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Rci nissan finance dent damage dispute
Hi I'm hoping someone can help give me some advice please. I VT my nissan in June 2019. Please read all details in my email below which I sent to rci 20/04/20 which details the complex process so far.
To whom it may concern,
I VT’d my contract last year (06/06/19) as you should be able to see from your records. Having suffered a stroke in November 2018 this was one of the main reasons for me choosing to VT my contract vehicle. Prior to returning my vehicle a professional who works within the industry inspected the vehicle to ensure there was no damage beyond the BVRLA Fair Wear & Tear Guide and agreed we had taken exemplary care of our vehicle. After signing the VT paperwork RCI arranged for Manheim to come and inspect and collect the vehicle. Which they did on Thursday 06/06/19 at approximately 10.30am. I am sure of the date and time as I have photographs and CCTV at my home.
On this day I was a lone vulnerable disabled female at home as my husband and children were at work, three male operatives from Manheim arrived, one introduced himself and inspected the car the other two remained in the car for the time being but the male who I believed inspected the vehicle would often go to speak to other operatives which I found quite intimidating. He also entered my home uninvited using an excuse that he had split up with his wife and missed his dog and wanted to see my puppy. When it came to him inspecting my vehicle, he told me to go inside my home insisting that I did not need to be present. I did not feel that this was right but felt quite oppressed and that I had no choice especially as there were three males present. At the end of the inspection the male stated that he felt there were small dents that were not within the BVRLA Fair Wear & Tear Guide. I told him that I disagreed and that I had had it inspected and verified. He asked me to sign the document which I refused to do so and informed him that I am within my rights to do so. This operative’s tone and manner was of an assertive and intimidating nature stating that I could still sign to say that I dispute his inspection. I felt that this was an attempt to hoodwink me into signing a document. Therefore, if I was to sign, I would be agreeing that there were dents that were not fair wear & tear and this would then prove hard for me to dispute later which is why I refused to sign any documents. I tried to telephone my husband without success as I was physically upset and in tears on my driveway by the behavior of this operative toward me as he appeared hell bent on refusing to leave until I signed.
Eventually one of the other male operatives from the Manheim car got out to drive away my vehicle, he was young possibly early 20’s and clearly, from what I witnessed, was not a very experienced driver as he could not drive my car very well stalling it three times alone getting it off my driveway. This did not fill me with much confidence about this operative’s skill level and care of delivering these vehicles from customer collection to destination without incurring any damage.
On 01/07/19 I received via the post a letter dated 17/06/19 from RCI Financial Services please see attached. On 01/07/19 I telephoned RCI at 15.45 (which charges 10p per minute) and received and answer at 16.08 by a lady called Catherine. I explained I wanted to log a dispute into their claims for costs they claim I had occurred for damage stating I owed £144.00.
Catherine informed me she had logged my dispute and that someone from the End of Agreement Team would ring me probably on Tuesday 02/07/19 or Wednesday 03/07/19 with a decision regarding my dispute. However, no one whatsoever by any means of communication regarding the outcome of my dispute have ever contacted me since.
Therefore, you can imagine my dismay when I received a Nissan Finance Annual Statement dated 20/03/2020 however, only received by post 14/04/20 stating a balance of £144.00.
Since my initial stroke in 2018 I have suffered further episodes and my health has deteriorated further and I have been diagnosed with functional neurological disorder which is a debilitating physical and mental disability.
During this coronavirus crisis I am unable to access my consultants especially my specialist neuro psychologists as I am finding everything much more difficult to cope with. Your latest letter, I feel, has further compounded my mental health causing me distress and I have had to have a telephone consultation with my GP who has prescribed further medication. My GP also advised that my daughter help me address this matter by writing this email and submitting a formal complaint against RCI. My GP further suggested that should this be unsuccessful then we could enlist the support of our local MP.
I did raise a dispute with you 01/07/19 regarding your claim for the sum of £144.00 via telephone at your request of preferred method of communication as stated in your letter dated 17/06/19, you have clearly failed to respond to my dispute in a timely manner. I would assume you are bound by time scales set within your policies and procedures to respond to such customer disputes or complaints. I would be most grateful if you could clarify if my dispute was accepted in July 2019? Why was I not contacted within the appropriate timescales and could this now be rectified as soon as possible as this is causing a lot of unnecessary mental destress which is making me very ill.
I have chosen to email as my cognition and speech is very poor. This email with help of my daughter has taken a whole day, it has been exhausting, upsetting and your telephone service has proven in the past to be very costly, laborious and unreliable.
I have attached the two letters and two photographs, should you require any further information please do not hesitate to contact me. I would be most grateful if you could acknowledge receipt of this email and formal complaint.
Yours sincerely
Rci's reply which I won't put word for word but basically stated that they apologise for the experience that I had and that they have reviewed my inspection report and decided to remove £96 of my liability which leaves the outstanding balance of £48 which they have directed me to make the payment giving me their bank details and if I have any enquiries to phone their premium telephone number.
I feel that due to rci not following policies and procedures initially last year I would like to know if they are legally still able to seek the alleged damages after I disputed and they have failed to respond to my dispute after such a long time, over 10 months? Furthermore, when they have sent a recent annual statement with the sum of money and I have had to submit a further complaint I again feel that they have failed to respond to and I have now suffered further distress at their incompetence and they still fail to deal with my complaint in a professional and appropriate manner. At no point have any of my questions been answered, I have never been supplied with a copy of my inspection report and they have not given any breakdown or explanation or reasoning for removing £96 from their alleged claim of £144 which I still dispute. Can I still take this up with the financial ombudsman?
I am sick of corrupt companies such as rci ripping people off so unjustly. I would be grateful for any help as I do feel it's very much a David and Goliath with these financial companies. Many thanks.
To whom it may concern,
I VT’d my contract last year (06/06/19) as you should be able to see from your records. Having suffered a stroke in November 2018 this was one of the main reasons for me choosing to VT my contract vehicle. Prior to returning my vehicle a professional who works within the industry inspected the vehicle to ensure there was no damage beyond the BVRLA Fair Wear & Tear Guide and agreed we had taken exemplary care of our vehicle. After signing the VT paperwork RCI arranged for Manheim to come and inspect and collect the vehicle. Which they did on Thursday 06/06/19 at approximately 10.30am. I am sure of the date and time as I have photographs and CCTV at my home.
On this day I was a lone vulnerable disabled female at home as my husband and children were at work, three male operatives from Manheim arrived, one introduced himself and inspected the car the other two remained in the car for the time being but the male who I believed inspected the vehicle would often go to speak to other operatives which I found quite intimidating. He also entered my home uninvited using an excuse that he had split up with his wife and missed his dog and wanted to see my puppy. When it came to him inspecting my vehicle, he told me to go inside my home insisting that I did not need to be present. I did not feel that this was right but felt quite oppressed and that I had no choice especially as there were three males present. At the end of the inspection the male stated that he felt there were small dents that were not within the BVRLA Fair Wear & Tear Guide. I told him that I disagreed and that I had had it inspected and verified. He asked me to sign the document which I refused to do so and informed him that I am within my rights to do so. This operative’s tone and manner was of an assertive and intimidating nature stating that I could still sign to say that I dispute his inspection. I felt that this was an attempt to hoodwink me into signing a document. Therefore, if I was to sign, I would be agreeing that there were dents that were not fair wear & tear and this would then prove hard for me to dispute later which is why I refused to sign any documents. I tried to telephone my husband without success as I was physically upset and in tears on my driveway by the behavior of this operative toward me as he appeared hell bent on refusing to leave until I signed.
Eventually one of the other male operatives from the Manheim car got out to drive away my vehicle, he was young possibly early 20’s and clearly, from what I witnessed, was not a very experienced driver as he could not drive my car very well stalling it three times alone getting it off my driveway. This did not fill me with much confidence about this operative’s skill level and care of delivering these vehicles from customer collection to destination without incurring any damage.
On 01/07/19 I received via the post a letter dated 17/06/19 from RCI Financial Services please see attached. On 01/07/19 I telephoned RCI at 15.45 (which charges 10p per minute) and received and answer at 16.08 by a lady called Catherine. I explained I wanted to log a dispute into their claims for costs they claim I had occurred for damage stating I owed £144.00.
- I dispute the dents/marks were within the BVRLA Fair Wear & Tear Guide and have photographs
- The letter states that I have a copy of my inspection which would have been given to me at the time of signing and a separate VAT invoice will be sent for my records for any damage and or excess mileage charges.- I did not sign the inspection documents and have never received any copies of the inspection. I was in fact under my mileage quite significantly
- As mentioned above the intimidating and unscrupulous behaviour of the Manheim operatives
Catherine informed me she had logged my dispute and that someone from the End of Agreement Team would ring me probably on Tuesday 02/07/19 or Wednesday 03/07/19 with a decision regarding my dispute. However, no one whatsoever by any means of communication regarding the outcome of my dispute have ever contacted me since.
Therefore, you can imagine my dismay when I received a Nissan Finance Annual Statement dated 20/03/2020 however, only received by post 14/04/20 stating a balance of £144.00.
Since my initial stroke in 2018 I have suffered further episodes and my health has deteriorated further and I have been diagnosed with functional neurological disorder which is a debilitating physical and mental disability.
During this coronavirus crisis I am unable to access my consultants especially my specialist neuro psychologists as I am finding everything much more difficult to cope with. Your latest letter, I feel, has further compounded my mental health causing me distress and I have had to have a telephone consultation with my GP who has prescribed further medication. My GP also advised that my daughter help me address this matter by writing this email and submitting a formal complaint against RCI. My GP further suggested that should this be unsuccessful then we could enlist the support of our local MP.
I did raise a dispute with you 01/07/19 regarding your claim for the sum of £144.00 via telephone at your request of preferred method of communication as stated in your letter dated 17/06/19, you have clearly failed to respond to my dispute in a timely manner. I would assume you are bound by time scales set within your policies and procedures to respond to such customer disputes or complaints. I would be most grateful if you could clarify if my dispute was accepted in July 2019? Why was I not contacted within the appropriate timescales and could this now be rectified as soon as possible as this is causing a lot of unnecessary mental destress which is making me very ill.
I have chosen to email as my cognition and speech is very poor. This email with help of my daughter has taken a whole day, it has been exhausting, upsetting and your telephone service has proven in the past to be very costly, laborious and unreliable.
I have attached the two letters and two photographs, should you require any further information please do not hesitate to contact me. I would be most grateful if you could acknowledge receipt of this email and formal complaint.
Yours sincerely
Rci's reply which I won't put word for word but basically stated that they apologise for the experience that I had and that they have reviewed my inspection report and decided to remove £96 of my liability which leaves the outstanding balance of £48 which they have directed me to make the payment giving me their bank details and if I have any enquiries to phone their premium telephone number.
I feel that due to rci not following policies and procedures initially last year I would like to know if they are legally still able to seek the alleged damages after I disputed and they have failed to respond to my dispute after such a long time, over 10 months? Furthermore, when they have sent a recent annual statement with the sum of money and I have had to submit a further complaint I again feel that they have failed to respond to and I have now suffered further distress at their incompetence and they still fail to deal with my complaint in a professional and appropriate manner. At no point have any of my questions been answered, I have never been supplied with a copy of my inspection report and they have not given any breakdown or explanation or reasoning for removing £96 from their alleged claim of £144 which I still dispute. Can I still take this up with the financial ombudsman?
I am sick of corrupt companies such as rci ripping people off so unjustly. I would be grateful for any help as I do feel it's very much a David and Goliath with these financial companies. Many thanks.
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