T
Tim Hobbs
Guest
On Tue, 29 Jun 2004 18:21:03 +0100, "David French"
<david.not.spam.french@virgin.net> wrote:
>...say I'd had some work done on a vehicle, by a Main Dealer, which had cost
>IRO £800.
>
>And let's assume that subsequently, another Main Dealer found a problem with
>the work that had been done which then cost another £173.88. And that this
>second main dealer was of the firm opinion that it was inadequacies in the
>original work which had led to the second problem.
>
>Now let's also assume, hypothetically, that I'd gone back to the first
>dealer to recoup the cost of this repair, and had had no luck in getting any
>form of compensation from them over 5 months of discussion.
>
>What would be my recourse to the first dealer to recover the costs of the
>repair, and what would the process involve?
>
>Thanks,
>David
>
Apologies for the long post...
You could legally park the aforementioned Land Rover outside the
dealership with a factually 100% accurate (and provably so)
description of your grievance in large letters.
You could instigate a claim via the small claims court (I'm going to
be doing this myself tomorrow, which will be a good learning process).
Depending on the age of the vehicle you could involve Land Rover
customer services. An independent engineers report would certainly
strengthen your case.
The key to success in any small legal action is to involve the other
party in so many annoying costs and other irritations that they find
it cheaper to settle. When fighting a business there is a good chance
that the opposition are judging things on pounds and pence, not
personal pride or desire 'to win'. You may need to escalate it higher
in the organisation to get that perspective though.
I've had a lot of success with formal letter writing (recently winning
a refund from a major electronics retailer for a duff hi-fi component
plus a climb-down from a motor insurer on my sister's behalf). Don't
ever conduct these matters by phone - it's too easy for people to hear
what they want to hear and renege later.
Always end the letter by making a positive suggestion to 'bring the
matter to a mutually agreeable close' (i.e. "you can get rid of me if
you say yes to this"), pointing out that you will apportion no blame
and make no public statement about the whole affair. Perhaps aim for
compensation in some other form than cash - perhaps some parts or a
free service or something. That way the employee at the dealer
doesn't have to justify a credit note to his boss, but can instead
brag to his colleagues about how he fobbed you off with a free service
that costs them sod all anyway.
It's also worth putting some semi-formal sentences in their - e.g.
head every letter with 'WITHOUT PREJUDICE' and statements like "I
don't feel that you have exercised 'reasonably skill and care'" - the
message will be "Oh Christ, his best mate is a lawyer". Lawyer mates
are much more worrying than paid lawyers, because they go on forever
on nil-cost personal crusades for their friends.
And don't play all your cards in the first letter. You want to keep
something back, so you can write to them every single week until they
get fed up of you. There is also a general fear of Watchdog and
Trading Standards amongst retailers, which you could allude to.
HTH
--
Tim Hobbs
'58 Series 2 88" aka "Stig"
'67 Series 2a 109" aka "Ernie (FOR SALE)
'77 101FC Ambulance aka "Burrt"
'95 Discovery V8i aka "The Disco" (FOR SALE)
03 Volvo V70
My Landies? http://www.seriesii.co.uk
Barcoding? http://www.bartec-systems.com
Tony Luckwill web archive at http://www.luckwill.com
<david.not.spam.french@virgin.net> wrote:
>...say I'd had some work done on a vehicle, by a Main Dealer, which had cost
>IRO £800.
>
>And let's assume that subsequently, another Main Dealer found a problem with
>the work that had been done which then cost another £173.88. And that this
>second main dealer was of the firm opinion that it was inadequacies in the
>original work which had led to the second problem.
>
>Now let's also assume, hypothetically, that I'd gone back to the first
>dealer to recoup the cost of this repair, and had had no luck in getting any
>form of compensation from them over 5 months of discussion.
>
>What would be my recourse to the first dealer to recover the costs of the
>repair, and what would the process involve?
>
>Thanks,
>David
>
Apologies for the long post...
You could legally park the aforementioned Land Rover outside the
dealership with a factually 100% accurate (and provably so)
description of your grievance in large letters.
You could instigate a claim via the small claims court (I'm going to
be doing this myself tomorrow, which will be a good learning process).
Depending on the age of the vehicle you could involve Land Rover
customer services. An independent engineers report would certainly
strengthen your case.
The key to success in any small legal action is to involve the other
party in so many annoying costs and other irritations that they find
it cheaper to settle. When fighting a business there is a good chance
that the opposition are judging things on pounds and pence, not
personal pride or desire 'to win'. You may need to escalate it higher
in the organisation to get that perspective though.
I've had a lot of success with formal letter writing (recently winning
a refund from a major electronics retailer for a duff hi-fi component
plus a climb-down from a motor insurer on my sister's behalf). Don't
ever conduct these matters by phone - it's too easy for people to hear
what they want to hear and renege later.
Always end the letter by making a positive suggestion to 'bring the
matter to a mutually agreeable close' (i.e. "you can get rid of me if
you say yes to this"), pointing out that you will apportion no blame
and make no public statement about the whole affair. Perhaps aim for
compensation in some other form than cash - perhaps some parts or a
free service or something. That way the employee at the dealer
doesn't have to justify a credit note to his boss, but can instead
brag to his colleagues about how he fobbed you off with a free service
that costs them sod all anyway.
It's also worth putting some semi-formal sentences in their - e.g.
head every letter with 'WITHOUT PREJUDICE' and statements like "I
don't feel that you have exercised 'reasonably skill and care'" - the
message will be "Oh Christ, his best mate is a lawyer". Lawyer mates
are much more worrying than paid lawyers, because they go on forever
on nil-cost personal crusades for their friends.
And don't play all your cards in the first letter. You want to keep
something back, so you can write to them every single week until they
get fed up of you. There is also a general fear of Watchdog and
Trading Standards amongst retailers, which you could allude to.
HTH
--
Tim Hobbs
'58 Series 2 88" aka "Stig"
'67 Series 2a 109" aka "Ernie (FOR SALE)
'77 101FC Ambulance aka "Burrt"
'95 Discovery V8i aka "The Disco" (FOR SALE)
03 Volvo V70
My Landies? http://www.seriesii.co.uk
Barcoding? http://www.bartec-systems.com
Tony Luckwill web archive at http://www.luckwill.com
