Warranty still valid? - Bought 2022 ZS EV with no proof of first service

Today I chased again because apparently unless I chase, they don't seem to care (which is a bit surprising given I'm in the 14 day return window... you'd hope they were a lot more proactive in keeping the customer happy/informed).

Long story short, the salesman said they've been trying to get the previous owner to find proof of the previous service but he can't find it. The previous owner also claims he can't remember where he did a service (really?) and the salesman said he called all garages within 50 miles of the owner and none of them have a record of having serviced the car.

I'm more and more convinced that the previous owner simply didn't do the first scheduled service. I think I read in this forum that the car doesn't prompt you to do it, so wouldn't be completely surprised if he'd missed it...

The salesman tried to offer me their own in-house warranty plan for free for 3 years, and promised me that should I want to trade it in in the next 3 years, they wouldn't devalue the car due to the lack of service history.

Still, I'm done. This sounds really dodgy. These guys have given me really terrible service and I don't want to have any more dealings with them. Certainly not be bound to their own warranty plan for another 3 years when I can just just want to bring the car in, get my money back and go find a car somewhere else. Taking a little inconvenience in the short term for a hopefully long term without any trouble.

I'm hoping for a smooth process tomorrow since they're quite a bit far away from where I live and I'm having to take time off from work to handle all of these shenanigans, but I'm fully expecting them to try their best to make my life as hard as possible...

but for you tomorrow

tiagoespinha said:

I'm hoping for a smooth process tomorrow since they're quite a bit far away from where I live and I'm having to take time off from work to handle all of these shenanigans, but I'm fully expecting them to try their best to make my life as hard as possible...

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If they give you 3 years full warranty on the car all-covered, I would go for it assuming they are established garage trading for the past 10 years or more. 3 years all included is better than MG 7 year warranty which is battery and a very few other things covered for 3 years, the rest of the car is mainly 12 months to 3 years ...

If the battery lasts for those 3 years (why wouldn't it, so far I haven't heard of any having to be replaced) , it will last another 2 that would be the original 7 y cover ...

If they give 3 years ALL INCLUDED warranty and service the car + put it on MG service database (that gives you free 12 months AA cover) I would seriously consider it. But, you want a letter on a headed paper from the garage or head office to confirm it in writing. If they try to get out of it later, repair the car elsewhere and sue them for the cost.

Also, seen some speculations on the forum that MG would accept warranty cover after MG garage service even if one was late or missed but that's something that MG customer services should confirm ...

Either way, good luck with whatever you decide!

That's made me wonder about my status. I bought mine as an ex-demonstrator at 6 months old in July from Hendy. I insisted they did a service before I picked up the car, and just checking my documents I haven't got any record of that service. In the sale documents, on the vehicle details section it does say "Next Service Due: 23 July 2025", but would that be proof enough? It's Hendy, so I guess they are a reputable dealer.

Chris H said:

That's made me wonder about my status. I bought mine as an ex-demonstrator at 6 months old in July from Hendy. I insisted they did a service before I picked up the car, and just checking my documents I haven't got any record of that service. In the sale documents, on the vehicle details section it does say "Next Service Due: 23 July 2025", but would that be proof enough? It's Hendy, so I guess they are a reputable dealer.

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Service history is on-line, no hard copy is given. I expect you can ask them and the should be able to print a copy out.

Others have purchased a service book from on line sites and have got the garage to fill it in.

tiagoespinha said:

I'm more and more convinced that the previous owner simply didn't do the first scheduled service. I think I read in this forum that the car doesn't prompt you to do it, so wouldn't be completely surprised if he'd missed it...

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I think deep down, we all feared that this would be the outcome, it missed the service !.
I suspect that the previous owner knows that the car has not been serviced.
A lot of low mileage user cases see that the car has not covered a lot of miles, but they don't understand that service schedule is based on time or distance, WHICH ever arrives first.
First service is normally 12 months OR 15,000 miles.
A bit of a clue in the wording ........ annual.
So unless you are covering 15,000 miles / year then the majority of us are going to get caught by the TIME and not the distance covered in 12 months.
The car is not equipped with a service warning schedule light which does not help.
In the head unit there is a tab that will show when the next service is / was due in distance / miles !.
This can be reset by the dealer or even the driver .
Interesting to know what this was displaying prior to the reset ?
This car has become a real head ache for all concerned TBH.
You have to return a car that you are basically happy with ( less warranty issue ) receive a refund and start the process of looking for another car.
But the dealer now has the problem of selling on the car once again, now at a reduced price as it has the addition of another owner on the V5 of course.
Additionally the dealer has the added complication of moving the car on once again, now in the full knowledge that the remaining duration of the MG 7 year warranty is completely null in void of course !.
As they did not perform the back ground checks prior to buying in the car, it could be seen as a grey area, but certainly not now of course.
Lesson clearly learnt here.
They may choose to pass the problem on, by putting it through the auction ?.

tiagoespinha said:

I'm hoping for a smooth process tomorrow

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Any update?

Everest said:

Any update?

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Right, sorry! I turned up with the car yesterday and the process went smoothly. One of the salesman I'd been dealing with had all the paperwork ready, just filled in my bank details and that was that.

Also, he did acknowledge that the whole thing was very annoying... and that it was a bit strange that a) the previous owner didn't remember where he'd done the first service and no garage in a 50 mile radius had it on their records and b) that even the second service was just an MG checklist without as much as a stamp or without having been submitted in the MG digital service history.... I'd thought that the 2nd service had been done with them, but given this, I'm really glad I walked away on this car.

Annoyingly the salesman said I should get the payment the same day since we handled it before 2pm and he ticked the faster payments option and it's now the next day and the money's not in my bank account yet...

Come 9am I'll be back on the phone with him asking to push things along as I need the money to buy my next vehicle...

Painful to the very end...

Thanks for the updates - sorry it ended like this, but hopefully your bad experience will make all of us, me especially, be extra wary when buying an MG (or any car for that matter). I still find it strange that the dealer were allegedly unaware of the service history a car they purchased - still doesn't ring true. Hope you find another one and come back on here soon.

Everest said:

Thanks for the updates - sorry it ended like this, but hopefully your bad experience will make all of us, me especially, be extra wary when buying an MG (or any car for that matter). I still find it strange that the dealer were allegedly unaware of the service history a car they purchased - still doesn't ring true. Hope you find another one and come back on here soon.

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That's the little comfort I can get out of this, that at least my story can be a cautionary tale for others. I'll definitely be asking for proof of the service history next time before I put money down particularly on a vehicle with such a long warranty period... and if the dealership is being difficult about it, try giving a call to a few other dealership chains around the country as some are bound to be kind enough to help you look it up on the MG database (massive kudos to Palmers for having done this for me - I don't know whether the fact that I was a customer helped or not, but the lady was super helpful and sent me a printout of the system to my email).

But if you thought this story was over, think again! It was never going to be that "easy" now, was it?

Supposedly I was getting my payment yesterday within the day. The whole day passed and I received no money at all. I thought... maybe they messed up and instead of using Faster Payments (like they said they would) they submitted it as BACS and maybe it comes in at midnight.

Today still, no money.

I chase it up again in the morning aaaaand.... they'd forgot to get me to sign a couple of extra documents in how I've sold my part exchange to them, and they need that before they can refund me.

"Fine, send the docs over and I'll sign them".

Signed and emailed them back before lunch. Chased up again by email about an hour ago, the salesman said he'd chase up with accounts, and now still no money.

I've had teeth pulled that have been less painful than this...

Another day has passed, and still no refund... Going to chase up again at 9am. At this point if they don't pay me back by the end of today, I'm escalating this to the financial ombudsman, the motor ombudsman and with their head office. Their group CEO's email is, conveniently, publicly available. I'm sure he'll be overjoyed to hear about their incompetence and how they treat their customers...

Unbelievably, they've got the car up for sale again, for the same price(!!!) despite an additional owner and despite now(?) being fully aware that the car has no service history to speak of, before they've even refunded me.

Funny how they find the time to fully valet the car and have back up for sale, but they can’t find the time to simply push the button to trigger your refund ?.
Incompetence at its finest !.

It could well be that the money is held in the head office and the accounts person is one of part-timers in no hurry as it's not their money ... not unusual in some places that money transfers take ages ...
Surprised they are selling at the same price ... !

fred12345 said:

Surprised they are selling at the same price ... !

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To me this leads me to believe they knew fully well that the car's history was dodgy... Either that or they're keeping the same price but will be more amenable to negotiating it down.

Or they're trying to catch a customer who cares less about the warranty than I do...

I'd love to send a friend in and have them pretend to be interested in it and ask about the warranty.

Gadget Geek said:

I'd love to send a friend in and have them pretend to be interested in it and ask about the warranty.

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We should all phone up the garage today

tiagoespinha said:

Another day has passed, and still no refund

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I think you should name and shame them on here, at least for the protection of others.

Everest said:

I think you should name and shame them on here, at least for the protection of others.

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I think I will... have just been waiting for the funds to arrive in my account

Apparently their website also has some kind of algorithm that automatically fluctuates the price. In fact this was dodgy point #1 because when I was closing the deal with them, the price the salesman was showing me on their computer was higher than what I'd spotted on the website! I flagged this to him and he mentioned this algorithm, and was happy to lower the price down to what I'd seen (it was only something like £50 but still).

Send them an email requestng that the money be in your account by close of buisness today or you will start procedings to issue a summonds in the small claims court for the amount plus out of pocket expenses, See if that gets them moving.

P.S. Make sure you send it with a return receipt so you know they've read it.

At long last, the money has arrived in my bank account after chasing the branch's general manager a couple of times this morning ("Let me investigate and I'll come back within the hour" - literally 2 hours passed and I had to chase again).

As for name and shame, lets just say I personally will never ever buy another car from MG Beaconsfield.

I live not far from there (used to take the kids to the Model Village there and the nearby Odds Farm Park) and could pop by and ask is that the car without the warranty?

Ruislip Resident said:

I live not far from there (used to take the kids to the Model Village there and the nearby Odds Farm Park) and could pop by and ask is that the car without the warranty?

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Far from me telling you what to do but I'd love to see their reaction