Good luck

A dealers by law need to give you three months warranty.........

 

 

No they don't.  Dealers have to abide by the Sales of Goods Act, any warranty given is in addition to this.

Stayed very calm and just pointed out the facts.

To be honest I'm not expecting anything so won't get too worked up/anxious over it (my expectations are very low!)

They may need to abide by the sales of good act (which covers you for 6 months) but they must also supply warranty now......some legislation changed a while back due to fraudulent dealers selling knock off vehicles...... I had this happen to me when i bought my SRI Vec.......basically when the inlet manifold broke the dealer told me to   off. Took my case to the office of fair trading and there letter got whistled at......they deemed it as a wasted of money and time for them.....nothing got sorted in the end.....

dont know wether to do mine or not? after 4 years it will have about 23,000 miles on ...just dont know what to do

 

Ours was due in terms of time but the car only had 20,000 miles on. Still wanted it doing as per the recommendation.

 

Phil

I'd simply question how is can be an Approved used car when it hasnt been serviced/maintained to schedule.  Therefore the cambelt should have been done, and you'd like a refund.

Cheers gadgetman - pretty much what I've asked.

I'll let you know how I get on

UPDATE

I've written to the dealer MD and cc'd the Customer Services Manager at Skoda UK regarding my complaint.

Issues mentioned:

1.) brakes being unsafe - replaced within 1 month after purchase (front and rear discs and pads ) - should never have been sold to me in this condition;

2.) DMF - confirmed as needing replacement;

3.) tailgate needs replacing due to corrosion (under anti-corrosion warranty);

4.) cambelt not replaced as per Skoda UK requirements - therefore should not have been sold as "approved used" vehicle;

5.) Haldex not serviced as per Skoda UK requirements - see above;

I've requested that either they give me my money back or they give me market value against a similar vehicle on their forecourt.

What do you reckon my chances are?

There may or may not be a fight on......at the end of the day the dealer is at fault and should of got these checked before they sold this vehicle to you....You will get your money back but thats only if you stick to your guns.....i bailed out on my vec....recently found a few problems with my skoda.....they sorted it without any questions....most dealers don't want hassle so with that in mind i think you shouldn't have much trouble....goodluck,....

I heard of a bloke who fell in love with his Octavia.  Bit of a silly big twerp really.  Drove his car from the dealer to his house and was so smitten by his car he decided then and there that it would never be damaged or dirtied.

He washed it dried it polished it pushed it in his garage and put a sheet over it and left it.

 

every six months he dusts it polishes it covers it and moves it a couple of feet to spare the tyres sitting in one position.

 

Now he has a problem.  He needs a trailer to transport his motor to the dealer.  He won't drive it and increase the 29 miles it has done in the last four years.   And he dreads some strange mechanic touching his car.    But it has to get to the dealer because it is four years old. And needs a new cambelt and water pump.

That's actually quite sad to read......how could he do that to such a nice car....

UPDATE

Took my car to the dealer for the warranty work on Monday (5 days after my letter) and no mention at all... I asked to see THE manager and the Service Manager came to speak to me - no knowledge of my complaint at all.

Apparently it's "not company policy" to check for timing belt replacement or change it if it needs doing...

To be fair to him - he hadn't seen my complaint so I cut him some slack.

All he said was "I only fix them" I'd have to speak to the sales manager who is off sick until Monday...

The fact that my letter was addressed to the Director of the dealership and I've still not heard anything didn't matter...

I've since emailed skoda UK again asking for someone to contact me - no contact since the 10th even though their policy is to respond "within 48 hours"...

Really p*ssed off but determined to stay professional and will keep making a nuisance of myself until someone has the decency to speak to me!

For info - dealer is BICKERTON SKODA in Sheffield.

i'd start making calls to skoda uk. It seems to have gone past email and you need to properly speak to someone.

John Crutchley

Managing Director at Bickerton Skoda

 

http://www.bickertonskoda.co.uk/profile.php

 

Briskoda is watching this thread...

I hope you're right - the longer it goes with no contact the more and more frustrated i get....

I had to contact the dealer to even get them to acknowledge they'd received my letter...

Best of luck, too many dealers hide behind `its not our policy` nonsense...you are right to stand on......Just be aware that some of the staff you will speak to at SUK are clueless and tell you all sorts of guff as I found out recently..When you ring ask for a manager or supervisor from the off and take no   from them.

Goodluck with this.....be care full if they start saying they didn't get the emails or are you sure it was sent to the right address. Tick read receipt when sending an email....that will give you some comfort that someone has opened your email.....if all else fails start with the old method of writing a letting and sending it first class special delivery....they need to sign the letter which means you have a receipt or confirmation that the letter has reached them.....Also start informing trading standards if you haven't done so already. 

 

I've added the link below to help....
http://www.tradingstandards.gov.uk/extra/contact.cfm?frmAlias=/contact/

 

The next step, in my own mind, would be to pay for some local trusted garage mechanic to take a look and do an assessment of the vehicle....you may pay a little bit but in the end you would have a full written assessment of the vehicles faults....again only do this if you haven't done so already....and make sure you get a receipt of this.....

 

Final step and one i hope you don't have to follow is the legal route.....

 

Good luck fella and I will be keeping an eye out on this post...

I had a similar issue with a car i purchased for my wife. It was an 03 Shogun and came with a 3 month limited mileage warranty. The climate control packed up after 4 weeks, so I researched the Sale of Goods Act (see Honest John web-site) and phoned the dealer. They did not even quibble or use the warranty and took the car in and fixed it. SOGA is a very powerfull piece of legislation and would cover the brake and DMF issue. 

Managed to speak to someone helpful at Skoda customer services - they apologised for not having any record of my complaint and didn't understand why I'd received a standard "we will respond in 48 hours" e-mail. 

 

They've raised a case file and will now investigate further.

 

I've also managed to get details of the directors at Bickerton and Rainworth (same company) and sent the letter to them personally.

 

Finally feel like I'm making some progress...

I've also asked Consumer Advice / Trading Standards to look into it for me as per MazVrstfsi advice.

UPDATE

finally managed to contact one of the directors - he's meeting with both his sales and service managers on Monday to discuss the various issues I have raised.

I also managed to speak to someone very helpful at Skoda customer services who apologised for no-one contacting me. She has set up a case and given me a reference number. She called me back to let me know that she would be investigating my complaint over the next few days.

Also, today I received an email and telephone call from Consumer Advice - very helpful in terms of Sales of Goods Act advice. Based on what they've told me I've forwarded all the details onto Blackhorse finance as well.

Hopefully Tuesday/Wednesday next week I'll know what's happening.

Excellent news.......I am away now for a week or 2 but on my return cannot wait to read if this is finally sorted....... :sun:

Hi Freddy, 

 

Did you get this sorted? I have had a similar scenario with a different dealer and would like to know where you've got to.

 

Thanks

UPDATE

Spoke to one of the directors yesterday who basically told me to do one. He wouldn't acknowledge any fault or blame for any of the issues I have complained about. He even suggested that because I'm getting the warranty work done free I should be happy - I respectfully reminded him that Skoda were paying his garage for the work to be done, it's not being done free of charge.

He then suggested that I was being totally unreasonable and basically told me that he was very angry I'd got Skoda customer services involved!

His argument was "you've bought a 5 year old used car, what do you expect?" What I expect is to buy an "approved" used car from a main dealer with all associated quality checks etc having been undertaken...

I quizzed him on the cambelt issue - "what would happen if I'd been driving and the cambelt had snapped with it not having been replaced as per Skoda recommendations?" No answer - simply "can't really comment on that..."

He told me that he was open to a part exchange against another vehicle but that was pretty much that. I called Skoda customer services and updated them with the content of this conversation.

I received a call from Skoda customer services today - basically my case manager has escalated my issues to her line manager who has deemed fit to pass it onto the regional service team. I didn't ask her to do this but I'm very pleased she has.

To be honest, I'm going to collect my car, have it AA checked and take it and my money to a different garage for all future maintenance and servicing. Bearing in mind my car history has been a new car every 18 months (new to me) they've also missed out on many future sales.

I'll be taking my car to Gordon Lamb in Derby / Chesterfield from now on.

Happy to explain more if anyone wants to pm me.

Edited 26 July, 201312 yr by Freddy2780

Delaers dont like Skoda getting involved as Skoda come down on them.  Too many complaints and they risk losing their franchise.

 

That's their issue, not yours!