Halfords overfilled engine oil and refuse to repair vehicle fully!

[manofprinciple]

Re: Halfords overfilled engine oil and refuse to repair vehicle fully!

Hey guys after your comments I've changed the letter as per below..please let me know your thoughts..


WARNING: NOTICE OF LETTER BEFORE INTENDED LEGAL COURT PROCEEDINGS

Dear Halfords,

As you maybe aware on the 24^th December 2014 date I visited Halfords at Cortonwood, Barnsley and paid for my engine oil to be topped up.

The employee responsible for this overfilled the engine oil significantly due to not using measuring beakers and misreading the engine oil dipstick. Your branch acknowledged this error, but advised the car was safe to drive, when it was not.
Your organization has now retracted liability and allowed staff to falsify ‘witness’ statements although evidence has been provided that proves the statements given are false. (Photographs of the top up occurring with only 1 member of staff and independent witness testimonial.)

The excess oil caused damage to my vehicle in the form of:
-Catalytic Converter
-Spark plugs
-Exhaust system
-Gasket

However despite numerous requests, you have failed to pay me or repair the vehicle to its original condition in the last 36 days.
Therefore my total costs now incurred because of your error are £2205.93. There are now two ways to resolve the matter.

Option 1: Write off the vehicle as per cost below+reimburse me charges incurred because of Halfords error:
These costs breakdown as:
Car Value (Pre Valuation Certificate) - £2400 (As car repair cost is quoted at £2700, the cheapest solution is to write the vehicle off in the interest of fairness to Halfords and to lower the costs, however I give Halfords the option to repair the vehicle themselves if wanted.)
Taxi costs incurred during failed repair - £24
Increase in Breakdown cover insurance policy due to Halfords error - £234.19
Loss of breakdown cover no claims bonus due to Halfords error- 7 years NCB lost - £100 per year lost x 7 years = £700
Loss of time, inconvenience and emotional distress - £1080 = £30 a day x 36 days (from 24th December until day of legal letter of issue)
Loss in petrol by Halfords during first repair = £26.41
Loss in 4 months road tax due to repairs on vehicle and end result car being written off/ due to Halfords error- £93.34
Loss of 4 months insurance due to repairs on vehicle and end result car being written off/ due to Halfords error- - £133.34
Postage costs- £10
Telephone calls - £17.99

Total- £4719.14

Option 2: Halfords repair the vehicle in house themselves at one of their auto centres and reimburse me costs incurred below:
Car Repair done in house at Halfords Auto centre
Taxi costs incurred during failed repair - £24
Increase in Breakdown cover insurance policy due to Halfords error - £234.19
Loss of breakdown cover no claims bonus due to Halfords error- 7 years NCB lost - £100 per year lost x 7 years = £700
Loss of time, inconvenience and emotional distress - £1080 = £30 a day x 36 days (from 24th December until day of legal letter of issue)
Loss in petrol by Halfords during first repair = £26.41
Loss in 2 months road tax due to repairs on vehicle - £46.67 (repair must be started within next 7 days so that no further loss is incurred)
Loss of 2 months insurance same as above - £66.67 (repair must be started within next 7 days so that no further loss is incurred)
Postage costs- £10
Telephone calls - £17.99

Total-£2205.93


The cost to repair my vehicle thus is £2700 as quoted by Nissan Huddersfield on 27/01/15 and they state in writing a catalytic converter replacement will not fix the vehicle alone due the litre that was admitted by staff to be added to the vehicle.
I am happy for Halfords to conduct the repair themselves and reimburse me where I have incurred charges as listed above in option 2 because of their error, but this must be done in the next 7 days if you wish to avoid legal action and I shall require a hire car whilst the repair is on going.

I now require that you take option 1 or 2 within 7 days from the date of this letter, otherwise I will start a claim in the county court for option 2, and will be claiming for my costs and interest in addition to the above.



Yours sincerely,

[des8]

Re: Halfords overfilled engine oil and refuse to repair vehicle fully!

Your costs are a lot more limited than you expect.
If the vehicle will cost more to repair than its value you can claim its value, otherwise the cost of repair is claimable.
Additional travel costs claimable.
What loss of time and how do you value it?
Inconvenience and emotional stress ....... forget it unless you have a doctor's diagnosis for the stress
Breakdown cover loss. How calculated as autonational's most expensive package is only £136 if you don't qualify for their no claim bonus of 25% (http://www.autonational.co.uk/autona...down_cover.jsp) . What's this 7 years?
Loss of road tax and insurance are covered by claiming "loss of use" (probably £15 p.d.) for any day on which your car was out of use and you had no courtesy car supplied.
Incidental costs (postage, telephone etc) claimable.

Your letter should be headed "Letter before Action" and should comply with the pre action conduct required by the CPR mentioned above.

[manofprinciple]

Re: Halfords overfilled engine oil and refuse to repair vehicle fully!

Your costs are a lot more limited than you expect.
If the vehicle will cost more to repair than its value you can claim its value, otherwise the cost of repair is claimable.
Additional travel costs claimable.
What loss of time and how do you value it?
Inconvenience and emotional stress ....... forget it unless you have a doctor's diagnosis for the stress
Breakdown cover loss. How calculated as autonational's most expensive package is only £136 if you don't qualify for their no claim bonus of 25% (http://www.autonational.co.uk/autona...down_cover.jsp) . What's this 7 years?
Loss of road tax and insurance are covered by claiming "loss of use" (probably £15 p.d.) for any day on which your car was out of use and you had no courtesy car supplied.
Incidental costs (postage, telephone etc) claimable.

Your letter should be headed "Letter before Action" and should comply with the pre action conduct required by the CPR mentioned above.

I see. Yes I've asked a solicitor about it all and they said that the insurance I would have to not claim because I would not get reimbursement as insurance is necessary anyway until car is SORN.
And yes I have in writing that the car's repair exceeds the value of the vehicle. Thats why i have given Halfords the option to repair the vehicle themselves or write the vehicle off.
I suffered a loss of time because of the fact I have had to take time off university and also my part time freelance job. I have not applied for a loss of income because Halfords told me before that there legal team said I would not be entitled to that and i did not want the judge to think I was being overzealous.
And Autonational emailed me after the original breakdown and said that I would lose my no claims bonus for next year of 25% so for my vehicle and the policy would increase by X amount if I wanted to renew. I do have this in writing from them.
In terms of loss of usage you think I should make this all into one category then? i.e. : Loss of use, loss of time, inconvienece and emotional distress?
Also what do you mean by how do I 'value my time'. I have sent off the above LBA and changed ti to the precedent you listed the above was a rough draft but I gave Halfords two options.

I'd like to also say to everybody who thinks am being 'greedy ' I'd just like to say that when this did happen I told Halfords ALL i wanted was the repair of my vehicle to its original condition. They told me their legal team said I was entitled to nothing outside of the repair of the car. Also that I wasn't allowed to post on any consumer right forums as it would 'damage the companies reputation'. I agreed to receive no compensation in cash on the basis of any charges incurred I would get back. Halfords instead choose to not rightly repair the vehicle and refuse me any compensation or charges. I believe that as i put this in writing to them I was fair at the time.
Obviously they as of today still have not returned my vehicle to me and have ended the car hire earlier than their agreed date. (they told me the car hire would end 29th January, but they ended it on the 28th.)
To be fair I have no car now because of Halfords and the look on my son's face when he could not go to his grandmothers on xmas eve and xmas day is something i won't get back
I have been genuinely distressed by the matter because i've been sleepless with worry and stress and had time off work because of it. I will ensure i get this in writing though to back the facts up.

[des8]

Re: Halfords overfilled engine oil and refuse to repair vehicle fully!

Just to be clear, I was not criticizing you regarding your claim, nor suggesting you are being greedy, but if you are going to make a money claim you have to show how you arrive at the figure.
You are claiming for loss of time. Therefore your time must have a value. How do you quantify that? Generally it would be by loss of paid work, although there could be other calculations
You are looking for compensation for inconvenience and distress. This is perfectly acceptable, but is difficult to prove and quantify. Sometimes it will be decided that an apology is sufficient recompense, other times there will be a monetary award.

Anyway good luck and will be interested to see HALFORD's response.
If they don't want to have their reputation damaged they would be well advised to improve their service, and not threaten people who post on fora.
http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/n...et-survey.html

[manofprinciple]

Re: Halfords overfilled engine oil and refuse to repair vehicle fully!

Just to be clear, I was not criticizing you regarding your claim, nor suggesting you are being greedy, but if you are going to make a money claim you have to show how you arrive at the figure.
You are claiming for loss of time. Therefore your time must have a value. How do you quantify that? Generally it would be by loss of paid work, although there could be other calculations
You are looking for compensation for inconvenience and distress. This is perfectly acceptable, but is difficult to prove and quantify. Sometimes it will be decided that an apology is sufficient recompense, other times there will be a monetary award.

Anyway good luck and will be interested to see HALFORD's response.
If they don't want to have their reputation damaged they would be well advised to improve their service, and not threaten people who post on fora.
http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/n...et-survey.html

Oh no i wasn't saying you were. Just I think generally people think I am being greedy. I understand what you mean to be honest but how am i to justify that..could you help me? And i have sent off LBA recorded delivery and given 7 days and also via email..so will await response..although i doubt to have one as seems halfords ignore this often from research

[des8]

Re: Halfords overfilled engine oil and refuse to repair vehicle fully!

Well lets just wait and see what Halfords come back with.
You can't proceed until then.

[manofprinciple]

Re: Halfords overfilled engine oil and refuse to repair vehicle fully!

Yes. I've just checked my email and have this..I don't know what to say back..what do you think I should do?

Reference -XXXXXX

Dear XXXXX

I confirm receipt of your email.

Taking into account our prior correspondence, we are comfortable that this is our final position on this matter, and we do not propose to respond to you further in this circumstance. We refute your assertion that liability has been accepted at any point as the covert audio you recorded was only liability accepted on the basis that the staff thought it maybe overfilled a little and IF there was any damage caused by this. I have checked with our legal team and any audio/photographs taken that you have provided as evidence are inadmissible in court as they are without the permission of the staff involved and would be ridiculed by a judge. You are not a journalist and did not have the authority to take photographs or videos at the time of this matter and this was done without permission which is a breach of Data confidentiality As stated after further investigation we feel that the staff never overfilled the vehicle and evidence of this is the fact all 3 witness statements match and state they supervised the staff member and ensured only 1 litre of engine oil was put into your vehicle and we recommend that you do seek legal advice should you wish to take this further.

We await service of your claims paperwork from your legal representative as you will require one and would ask that your case number of XXXXX is on all paperwork submitted.

Yours Sincerely

XXXXXX
Claims Consultant

[des8]

Re: Halfords overfilled engine oil and refuse to repair vehicle fully!

I'm ot until later today, and will respond this evening.
Others might pop in in the meantime.

[wales01man]

Re: Halfords overfilled engine oil and refuse to repair vehicle fully!

An answer I would ,expect the ball is now in your Court This now raises a few questions I think a Solicitor is needed before you commit to other costs Halfords are rejecting your claim and quoting rules that need to be checked.

[manofprinciple]

Re: Halfords overfilled engine oil and refuse to repair vehicle fully!

Hi well i've contacted solicitors but they want 35% no win no fee and most of the others of which state they want some aspect of personal injury to take on the case which I don't have.
I visited the GP and have received a relevant sick note for depression/stress/lack of sleep/nosebleeds due to stress which the doctor says correlate to this matter because of the amount of tension involved and I've been recommended for a blood test because of the emissions problem of the car and to make sure nothing is clotting or anything. I've also been prescribed some medication to help me sleep.

In terms of Halfords, I have thought about my costs and you are all right. In essence I cannot claim insurance back as you need this anyway until SORN and Halfords will argue that I needed it for the hire car anyway. I suppose it is one of those things where its just bad luck.
Therefore i have reevaluated and justified my costs and the evidence to each point below:

Car Value (Pre Valuation Certifcate) (Due to write off as repair cost is higher than value of car) - £2400
-Valuation Certificate justifies this.
-Emails from Nissan confirming cat converter repair will not fix problem alone.
-Email quote of cost of repair justifying higher than value
-Offer put to Halfords to repair vehicle in LBA which was refused.


Taxi cost during repair & Transport cost due to loss of vehicle and cut of car hire and non return of vehicle- £192
- Have got taxi receipts with dates and times of locations. These were only used for necessary journeys when we ran out of food and to
attend university and return back because of the distance and not having a vehicle.
- Have email from taxi company comfirming costs paid and taxi journey locations and dates.
- Halfords have failed to return vehicle and ended car hire earlier than agreed, therefore have ONLY claimed taxi reimbursement for the dates of no vehicle obviously and no hire car but am now left within the next few weeks without a vehicle.


Increase in Breakdown insurance Policy - £234.19
-I have received an email from Autonational stating due to the car's age and previous no claims on breakdown the policy will increase based on a 'risk factor.'
Have this in writing from Autonational.
- Halfords demanded to see this document and have email proof of this from relevant member of staff with time and date, therefore if call out was not done initial repair would not have been instigated.


Loss of 25% discount with Breakdown No Claims Discount-£58.55 (25% of £234.19) as next quote will increase for breakdown cover due to Halfords error.
- I believed that I had lost 7 years no claims but I am told this is wrong and I've misunderstood after speaking to Autonational, apparently when my current breakdown runs out I will not receive 25% discount because of breakdown claim Halfords demanded same points as above for justification.



Loss of earnings from freelance work- £20 per day x 37 days = £740
- During the process of not having a car and the repairs I could not continue my freelance work or get to the equipment in my home city as
the car hire would levy a £12 return fee and Halfords told me I had to pay the car deposit fee of £50. Therefore I could only stay local to the repair centre area which was not my home address I do work from.
- Email from freelance employer confirming loss of income for 37 days.


Stress/illness/nosebleeds/depression & Inconvenience backed by GP Report & Sick Note Judgement- £30 per day x 37 days= £1110
- Justified by report and sick note made by GP and relevant tests referrals made



Loss in petrol by halfords during first repair = £26.41
- The car was filled with £54 approximately petrol on 23/12/14. During the repair and towing to Halfords auto centre for the initial repair on what I believe was the 30/12/14 the car was run for numerous hours and returned with only half a tank of petrol which was photographed outside at the time of collection. Therefore I would like to claim the loss of petrol back at 50% of the original amount and have the receipt. This totals the amount above. i would not have lost this petrol if halfords had not been negligent.


Loss in road tax for 4 months- £93.33 - Road Tax receipt will justify this and I will get this from DVLA. Obviously due to the first point the car is being written off I will lose this because of Halford's error


Postage costs- £3.44 - Costs to post LBA


Telephone calls - £17.99 - Calls made to Halfords from 26/12/14-24/01/15. Confirmation of costs by EE customer services in email and also phone bill.


interest- (set at 8% standard bank rate) - £39.54


Total- £4915.45

[manofprinciple]

Re: Halfords overfilled engine oil and refuse to repair vehicle fully!

An answer I would ,expect the ball is now in your Court This now raises a few questions I think a Solicitor is needed before you commit to other costs Halfords are rejecting your claim and quoting rules that need to be checked.

I've seeked legal advice and as I read often legal fees are not refunded I don't want to involve a solicitor so am seeking advice from them on a paid basis throughout the process. They have told me that it will depend on the judge if 'audio' and 'photographs' are frowned upon. However it is not illegal to record someone without their permission but it is to share it without that persons permission. Therefore the solicitor I spoke to said I could ask for the evidence to be made admissable but until that point I would only be allowed to use a written transcript of audio. In terms of photographic evidence I was told this can be used as it is the same as taking pictures of a location.
I do feel there is a bit of 'scaremongering' going on here by Halfords and I know i did not do anything wrong and am sticking to my grounds on the matter.
The moral of this is I want justice because I have no reason to damage my own car on Christmas Eve and rather than deal with this I have better things to do.
If worst comes to worst I will hire a solicitor on a freelance basis nearer the time.

[des8]

Re: Halfords overfilled engine oil and refuse to repair vehicle fully!

What a load of b******t from Halfords!
So they aren't prepared to discuss the matter further, so you issue a MCOL.
Contrary to their advice you do not need a "legal representative", and your costs are limited on the small claims track.
IMO they are trying to scare you off, because if you go to court, win or lose, it's going to cost them.
It would not surprise me if, after you commence proceedings, they don't use court mediation to offer a compromise deal,
As you sent an LBA, you either follow it up with a court claim. or drop the matter.
Your choice, but I know what I'd be doing.

[manofprinciple]

Re: Halfords overfilled engine oil and refuse to repair vehicle fully!

What a load of b******t from Halfords!
So they aren't prepared to discuss the matter further, so you issue a MCOL.
Contrary to their advice you do not need a "legal representative", and your costs are limited on the small claims track.
IMO they are trying to scare you off, because if you go to court, win or lose, it's going to cost them.
It would not surprise me if, after you commence proceedings, they don't use court mediation to offer a compromise deal,
As you sent an LBA, you either follow it up with a court claim. or drop the matter.
Your choice, but I know what I'd be doing.

My thoughts exactly! I'm ready to the the POC and MCOL but am really struggling with the POC..if I post a draft can someone help me?Oh
and also i followed advice- removed insurance, breakdown etc etc. Only damages now are included and the total is half the amount now. I think is more reasonable of me and mitigated to lowering the costs.

[des8]

Re: Halfords overfilled engine oil and refuse to repair vehicle fully!

Post up and we'all give our penny worth
Remove all personal details first

[manofprinciple]

Re: Halfords overfilled engine oil and refuse to repair vehicle fully!

Well took everyone of my friends advice and rang Trading standards about it. The response was disappointing to be honest. Explained to them the story and they wanted to hear the audio involved so I got everything sent over thinking they were going to help me majorly and they turned around to me and said (1) recording are inadmissable in court and Halfords are right as i did not have the permission of the people involved. (2) In relation to point 1 this does not mean that Halfords aren't liable..it means that they still are. Trading Standards or I should say 'citizen's advice' said that it falls under a breach of the supply and goods act. I told them about halfords message and they said Halfords will say that and they will try and scare you out of legal action, but I need to reserve my rights and mention the supply of goods act. Other advice given was that I should try and email CEO and stuff. I told them that I had tried to speak to management and the response was 'we confirmed it with management' blah blah.
In the end the CA worker said its probs best for you to go to small claims court then and seek any damages you've incurred.
However one piece of advice given was not to use Nissan dealership quote but to seek a few quotes. So I will do that now.

I think the next step is MCOL. I want to get this done ASAP does anyone know where i can get help on writing small claims forms etc?