!PLEASE READ THIS IT'S UNBELIEVABLE!! harratts Volvo

[ifzal123]

Hi Mick

Don't be put of by them suing you. That is just absurd. Chances of that happening are laughable.

As far as I understand it defamation of character needs to based in part on lies.

You have just voiced your grievances at the poor level of service you have received from them and the fact that they have sold you a car that is not road worthy.


From what you have said. I would change all your lines of communication from verbal to written. Then at the point that you feel you are not making any further progress in resolving the matter, issue a 14 day notice, sent by recorded delivery to the dealer to resolve the issues in full or provide a full refund of the purchase price and the interest incurred on the finance.

You can file the claim on line against the dealer for a small fee (varies with the level of the claim) which is recoverable if you win. You do not need legal representation and can represent yourself. Just have all the documented evidence related to the car including documented communication between you and the dealer. You will need to know if the dealer is a Private Ltd company or sole trader (unlikely).

You may have to commission an independent report from the AA or RAC or a specialist that will have to be used in court.

Trading standards will also be able to provide you with advice on the steps to take. It doesn't matter how well off an organisation is. The cost are limited in the small claims court.


I recently helped a client take a small business to court, that was very wealthy. The business acknowledged the wrong doing and settled in full before it even got to a court hearing. The claim was for £1200 and cost £70 in court registration fees. A further fee is payable if you have to go to court.

You'll be surprised how straight forward the process is.


Apologies if I have repeated anything that other members have said. Not had time to go through all the posts.


Hope it gets sorted

[Rooster]

Do we actually know whats wrong with the car as to why it is dangerous to drive??

Has anybody else but Harratts had a look at the car and has anything been done to it since you bought it??

[CTCNetwork]

Hi,

Originally Posted by mick1275

What ya saying they can sue me ??? What for selling me a dodgy car that's got an MOT saying 24,000 miles in Dec 2013 and service document in march 2014 showing less mileage um mm mm

Yes, they can sue your a$$. That whether there is any legitimacy in whatever claims they make or not. The legal bill will wipe most people out whether whatever claims they made were correct or not. If you have a spare £100k don't worry!

Do remember that YOU are responsible for what you say on these, public, forums.

Des. . .

[Crockers]

Originally Posted by CTCNetwork

Hi,

Yes, they can sue your a$$. That whether there is any legitimacy in whatever claims they make or not. The legal bill will wipe most people out whether whatever claims they made were correct or not. If you have a spare £100k don't worry!

Do remember that YOU are responsible for what you say on these, public, forums.

Des. . .

Unless they can prove he's lying a judge would throw this out. Your post is pretty scary but this wouldn't stand up in court. They would have to prove deliberate malicious libel.

OP have you contacted the motoring press?
Have you actually written anything to the dealer principle?

Or have all your communications been verbal. If just verbal I think its time you wrote to them. As for not willing to pay another Volvo dealership to diagnose the problems - this cost would be covered under the warranty IF there is a genuine problem so I don't understand why you're not going down that route if you're 100% sure there are issues.

[bullstiff]

I was Under the impression that any Volvo Selekt car bought must have a tyre tread of not less than ? mm. Sorry I'm not sure of the exact depth.
Surely if your car need tyres that is grounds for returning it and having them replaced.
Are you currently driving the car? Or is it parked up due to its condition?
It is really quite simple if the car is unfit to be driven on the road, get an independent inspection take the car and report to the dealer and reject the car, if the car is on finance the finance company will have a procedure for you to reject the car due to it being dangerous, you will also be entitled to a reimbursement for any cost incurred by you in rejecting the vehicle even down to repayments and interest etc etc.
Absolutely all correspondence you have with any person regarding this vehicle should be done in writing so that you have a paper trail in case this ends in a court case.
Good luck

[jor]

I think that a judge would probably agree with you, given that the state of the car can be verified...
But that would not be the problem, which as I see it would be that Harrat's would or maybe already have contacted a solicitor, who would already know mick's details and who could track the computer or account postings and then take an action for libel in ? high court. The first you might know about this would be the letter on the doormat stating that you were to be the defendant in an action. This, unless you are a professional litigant would mean for a start a trip to a solicitor, whose fees are likely to be a few hundred up front with more on top depending on the amount of time and A4 required to proceed with a defence, before going on to the barrister and court fees.
Harrat's are likely to be in a better position to play this type of game than a member of the public. No legal aid of course and as you would be a defendant presumably no no to no win no fee. There are considerable hurdles to be overcome before emerging victorious from such a wrestle and you can never be assured on the outcome ... recall sally bercow's tweet 'why is lord mcalpine trending' (Smiley face) , for which addition his honour relieved her of 50k or whatever, plus fees presumably.
As stated by multiple posters already the way to proceed is not on a forum, but to establish independently that the vehicle is unroadworthy and then to institute proceedings oneself if necessary.
That way mick can be in a position to control costs, as it would be a small claim, which most solicitors would be happy to do, as suggested above.

jor

[Unreal master tech]

I think it would be unlikely any dealer would want to go to court ( even if they did go & won the case it is bad for business full stop) for what it's worth I am in no way defending the dealer here but I don't like people who come on here & complain & in this case (at times ) rant about things. Plenty of people have have mentioned this but the car has not been inspected by an independent garage or the like. We are only getting one side of a story & that's the problem we don't really know what is being said or done (or not ) by the dealer. I would also add that the selekt policy is very much over rated customers must remember these cars are used & dealers are a business & they will try to cut the cost down to max out there profit!!!! They are often overpriced & the warranty on offer is not like a manufacturers new warranty & it is worth researching exactly what is covered on these policy's. I hope you get a solution but I think you should try to do this in writing with the dealer in question & avoid bringing it too a public forum rallying support with one side of a story

[cumbrianmale]

Mick

If, as you say, you are not the owner of the car until the finance is paid in full then you have a debtor/creditor/supplier agreement. Whether it is HP, PCP etc is irrelavent. If it was a straight forward loan agreement then you would have had the funds paid directly to you to pay the dealer.

As such then Santander are jointly and severally liable with Harratts for the state of the vehicle. Phone them and tell them you reject the vehicle and that they must come and collect the vehicle as you will not be paying them for goods not fit for purpose. You have the sale of goods act on your side. This happened to my mother several years back you, as she found out, will get nowhere with the dealer. They have their money. The finance company on the other hand don't have your money but will have a defective vehicle.

You must do the following immediately.

1. Stop using the vehicle, continued use constitutes acceptance
2. Park the vehicle off road and SORN it and reclaim the RFL
3. Send notice of rejection to the finance company by special delivery stating they have 14 days to recover their property after which you start to charge for storage
4. After 14 days issue a notice before action on the finance company

I can guarantee that the finance company have more clout with the dealer than you and they also have deeper pockets than some franchise holder. They will try to bluff you that they will still chase you for the money etc. but they will have to take you to county court to do so and you will easily defend the case and a judge will laugh Santander out of court.

You will find that within a matter of weeks you have your deposit back, installments refunded and credit agreement cancelled.

I used to work in finance for near on 20 years and only left the industry in late 2013.

Do as I have suggested and you like my mother will have the outcome you desire.

[1stRaven]

Sounds like you are having the same fun as I did.

I ended up going back twice and just dealing with the issues myself. Dealer wins in that case but I ran out of available time.

Best one was when I purchased the car with a full service history at 70k, to find that the cambelt wasn't actually changed at 60k when it was due.

I'm still waiting for them to call me back about a Pure Dab system after 10 months. Not hoping any hopes for that though.

Best of luck for you getting it solved but I wont be going back to that dealer.

[mick1275]

To everyone of you who have posted on this thread for either advice, or to talk through legal .I just want to thank you all .there has been some excellent advice given and comments , but to your who laughed at me well up yours
Volvo uk along with harratts group have offered a full refund or full repair of the vehicle or exchange it goes to show that at the higher end of management they do care and have feelings not like the rouge sales man