1/23 for a car I don’t even have!
I went back to the finance company to then confirm that above all else, as I’ve not had receipt of the car and it now has a serious fault, to add this to the reasons for the rejection as well as confirming that the ‘response’ to the complaint was actually just a request for me to call them (which transpired it was).
However the dealer has gone on to claim to the finance company that it had exhaustive attempts to contact me (which they haven’t).
So again upon request of the finance company, on the 14th Jan, As the dealer stated they had been attempting to reach me and I was worried that communication had gone missing,
I sent an email to the dealer and finance company again outlining the reasons for the rejection including the recall and requested that they confirm the times they have been attempting to contact me and forward any correspondence that had been sent.
To date nothing has been received, nor have they acknowledged receipt of that email.
I’ve now instructed the solicitor to act on this case, but I’m in total disbelief that this has actually happened.
I do believe the information provided by the solicitors, however has anyone had any issues like this at all and if so how did you handle it?
At present I can see this ending in court and spending months on end without a car I’m paying for!
So, I’ve not publicly posted regarding this, but unfortunately it’s got to the point I’m not sure how to move it forward.
You might be able to see from a previous post here I put a pre-order for an MG4 back in Aug with a deposit of £100 and the dealer managed to get one in the first allocation which I could have providing I was happy with the test drive.
I took a test drive in late Sep and said I was happy to proceed, I explained that I was going away on holiday and then for work and didn’t have a confirmed return date, therefore wanted to move forward upon my return, however the dealer explained that even though they had the £100 deposit - unfortunately I would need to complete the paperwork and pay the full finance deposit then prior to leaving the country, however everything could then be completed when I returned which looked at that point to be late Oct, early Nov.
although I wasn’t happy with this, I also didn’t want to lose the car especially considering my polestar was booked to be returned and I didn’t want to end up without a car.
Fast forward a couple of weeks and I started to see posts on here about issues with oil leaks and electrical issues and did post here to temp check and get advise on if I should be thinking about cancelling or retaining the order.
I did want to proceed, but I was wobbling, so I put a call into the dealer which walked me through the oil leak and electrical issues and explained that if the car did have a fault they would rectify immediately and they would always ensure I had a loan car as I explained I needed to be able to reach a elderly relative in the case of an emergency which is over 200 miles away and we are currently only a one car household.
In that call he also confirmed that the final process needed to be completed and until I collected the car when back in the country everything was still pending. He then when on to say actually due to a problem with the vin they were not able to action the car any further at that point anyway and everything would just be sorted upon my return.
So now with concerns set aside I got on with my work abroad and agreed to update when I was back.
but this is when things all go wrong:
I get an email towards the end of Oct asking if I’ve booked a flight and if I knew when I was returning and asking for a date which I could collect the car, at that point I say that I’ve booked a flight back and propose a date however would need to confirm everything up.
A couple of basic emails go back and forth with me constantly checking if the car can be collected as there was no commitment from the dealers - it was always phrased as ‘should be ok but I need to check’
Then on the 26th Oct I notice that MG has placed a table on their website with a new projected range; remember the elderly relative mentioned above? well this was spoken about with the dealer at length during the test drive along with the fact that we needed a better boot space than the polestar offered for our dogs.
but all of a sudden the new predicted range on the website now puts being able to reach the relative in the event of an emergency without a charge out of reach.
So with the new range, my previous concerns with the car and the fact I had the call being told that the processing of the car would take place when I got back, I sadly emailed the dealer informing them that due to the above and as per our discussion I’d not be able to move forward and collect the car and requesting to term the order.
Initially the dealer was polite and stated that despite the conversation they had started to process everything when they got the email saying I had a confirmed flight so he would have to escalate it to the director, in tandem I contacted the finance company (Santander for MG) which explained that actually the funds had already been pulled down for the car weeks previously (which they couldn’t understand why if no collection date had been agreed or I wasn’t in possession of the car) and that I just needed to request the dealer to ‘wind back’ the agreement and they could work with me to sort everything out.
So I emailed the dealer confirming that the order was cancelled and requesting a ‘wind back’ and confirmed by the finance company.
What I received back though I wasn’t prepared for: an email basically saying there’s nothing I can do, I was due to collect the car and that I should take legal advise!
- wow ok, that came out of the blue, until that point all the communication was quite casual and in my request to wind back I apologised about the situation but unfortunately the car was not able to do what it was purchased for.
But needless to say, I did take legal advise and I was informed if they had registered the car (at that point I didn’t believe they had, and still not sure of that status at this point) then I would need to legally reject the car as a) it was prior to collection, b) not able to perform for the purpose in which is was intended and c) that the estimated range had changed post the order.
But the quickest and easiest way would be to raise this with the finance company and they would liaise with the dealer to reject and then cancel the agreement down, but to keep things informal and friendly; so I did just that - on the same day, the 26th Oct I had a really helpful complaint handler with Santander and she took all the information and went back to the dealer with the additional legal information.
But following a couple of weeks of negotiations with the dealer she found herself no further forward with the dealer refusing to acknowledge the rejection and therefore requested that I send all the information in written form detailing the reasons why I was rejecting the car.
On the 26th Nov the first ‘formal’ correspondence (complaint) outlining the full rejection and highlighting all of the discrepancies between what had been communicated to me vrs what then transpired and to confirm that I have never taken receipt of the car (at this point I do not even know it exists), was sent to the dealers HQ, MG UK HQ and the finance company.
I had an acknowledgment from the dealers HQ and informed that they would look into the complaint and come back to me.
I then had a series of telephone calls with the finance company, but basically stating the same, the dealer wouldn’t acknowledge the rejection.
On the 14th Dec I received a missed call from the local dealer, the following week I was called by the finance company stating that the dealers had emailed back the response to my complaint and what my thoughts are - nothing had been received, the last communication as other than a missed call and a couple of automated emails asking for feedback on how they had performed nothing at all had been received.
Following the call I search my junk mail to eventually find an email from a member of the sales team asking me to call them following the receipt of my complaint.
I contacted my solicitor which advised me to not call and keep correspondence in written form.
I then received the recall notification dated 6/1/23 for a car I don’t even have!
I went back to the finance company to then confirm that above all else, as I’ve not had receipt of the car and it now has a serious fault, to add this to the reasons for the rejection as well as confirming that the ‘response’ to the complaint was actually just a request for me to call them (which transpired it was).
However the dealer has gone on to claim to the finance company that it had exhaustive attempts to contact me (which they haven’t).
So again upon request of the finance company, on the 14th Jan, As the dealer stated they had been attempting to reach me and I was worried that communication had gone missing,
I sent an email to the dealer and finance company again outlining the reasons for the rejection including the recall and requested that they confirm the times they have been attempting to contact me and forward any correspondence that had been sent.
To date nothing has been received, nor have they acknowledged receipt of that email.
I’ve now instructed the solicitor to act on this case, but I’m in total disbelief that this has actually happened.
- I’ve been making payments on a car that I don’t even know exists every month.
- The deposit was paid back in Sep.
- The only correspondence received since the 26th Oct advising me to gain legal advise by the dealer has been an email asking me to call and the automated responses.
I do believe the information provided by the solicitors, however has anyone had any issues like this at all and if so how did you handle it?
At present I can see this ending in court and spending months on end without a car I’m paying for!
