After waiting a month since ending my lease BCA have finally come out today to inspect my car prior to being collected tomorrow.

 

With hindsight I should never have bought a black car living in the middle of nowhere as it shows all the hedge scratches, dings and dents. The BCA guy did a quick inspection (15 minutes), he let me off five quite impressive parking dings and dents from stones on the bonnet, two of which I thought fell well outside of the BVRLA acceptable damage limit after re-reading it several times and measuring them. He also said the hedge scratches we're fine as it would get a proper polish before sale anyway. He missed the boot lip protector i'd fitted covering up the wrecked top of the rear bumper (well worth the £50) but did pick up on a big scuff on the lower passenger side corner of the  bumper (argument with a large lump of granite) - this extends to both the paintwork and the grey plastic part of the bumper - he priced this up at £55.20+vat. I didn't think this was particularly unreasonable given that two surfaces would need a smart repair. Overall the car was graded as a B, whatever than means).

 

All in all quite a painless process (apart from waiting for a month). Now to twiddle my thumbs for a day until it actually gets picked up.

 

Edited 12 September, 20178 yr by Bugginbob

Thanks for posting this Bob.  I've had mine on a lease for a month and someone has already scuffed the rear bumper in a supermarket.  This gives me some faith that I won't be completely done over when I return it.

I decided to return my SEAT Leon as the depreciation was a bloody nightmare, literally losing more than I was paying off.  Anyway...

 

The finance company were fine to deal with but I opted to have the car collected rather than me return it to my nearest auction house.  The driver arrived when he said he was going to and inspected the car, checked service book, etc.  The car was mint and I mean there wasn't a better used one around.  He drove off in the car without picking up a single fault with it.  So apart from paying the collection fee (IIRC it was £150 incl VAT) I should have had nothing else to pay.  Wrong...

 

I waited a few weeks without hearing anything from the finance company so I called them up to confirm everything was ok and pay the collection fee.  I was a bit shocked with the £550 outstanding balance on my account;  this was the collection fee (fine with that), an overnight storage fee as the designated auction house couldn't take delivery on the day and another fee for a full detail/valet (owing to the "paint defects").  Talk about flip mode, I was absolutely livid.  Needless to say I challenged everything barring the collection fee and the issue was escalated to a customer service manager.  Good outcome in the end though as the CSM agreed that the additional items on the invoice were unjustified and agreed to settle the account at no cost to me, even writing off the collection charge for the inconvenience which was caused.  A good result but shouldn't have happened in the first place. 

 

Anyway, I've finished venting now so I hope you have better luck when VWFS settle your contract.  Enjoy the Disco too  

^^^ thanks. As soon as it leaves my hands it's bca's problem so I deffo shouldn't be getting any storage/collection charges. The guy who inspected it stated that a full valet and polish would happen anyway as part of their agreement with VWFS. 

 

I better not get charged anything else.

When my Octavia went back (Alphabet) I was surprised that the assessor said a wheel scuff was allowable despite being longer than the measurement in the guide.  Had spoken to Alphabet 6 weeks earlier and their charge to fix would have been less than chips away and also hassle free for me.  He also didn't seem to pay any special attention to the area which had been repaired.  Then the collection driver turned up and started inspecting it again . . . . until I showed him the form the assessor had left me an hour earlier.

 

All the fees were wrapped into the monthly charge and all I had to pay was the 2k or so extra mileage.  They do however expect the car to go back clean inside and out, it was collected from home and taken to BCA in Birmingham.

 

Alphabet's tyre deal also covers un-repairable punctures VWFS doesn't (One lucky escape so far) so the cheapest lease isn't necessarily the best. 

Edited 13 September, 20178 yr by IJWS15
Wrong lease co

Car collected this afternoon. The driver did another inspection, confirmed everything was the same as yesterday's inspection, asked me to sign and drove away. Took about 10 mins in total.

 

all in all very painless although working from home two days on the trot wasn't particularly convenient.

I did a VT on my SII earlier in the year and the guy who collected it was about 45 mins inspecting it and when he knocked the door to tell me he had finished and walked me round the car, some of the things he picked up on we're really picky-scratch on the underside of the front number !!

didnt receive any calls or emails for money off VWFS though as had already had an email off them stating there would be no charge for excess mileage (70k over agreed amount) or refurbishment charges.

i was a very happy man handing it back.

Is that a typo, or were you actually 70,000 miles over the agreed mileage? Did you make an unexpected trip to the moon? 

6 hours ago, simhub said:

Is that a typo, or were you actually 70,000 miles over the agreed mileage? Did you make an unexpected trip to the moon? 

Haha, no typo ☺️