Just a big thanks to you peoples for your help earlier.
I wanted every one else to see that advise is spot on & very fast in times of emergency.......
To cut a long story short:
I buy Disco 51 V8
Has 3 month warranty, but goes wrong after 2 months (3 amigos, sunroofs & running crap at low revs).
Call sales garage, they approve me to take to repair garage for, well repairs!
Get car back, all faults still there, so, I take it back. at this point it was getting close to end of warranty period.
Get car back from repairers, "parts ordered, will call you when they arrive".
Warranty up on 7th, get call on 14th or 15th, "parts in" booked in for 19th.
Get a call this afternoon, "sales garage will not pay, you need to pay before I release car, they say warranty up!".
I go bananas, HELP!!!! log onto Mud-Club Live Chat. Get loads of advise. :)
Unfortunately, I got nowhere. Sales garage give same answer, repair garage WENT HOME! Wheres my car????
The repair garage will not let my car go, nor will the sales garage settle the bill! I'm going in person tomorrow to see what response I get.
The point of this is to give a great thanks to the people who helped & to hopefully help others.
Some pasting from the Live Chat:
Go speak to CAB, (Police community help line also say this but say use a solicitor preferably.)
it's a payment dispute, you can't keep hold of some ones car.
unless they're a debt collection agency they have no legal right (afaik) to deprive you of your property.
"if the warranty work was approved within the warranty period then he doesn't have to pay, if any additional work not covered by the warranty was carried out then he would have to pay for that. the fact that the repairs were not carried out within the warranty is not his responsibility"
"he should write them a letter informing them that he wants his car returned with the agree warranty work completed within three days or he will begin legal proceedings and also claim for lost earnings and the cost of a hire vehicle until his vehicle is returned to him, assuming he can prove he requires his car for work"
The way most warranty claims work is the same as insurance... the garage contacts the company who cover the warranty and get an approval... They'll be give a reference number.. provided this was done within the warranty period, they have to honour it
You have a contract with the repairing garage to work on your car. They have agreed that this will be covered under the terms of the warranty.
The repairing garage have a contract with the sales garage... to be paid for the aforementioned work
The latter has nothing to do with the former
The repairing garage are in breach of their contract with you and are unlawfully holding your vehicle
You have no obligation to pay them, and you shouldn't
Delays in the supply of parts are not your responsibility... the repairing garage is responsible to ensure that it is able to complete it's contract with you, and put into place whatever measures are appropriate to ensure that happens
I also spoke to a friend of mine who works in the service dept of a main dealership, he added the following:
The person you hand your keys to has a responsibility to inform you that the work is not covered by warranty & will have to be paid for, BEFORE any work is carried out.
The "repairer" has to check he is authorised before carrying out work for which he is to be paid, whether its the warranty co. or you.
He asked if I had signed anything stating I would pay for work not covered, I had signed nothing - then they do not have a leg to stand on.
I also spoke to Staffs Police, she was very nice & helpful:
This is something the Police do not get involved with, its civil. they cannot hold you car but we cannot get involved unless it gets nasty. You need to speak to a solicitor for advise. You may need to take it to a small claims court.
I hope this will be of use to others, if anyone is interested I can post my process's and responses. Others with experience can also add to this.
Sorry if this is covered elsewhere, but when I was looking for info earlier I could find nothing.
Thanks again.
