Hello all

 

Last May I bought a secondhand Octavia, approximately 2.5 years old, from a Skoda dealer, having found the car on the national Skoda Approved Used website. The car was fine, but unfortunately towards the end of March an issue with the electricals meant that it would not start. I called the Skoda Assist line, and was informed that it was not on their database of cars that were covered—and so I would have to pay for RAC membership and a call-out fee for non-members, and take the issue up with Skoda.

 

I called the dealer the following day. At first they said it was an administrative issue with the warranty, and that it would be sorted promptly. Then they said that the car had been registered properly for the warranty, but not for Skoda Assist, but that all warranties they sell come with Skoda Assist, so they would sort this out. Then they changed their minds, and claimed that the car had never been an Approved Used Skoda, but was rather sold with the balance of the manufacturer’s warranty, plus a ‘top-up’ to take it to 12 months’ warranty—with the latter not including Skoda Assist.

 

As you can imagine, I’m not very happy about this! To the very best of my knowledge, it was sold as an Approved Used car, and certainly I was never told that the breakdown cover was only six months instead of 12 (and received no postal notification that it was expiring).

 

I wonder if anyone has any advice about what to do? I am certain that I found the car listed on the Skoda UK website as an Approved Used car, but of course I have no proof of this (didn’t take any screenprints at the time, and 11 months later it’s no longer in my cache). The dealer is definitely listed as an ‘Approved Used’ retailer on the Skoda website, but say they sell very few cars through this scheme, and mostly just provide their own three-month warranty/assistance. The dealer have said they will double-check to see whether they did advertise my car as Skoda Approved Used, but I do not have much faith in this (especially since they claimed today that they don’t have any Octavias currently for sale on the Skoda Approved Used scheme—but I just looked and found two from this dealer on the Skoda UK Approved Used website, about the same age as mine was when I bought it!). I think my next step, assuming this isn’t resolved by the dealer, is to complain to Skoda UK, but I wonder if there is any way to find an independent record of what cars have been through the Approved Used scheme? Or if anyone has any other bright ideas about what I should do next?

 

Many thanks for any help.

Shouldnt the paperwork they gave u when u purchased state such thing as:

 

Approved car

Include Skoda Assist.

 

If it doesn't - it maybe just your words against theirs.

U can try to escalate to the DM of the dealership.

Then Skoda UK.

Lastly small claims...

When we bought ours as an approved used car we got some paperwork stating the expiration date of the warranty and Skoda assist.

 

Phil

Ring Skoda UK on 08457 745745, option 4.

 

Sounds to me like the dealer is trying to have his cake and eat it.

 

Advertising his Skoda's as 'approved' and enjoying the benefits associated with this yet flogging them without the warranty and breakdown service.

 

Not good enough, time to dig in and stand firm.

Edited 12 April, 201412 yr by silver1011

Thanks folks. I certainly do plan to contact Skoda UK if I don't get anywhere with the dealer. My concern, though, is that as Chan110 says, it'll be my word against theirs, with them claiming that the car was never advertised within the Skoda Approved scheme, and saying that their records back this up.

 

Their claim that most of their cars are not Skoda Approved, and that they only do "one or two" under the Approved scheme, is clearly nonsense, because they've got about a dozen advertised as Skoda Approved right now, but I'm not sure how I can prove this for my car specifically. I've e-mailed Auto Trader to see if they keep records of old adverts, since it was on there as well, and will ring Skoda Customer Services tomorrow to see if they have records of the cars that have been advertised on their website as approved.

 

Any other ideas about how I can get evidence greatly appreciated! I guess I could see if I can find the print edition of Auto Trader for the time when I bought the car....

Thanks folks. I certainly do plan to contact Skoda UK if I don't get anywhere with the dealer. My concern, though, is that as Chan110 says, it'll be my word against theirs, with them claiming that the car was never advertised within the Skoda Approved scheme, and saying that their records back this up.

 

Their claim that most of their cars are not Skoda Approved, and that they only do "one or two" under the Approved scheme, is clearly nonsense, because they've got about a dozen advertised as Skoda Approved right now, but I'm not sure how I can prove this for my car specifically. I've e-mailed Auto Trader to see if they keep records of old adverts, since it was on there as well, and will ring Skoda Customer Services tomorrow to see if they have records of the cars that have been advertised on their website as approved.

 

Any other ideas about how I can get evidence greatly appreciated! I guess I could see if I can find the print edition of Auto Trader for the time when I bought the car....

 

Most companies when u ring them record the conversation:

"Pls note this conversation will be recorded for training purposes..." Etc

 

I have argued once before with a company when, like yourself,

thy agreed something and then it turns out no paperwork and thy disagree.

 

I argued it was on the phone,

This person I spoke to and this time,

And challenge them to dig out the recording ,

"Knowing that they usually do not record or its discarded earlier",

They came back after a few days and backed down.

I doubt thy found the recording, 

But if u stand your ground - find as much about the consumer law as possible,

and use as much evidence as possible,

Usually they back down.

 

Good luck.

And keep us posted.

If their records back this up, then you need to see those records.

 

If you remain unconvinced, follow their complaints procedure in writing and if that doesn't bear fruit, refer it to your local Trading Standards.

 

As a bit of a left field suggestion, have you tried googling your number plate? - worth a shot.

 

And as Chan said, keep us posted.

 

Best o'luck.

 

Gaz 

How many non-approved Skoda's are they advertising now?

 

It's not for you to prove it was advertised as approved, it is for them to prove that it wasn't.

 

As advised, ring Skoda UK, open a case, sit back and let the dealer do the leg work.

The first thing to do is check what it says on your paperwork.

Thanks everyone. I'll certainly keep you posted.

 

ruffday - I'm trying to dig out the paperwork at the moment, but as I recall, it doesn't say much that's useful - just 'Octavia + warranty' or similar. However, while trying to find it, I had a look in the glovebox, and it turns out that in with the instruction manual, service log etc. is a copy of the Skoda Approved Used guide! Definitely supplied by the dealer, and I was the car's second owner, so it wasn't left over from a previous sale.

 

silver1011 - they do have a few non-approved used cars up for sale, but all of them are older than mine was when I bought it. The two Octavias that look closest to how mine was in terms of age (2.5ish years), mileage (low) and price are all on the national Skoda website under 'Find an approved used Skoda' (even though the dealer said they didn't have any Approved Used Octavias at present - seems to me they don't know what's being advertised where?!).

 

Gaz - good idea re. the numberplate, but sadly it didn't find anything.

 

Chan and all - I will definitely be following this through and will keep you all updated.

 

I'm going to ring Skoda today and see if they keep records of what has been advertised as Approved Used on their website. The dealer said they would get back to me tomorrow re. their records, so I will wait and see what they see (and ask to see a copy of any record they claim to have). If this doesn't get me anywhere, I'll be complaining to Skoda UK.

 

Does anyone have any experience of Skoda's complaints department? The dealer (a different one!) where I take the car to be serviced is already very keen for me to provide very good feedback to Skoda after a service, so hopefully they are quite good at performance-managing their dealers...

Edited 14 April, 201412 yr by Octonaught

Some bit of good news then!

(Ref Skoda Approved used guide)

Not used Skoda complaint dept before.

Only had confusion at one dealer (different staff saying different things),

To obtain clarification - i just went onto the Skoda.co.uk -

Fill in the CONTACT US form.

Within days - Skoda Uk had spoken to the dealer,

Contacted me - and it was resolved the following day :-)

As others have said - certainly worth contacting Skoda Uk.

Did you contact the dealer via the website?

When you saw it on the forecourt did it display Skoda Approved Used?

What is on the paperwork?

Did you confirm it was being sold to you under Skoda Approved Used Scheme?

Evening all

 

A few developments on this to inform you about!

 

First of all, I got in touch with Skoda UK customer services to see if they had an independent record of what was advertised on their website. They said they didn't know, but would investigate; they also suggested that I open a case with them, regardless of what happened with the dealer. They sounded a bit taken aback at the dealer's attitude, and said that they could open a case then put it on hold, so I said OK.

 

The dealer then got back to me on Wednesday, and provided me with some paperwork that seemed to show that they did indeed intend to advertise it as non-approved. Fair enough.

 

However, I then did my own digging, and had a look at their current stock, and how much of it was appearing on the Skoda website as Approved. They had 19 Skodas in stock, 13 of which appeared on skoda.co.uk as Approved - a bit of a surprise, since I'd been told that they only do the "odd one" approved, and hadn't done any as approved in a long while. Digging a bit further, it turned out that all the cars that were less than three years old were appearing on skoda.co.uk, and all those that were older were not. So in short, cars appearing as Approved when the dealer didn't mean them to be!

 

I'm pretty certain that this must be what happened with mine, since it was 2.5 years old when I bought it. I've put this to the dealer, and they seem to have accepted it - though they want to pursue it with Skoda UK first before reimbursing me, presumably to see whether they can get it back from them. I'm not very happy with this, but I have said I will give them a week to come up with a firm date for my compensation - after which I'll be going back to Skoda UK, and getting in touch with Trading Standards.

 

So looks like it should be a successful resolution eventually, but the customer service from the dealer has been pretty lacking. This is something they could have seen for themselves if they'd had a look instead of assuming that the mistake was mine, they've been extremely bad at returning calls; I've even said I'll be happy with just being reimbursed the call-out charge of £99, rather than the £141 I had to pay, since I'll benefit from the remainder of the RAC membership (£42). I will be withdrawing that offer if they don't meet my deadline.

 

Customer service from Skoda UK, on the other hand, is so far very good.

 

I'll let you know what happens next in a week's time.

 

Cheers again to all for your advice.

Let Skoda UK handle it for you. IIRC, the dealer may have broken the rules when advertising it as Skoda Approved Used on the Skoda UK website, whilst offering a different deal.

There is nothing in law to stop a dealer advertising the same car in different places with different deals, but when you ask for one of the deals they must honour it. Then you are only entitled to the deal if you pay the asking price and few people do. When you go to a forecourt they may have yet a different deal or build a deal to match what you are willing to spend. Don't you hate the motor trade

I'd ask Skoda UK to pay the full price for your membership and give you a free service as compensation.

VW never contacted me when we bought ours as an approved used.

I wonder if to sell them as Skoda Approved used they have to pay Skoda commission so if they advertise as approved but sell as non approved they improve their margins. Just a thought.  

I wonder if to sell them as Skoda Approved used they have to pay Skoda commission so if they advertise as approved but sell as non approved they improve their margins. Just a thought.

To be aapproved must have full manufacturers history.

Not sure if there's any fee

If you struggle to get anywhere perhaps you can use the media to your advantage, perhaps something like Watchdog, The Times or similar, What Car etc. It is a sad state of affairs that being featured online, in print etc. gets things done. Also contact trading standards and maybe get busy on social media tagging skoda and the dealer.