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- salviablue's review
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| Speed Of Loan | 5.6/10   |
|---|---|
| Customer service | 2.5/10 |
| Value for Money | 1.8/10 |
| Reviewer Rating | 2.4/10 |
| Overall Rating | 2.4/10 |
By salviablue on 25th Apr 2008
| Payment Type | Fixed Payments |
|---|---|
| Speed Of Loan | 7/10 |
| Customer service | 1/10 |
| Value for money | 1/10 |
| Overall value | 1/10 |
 salviablue's recommendation | |
Initially friendly staff at the branch visited. Terms and conditions where explained and deemed to be very reasonable considering our credit rating.
The 'friendly explanations of the terms and conditions' where very cleverly put together so that it seems to be no problem in say, cancelling part of an agreement within a certain time, when in actual fact I was never be able to cancel anything once signed for! Very difficult to get exact figures with out them trying to confuse you.
Also the £1000 trade in is not what I thought. The £1000 doesnt actually come off any price, plus you have no recourse later when you have had time to `deconfuse` your self and work it out because they got me to sign to say I sold my car to them for £1.
Last year our car was quickly becoming a death trap and having just moved house, we couldn't afford to get it fixed. So, being totally skint i phoned one of the car finance companies and after some questions they told me to come into their show room and i could drive away with my `new` car, a full tank of fuel, 2 weeks insurance, £250 cash back and £1000 trade in for my current car.
My sat nav broke down half way to the showroom, i never wrote down the full address (after having entered it in the satnav) and the phone number they gave me to ring them on said it wasnt accepting incoming calls. So we went to the approx area and asked around. We arrived at Welcome Car Finance, which wasn't the company that we phoned but said they could offer us the same deal as the co. we phoned.
They never offered us the same deal, but only told us after about three hours that there would be no full tank, no cash back, £1000 doesn't actually come off the screen price and there is no tax disc on any of their vehicles! I had to be at work in 2 hours, an hour to get home, an hour to get to work!
I asked the price of the car we chose (due to v.limited range it was between an 03 Volvo S40 2.0 T, 03 Jag XJ6 2.2 TDi or an 03 Vaux Omega 2.6 V6 CDX) and was only told me its screen price after sitting down after test drives to sign docs! They told me its screen price, around £5,500, so since they had offered me £1000 part ex on my vento I asked so that then means the screen price is around £4,500?
No, they said, the trade in comes off your repayments!
What? If all the repayment plans where 4 years fixed, with fixed APR, how could the £1000 come off the repayments? Any way, we took their word for it (stupid i know but we where a bit desperate).
They also said that if we did not want any of the insurances that we could cancel just by phoning them with in a 28 day cool off period. They also told us that we could pay off the car at any time in full and if it was within a year of the agreement start date then I would just pay the interest to date.
I dont know what these figures are right now but i figured that if I pay off the car within the year (as I plan to , we are awaiting money to be released to us from a house sale) The car would cost around £7000, I could then sell the car for around £3000 in a few years time and although a very expensive way to go about things, it would be I asked the price of the car we chose (due to limited range it was between an 03 Volvo S40 2.0 T, 03 Jag XJ6 2.2 TDi or an 03 Vaux Omega 2.6 V6 CDX) and was only told me its screen price (they kept fobbing me off with any prices until i had chosen a car, the Omega) acceptable.
2 hours later of confusing statements and explanations, I drive home in my `new` car.
However, I phoned to cancel the insurances a week after we got the car, and was passed from pillar to post in "you are through to the wrong department, i`ll put you through to the right one!" after about 3 or 4 of these passes some told me I had to put it in writing, i asked where do i send it to and was told the address on the agreement.
I sent by registered post to both the registered address and the address on the agreement, cancellation of the insurances. I got a phone call at around 3 weeks later. I though this was about cancelling the insurances (ie them trying to convince me last minute not to cancel.) but it was just a mistaken courtesy call, they tried to sell me more credit! I enquired about the cancellation of insurances and they told me nothing was on my file about it and if i send the letters again it would be too late. They couldn't find any of the letters i had sent, even though one of them went to the regional office and the other to the registered head office, signed for! Because I had sent them to the wrong address (the address they told me to send them to!) that I couldn't cancel the agreement.
After lots of phoning around and being passed around departments each with sloping shoulders, I was told to resend the original cancellation and they would then sort everything out for me. So i resent the cancellation and waited. They never got back in touch with me and everytime i phoned the person whom was dealing with the case was always out/unavailable! So I cancelled the payments for the car and sent them another letter asking for a renewed direct debit agreement for the correct amount. They haven't replied yet, except to tell me that they have added £80 onto my account because they have had to write to me for failure to keep to the payment agreement. They called around to my PARENTS house threatening to take the car (they have my address so why call there?).
Now when our money comes through from the house (taking longer than i thought) I will offer £7000 minus £40 for every letter i have had to send them (about 6 or 7) and for every day i have had to chase them up with 3 or more phone calls AND minus any charges they have added.
If they refuse this then I have the option of buying the car for 1/3 of what the total would have been had I taken it to `full term` (minus insurances which comes to about £3000) which leaves them with not much recourse to recover the debt. OR I could just give them back the car, inform the DVLA of the transfer (and i would probably have to pay welcome its use to date based upon the orig agreement, as though it was a rental car, which essentially it is, until the final payment, read the contract!)
Anyway, after a week of use I started to notice a knocking coming from the front suspension upon full lock and reversing, apparently the wheel bearings and the front susp bushing need replacing, fair expensive! After about 3 month the electrics started playing up, the radio nor passenger heated seat work anymore, and no, its not the fuses.
If I repair these myself, I will of course deduct the cost from the total I may owe to welcome finance. But of course they will refuse to accept any of these `deductions` and demand the `full debt owed` and thus they will never release the hpi on the car thus preventing me from honestly selling the car on which means either i give the car back before repairs and convince the dvla of my no longer having anything to do with the car, or keep the car till its death, and it isnt good enough for that (I wanted to get a lotus excel after the house money comes in but I cant until i get rid of the vauxhall, but i cant get rid of the vaux until I get another car, and i cant afford another car until the house money comes in - which incidentally i will also use to further my career prospects preventing me from this kind of dilemma in the future!
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