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Specialist Motor Finance 'VT liability'
Hi All,
I'm hoping you maybe able to give me a little bit of help with what is becoming an all consuming issue, i'm sure i have likely gone the wrong way of trying to resolve this and seem to be getting absolutely no where.
Below is the email i sent on to the Financial ombudsman following a final outcome letter from SMF, i will fill in any blanks or questions.
thank you in advance
My compliant is regarding Specialist Motor Finance (SMF) whom I recently voluntarily terminated my agreement with after paying more than half of the agreement total.
Upon initially contacting SMF via a phone call to request the basic process for terminating the agreement I was initially told I would be liable for the outstanding total of the agreement. Following a number of calls and speaking to a senior member of the staff this was cleared up and I was told that should the vehicle be in reasonable condition I wouldn't have anything further to pay but should be aware of this liability.
I wrote to them on a number of occasion in March informing them of my desire to voluntarily terminate the agreement using a standard template latter to do so as I had received nothing from them. These were not acknowledge.
I then called again and began a very frustrating period with a member of staff called Glyn who was adamant I had to sign a letter they would be sending out to me. I explained that I am cautious of signing anything further and that I have never had to follow that process before. He explained it was company policy that everyone had to sign this document or the termination would not be accepted. Following this I raised a complaint, which was directed back to Glyn who contacted me again to say this was the process and I had to sign the letter.
I signed the letter following 3 weeks of back and forth phone calls I had no other option following the purchase of another car. At first they wouldn't even accept this letter as the signature was slightly different to one they had on file? Despite the letter coming from my email address registered with them.
During this period I lodged a complaint regarding Glyn and the termination process. In the response it states that I do not have to sign the letter that I had been pressured into signing and that this should have been explained to me.
Following this I was told to return the vehicle to a site in Wimbledon, I had spent 4 weeks explaining the car is in Harrogate as that is where I bought my new car and would need to go to a site closer to Harrogate which they had said wasn't a problem initially as it could go to the Manheim site in Leeds. Upon addressing this with Glyn he told me it would have to go to Manchester and told me they don't deal with Leeds. After contacting the Manchester branch they told me that they had no record of the car and wouldn't accept it even if I did bring it to them and directed me to the Leeds branch of Manheim. I contacted them and they confirmed they did deal with SMF and told me they would contact SMF themselves as they had no record of the car either. They called me back and said they had never spoken to such a rude individual and couldn't understand why I had initially been directed to Manchester.
I returned the vehicle to Manheim in Leeds, I wrote to SMF to confirm this had been done but received no acknowledgement. Upon returning the car I made sure it had been cleaned properly and all documents relating to the car remained with it.
After a 5/6 week period I had not heard from SMF until I received a letter detailing that I had missed a payment. I contacted them straight away to question this, I was told this was an automated letter as the car is yet to be sold and they had turned down a low offer of £600. They also told me that my credit file would not be affected at this stage. I have since learned this was a lie, please see attached. I am unsure of how I had missed a payment and been given a default notice as I had not been informed of either or even an amount that I need to pay as this was during the period of time from handing the car back and receiving no update. This has majorly affected my credit rating and report and I very upset that no attempt to contact me prior to this has been made.
After 8 weeks I recieved a letter from SMF detailing that the car had now been sold and that there is an outstanding amount of more than £1200 to pay on the account following an appraisal by Manheim and the difference between the value of the car and the sale price is what I am liable for.
They detailed that a number of cosmetic corrections had to be made, please see attached.
I questioned how so much work could be done, why I had not been contacted prior to this and why they had sold the car for such a small amount of money.
I have also questioned why they believe it would be reasonable for the car to be in better condition than when I purchased it after having 4 previous owners before myself and upon return being 10 years old with 100000 miles on the clock.
I asked why I should have to pay for damage caused by previous owners.
I have not received a satisfactory response nor have I recieved any evidence of the work even being completed.
I have received a terrible service from SMF and feel that I am being asked to pay money I do not owe to them as the car had been maintained and returned in a reasonable condition. I had also spent money during the 2 years to improve the overall condition after I purchased it for my own benefit.
I have bullet pointed below my main concerns/ issues.
- poor customer service including lying to me about the termination process and return locations purposely making it difficult to return the vehicle.
- lack of communication surround the marking of my credit file after being told it wouldn't be marked.
- the expectation for a car to be in pristine condition upon return despite this being unreasonable and not taking the age or mileage or previous owners into consideration.
- the very confusing and misleading HP agreement paperwork stating the car can be returned in reasonable condition in accordance with the consumer credit act and later detailing the car must be completely free of any and all damage which is not a reasonable expectation for such an old car.
- not being informed of the amount the car sold for or the amount valued at prior to sale or the inspection report.
- the serious lack of training given to there staff leading to wrong and false information being relayed to customers.
- lack of response or urgency to emails, calls or complaints.
I'm hoping you maybe able to give me a little bit of help with what is becoming an all consuming issue, i'm sure i have likely gone the wrong way of trying to resolve this and seem to be getting absolutely no where.
Below is the email i sent on to the Financial ombudsman following a final outcome letter from SMF, i will fill in any blanks or questions.
thank you in advance
My compliant is regarding Specialist Motor Finance (SMF) whom I recently voluntarily terminated my agreement with after paying more than half of the agreement total.
Upon initially contacting SMF via a phone call to request the basic process for terminating the agreement I was initially told I would be liable for the outstanding total of the agreement. Following a number of calls and speaking to a senior member of the staff this was cleared up and I was told that should the vehicle be in reasonable condition I wouldn't have anything further to pay but should be aware of this liability.
I wrote to them on a number of occasion in March informing them of my desire to voluntarily terminate the agreement using a standard template latter to do so as I had received nothing from them. These were not acknowledge.
I then called again and began a very frustrating period with a member of staff called Glyn who was adamant I had to sign a letter they would be sending out to me. I explained that I am cautious of signing anything further and that I have never had to follow that process before. He explained it was company policy that everyone had to sign this document or the termination would not be accepted. Following this I raised a complaint, which was directed back to Glyn who contacted me again to say this was the process and I had to sign the letter.
I signed the letter following 3 weeks of back and forth phone calls I had no other option following the purchase of another car. At first they wouldn't even accept this letter as the signature was slightly different to one they had on file? Despite the letter coming from my email address registered with them.
During this period I lodged a complaint regarding Glyn and the termination process. In the response it states that I do not have to sign the letter that I had been pressured into signing and that this should have been explained to me.
Following this I was told to return the vehicle to a site in Wimbledon, I had spent 4 weeks explaining the car is in Harrogate as that is where I bought my new car and would need to go to a site closer to Harrogate which they had said wasn't a problem initially as it could go to the Manheim site in Leeds. Upon addressing this with Glyn he told me it would have to go to Manchester and told me they don't deal with Leeds. After contacting the Manchester branch they told me that they had no record of the car and wouldn't accept it even if I did bring it to them and directed me to the Leeds branch of Manheim. I contacted them and they confirmed they did deal with SMF and told me they would contact SMF themselves as they had no record of the car either. They called me back and said they had never spoken to such a rude individual and couldn't understand why I had initially been directed to Manchester.
I returned the vehicle to Manheim in Leeds, I wrote to SMF to confirm this had been done but received no acknowledgement. Upon returning the car I made sure it had been cleaned properly and all documents relating to the car remained with it.
After a 5/6 week period I had not heard from SMF until I received a letter detailing that I had missed a payment. I contacted them straight away to question this, I was told this was an automated letter as the car is yet to be sold and they had turned down a low offer of £600. They also told me that my credit file would not be affected at this stage. I have since learned this was a lie, please see attached. I am unsure of how I had missed a payment and been given a default notice as I had not been informed of either or even an amount that I need to pay as this was during the period of time from handing the car back and receiving no update. This has majorly affected my credit rating and report and I very upset that no attempt to contact me prior to this has been made.
After 8 weeks I recieved a letter from SMF detailing that the car had now been sold and that there is an outstanding amount of more than £1200 to pay on the account following an appraisal by Manheim and the difference between the value of the car and the sale price is what I am liable for.
They detailed that a number of cosmetic corrections had to be made, please see attached.
I questioned how so much work could be done, why I had not been contacted prior to this and why they had sold the car for such a small amount of money.
I have also questioned why they believe it would be reasonable for the car to be in better condition than when I purchased it after having 4 previous owners before myself and upon return being 10 years old with 100000 miles on the clock.
I asked why I should have to pay for damage caused by previous owners.
I have not received a satisfactory response nor have I recieved any evidence of the work even being completed.
I have received a terrible service from SMF and feel that I am being asked to pay money I do not owe to them as the car had been maintained and returned in a reasonable condition. I had also spent money during the 2 years to improve the overall condition after I purchased it for my own benefit.
I have bullet pointed below my main concerns/ issues.
- poor customer service including lying to me about the termination process and return locations purposely making it difficult to return the vehicle.
- lack of communication surround the marking of my credit file after being told it wouldn't be marked.
- the expectation for a car to be in pristine condition upon return despite this being unreasonable and not taking the age or mileage or previous owners into consideration.
- the very confusing and misleading HP agreement paperwork stating the car can be returned in reasonable condition in accordance with the consumer credit act and later detailing the car must be completely free of any and all damage which is not a reasonable expectation for such an old car.
- not being informed of the amount the car sold for or the amount valued at prior to sale or the inspection report.
- the serious lack of training given to there staff leading to wrong and false information being relayed to customers.
- lack of response or urgency to emails, calls or complaints.
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