Audi Financial Services - Excess Mileage Charges

[dstrowes]

Hi,

I recently did a voluntary termination on my Audi, a few months ahead of the natural end of the PCP contract. The inspector attended to check and collect the car, completing their report. There were two points to note on the car being returned, namely there was a minor scratch on the edge of the forward passenger door, and also the mileage was in excess of the agreed amount.

Some weeks later, we received a letter outlining the proposed costs for these two items. There was a charge of ~£200 for the scratch and £451.10 for the excess mileage. We contacted Audi Finance and engaged them specifically on the point of the charge for damage. With the car being in otherwise excellent condition, they agreed to waive this charge, however this leaves the excess mileage on the account.

From my understanding, there is no legal means for them to recover the excess mileage charges and with us not exceeding the mileage by a huge amount (and due in part to the excellent condition of the car being returned) I am not keen to pay this. Also, with this being my first PCP I believed the line from the Audi car salesman that 'if we go over the mileage by a small amount, we will not be expected to pay anything' (gullible of me). We have not discussed the excess mileage with Audi Finance since receiving this bill at all but they have now followed up with a new letter. This letter states that:

'If you haven't contacted us to discuss this amount within 7 days, we have no alternative other than to continue with further action which could be any of the following:
- Receiving further letters or calls
- Instruct an external Debt Collection Agency to contact you
- Instruct our legal agents which may lead to them commencing proceedings against you for payment of the full balance'

I just wanted to ask this question to the experts, as I don't want this to negatively impact credit report etc, and information that I read elsewhere suggests I should 'hold my nerve' as there is nothing the finance company can do, despite whatever threatening letters they might send. Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks!!

[dstrowes]

Hi,

I've had some further progress on this case now and was hoping to reach out for some advice, and to understand if I understand the situation correctly. I hope you don't mind me asking rob but I was hoping you might be able to advise (this is my first time using Legal Beagles forum).

Our current situation is that VWFS say that I owe them £451.10 for excess mileage costs, they already waived ~£200 for a minor scratch after we pointed out to them that the car was returned in an excellent condition with minimal wear and tear. Since they sent us the letter mentioned in my original post in May we have tried to engage with them twice via email and received no response. We then received a letter in the post on 3 June from a debt collection agency, Themis who are looking to recover the money for excess mileage on behalf of VWFS.

Following this, I used your template to send a follow up communication to VWFS responding to their request for excess mileage charges however I sent this via email to their CollectionsMailbox@vwfs.co.uk (this was the email address written on the latest letter from Themis) and we quickly received a response which detailed again the sums of money owed and finished up with the following:

"Please note failure to arrange a repayment arrangement for your arrears, or pay your arrears in full, means you are at risk of having a default registered on your credit file.
Since your arrears have been outsourced to our debt collection agency, Themis, you will be required to contact them with other queries regarding payment of your arrears, including setting up a repayment plan"

Their response does not directly address any of the points raised in the template letter. My concern as well is that they are effectively telling me not to speak with them about this any further, instead to direct my communications to the debt collection agency.

On consideration, I was planning to do the following:
- I will respond to the VWFS email asking them to address the points raised in the template email. I will also ask them to raise this as a formal complaint as I understand that I should not be getting chased by debt collectors while there is an open complaint. Also a little concerned here that they have passed my details to a third party while actively ignoring my previous attempts to contact them
- I will also email the debt collection agency and advise of the ongoing complaint / discussion with VWFS and to stop contacting me until this is resolved

I also registered on Credit Karma to check my credit report, just to see what is showing with respect to this matter. It lists my account with VWFS as closed with £0 balance outstanding. Are VWFS able to reopen this if they don't get anywhere recovering the money from me?

Any advice or help you can give would be really appreciated, as I'm trying not to put a foot wrong here. Thanks!!

[dstrowes]

Hi, posted the above which will not allow me to edit, and looks like i tagged the wrong user. R0b are you able to offer any advice, as I understand you have a great deal of knowledge in the area of Voluntary Termination and Excess Mileage Charges

[R0b]

I don't have anything to say that hasn't already been covered on these forums or in the guide.

Excess mileage is a grey area in the sense there is no legally binding authority so lenders will argue that it is recoverable. However, I'm confident that if it goes to court, it is not recoverable as has been seen by one County Court case with Mercedes. Some people are seeing results with VWFS via the Financial Ombudsman so that is one way to go. If they tarnish your credit file, I can't see any real way to resolve that unless you issue legal proceedings for breach of data protection.

Simple choice is either pay up or continue to defend it and see what they do. Suggest you read the recent VWFS threads on the forum by doing a search, plenty of information on there.