YOUR
Carcraft Experiences
I`m not the only one who`s had a Carcraft Experience.
Since making my website, I have been surprised and shocked at the number of emails that I still receive of your experiences.I decided that I should publish them on my site, so that other people can be rest assured that they are not alone.I welcome all your emails and reply to each one. I can help out wherever possible.I have even received emails from people who used to work at Carcraft offering inside knowledge! Use the Contact form to send me an email. ** DISCLAIMER ** Many people have specifically asked me to publish their email, to let others know of the difficulties and issues they have had whilst dealing with this company.I invite anyone to email me and tell me of their problems. I will always filter out any personally identifying information and never publish full names.If you do see your email here and do not want it up, then please contact me and I will remove your post. The information published here cannot be substantiated as fact. The views expressed here are of the opinion of the person who wrote the text and as such cannot be substantiated as fact or truthfull. 15 Feb 08From Shamshad Hi Andrew
I am also one of the victims of carcraft.
I trade in my car with carcraft in Sept. 2007. On
their web site it says value your car. So I entered my car details and I
received a reply that my car value is about £ 1000. My car was Nissan Primera Sport X Reg, in a very
good condition, with full service history. Any how I agreed on that but when I
went to them, I was told no my car is worth of only £ 500 even before any body
looked at my car. But I was told that they can compensate this by knocking down
£ 500 from the screen price of car I pick. So I picked Mercedes C220 cdi. Any how deal was done on hire purchase for 5 years. I
was offered an extended warranty with NAC of about more than £1700. I also
accepted. Any how I didn’t have my logbook at that time of my old car, I was
told to post to them and they will look after. So the following day I posted my
logbook to them. I received a letter from DVL in Jan 2008 that the vehicle is
still under my name and I had to pay them £40 to take my name off. In Nov. 2007
I heard some noise coming from the back of my car sometimes. While this
happened within 3 months so I took the car back to them. After keeping me for
two hours I was told they cannot find any problem. In Nov.2007 my car was due
for service. So I took my car to the Mercedes garage for service and I
mentioned to them about this noise, they spotted straight away the problem and
I was told it is the coil which is broken. So they contacted NAC for repair and
they agreed to repair. I was impressed and pleased. But in Jan 2008 same noise
appeared again. So I was thinking to take it to garage again. While during this
time on the 7th Feb my car didn’t start after filling fuel at the
Tesco garage. So I had to call RAC. I was told by RAC that there is problem with
fuel injector pump. So the following day again in the morning going for work my
car did not start. So I had to call RAC. That day I took my car to the garage
and told them the problem. They checked my car and found that all the 4
injector pumps need to be replaced. Because I had the extended warranty so they
contacted NAC. NAC asked for the previous service invoice. So following day the
garage faxed the invoice but NAC without any reason refuse to cover. When I
contacted them they turned out very rude and nasty and refuse to cover without
any reason. I tried to contact carcraft but they
refuse to help, because this is not their problem. Also Mercedes garage showed
me that this car has been repaired and painted as one of the headlight is
slightly tilted inwards and he showed me the paint.
So please any advice what shall I do.
Regards
13 Feb 08From Joanne Hi
Andrew,
I've only
just found your site but am going to keep it in my links as my daughter bought
a car from Carcraft (despite me urging her not to)
and less than 5 months later, her car's developed a fault.
My
husband had a Carcraft car with a warranty from
NAC so I know the potential problems she's going to have in getting it repaired
- I'm going to keep referring to your site should she have any problems in
dealing with Carcraft in order to get her car fixed
(which I'm sure she will).
As it's
an automatic quick-shift gearbox the cost will be horrendous if left to her, so
I'm determined they won't shaft her!
I'm so
pleased you've taken the trouble to set up this site as it's extremely
informative and helpful, and a good guide for me to
follow if I have to. I'm ready for a fight!
12 Feb 08From Scott hi i
am in a terrible dilemma , i am hoping you can help
me if possible with some advice , i bought car
for 7500 on fri 8th feb
today i sat down and worked it all out paying 380 a
month over 4 years is a terrible amount , i want to
cancel my agreement and take the car back , looikng
on the web and reading horror stories it doesnt look
like i will be able to do this , i
found your site most helful and after reading the
advice leaflet i cam across a section....... Can you cancel your credit
agreement? and it says telephone the
creditor immediately to establish whether the agreement has been signed. \
how do i find my creditor
numbers to see if they have sighned the agreement or
not
4 Feb 08
From Ben
Hi im sure you have
heard this a million times however i just wondered if you could help me in
where i stand!
Basically i purchased a brand new (as good as) peugeot 206 from carcraft in
july 2007 (13miles on clock) on finance, however was told by a member of their
staff if i wanted to be covered for any damaged parts, breakages during this
period i should take it (which i did) £2500 (£500 a yr)
However i was also told i could take it to any garage (not the case)
I rang in november regarding this and asked if i could get the policy removed
as i have since found out i am covered for everything under peugeot until
november 2009 anyways (over 2yrs into the policy)
Just wondering if there is any way i can go about removing this stupid policy i
am paying for, but is not worth paper its printed on as it also does not cover
fault finding (which i was told it did) and only covers part and fitting
(excludes removal of my parts and excludes alot of the parts in general however
it was explained if anything broken i take it to any garage who claims money
off carcraft, my problem is even peugeot garage will not claim off it and told
me i should remove it as its not worth paper its printed on)
The car is a 56 plated 206 and from viewing was told was ex showroom hence
price £7500
Please reply and thanks for reading ive kept it brief in the hope of a response
Ben
All im wishing to do is remove the car policy cover, as 1. peugeot cannot
repair my car through it, and 2.it does not cover everything which is why the
policy was taken
26 Jan 08From Graham My carcraft saga starts 3 years ago when I
decided that I was going to change my car as I had been promoted and could
afford a better car than I was currently driving.
I went to carcraft merseyside
and found a great lookng alfa
romeo 156, the car looked
fantastic and when we worked out the finance it was well within my monthly
budget. While there I asked about reliability as I had heard some people had
experienced faults with alfas. I was told by the
salesman that the warranty with NAC would cover all faults.
After owning the car for 3 months all the problems started, the first
problem was down to a falutly ecu,
after 3 weeks it was eventually covered by the warranty with NAC. Secondly the
car went for a service after only 4 months of owning to find that the plugs had
been in the car so long when they were being removed by a main dealer 1 snapped
in the engine, this meant the whole engine had to be stripped down and totally
rebuilt, NAC said they would only cover part and not labour. But as there was
no part that needed replacing accept some plugs I was
left with a £1500 labour bill. I spoke to carcraft
and was basically told to get lost it was nothing to do with them.
I told them that when I bought the car I was told it had been serviced
but they now claim they never service a car before delivery.
The next thing to brake was the brakes they totally failed and only the
slave cylinder was coverd that meant I was again left
with a £750 bill for pads and discs.
and the problems have been
going on and on now for 3 years. Untill this week I have again been promoted so thought I
would change my car. I went to a company called We Buy
Any vehical dot com. and went through there web site
to get valuation on my vehical. I listed every fault
about the car including every single scratch and ding. I got my valuation and
was pleasently supprised
with the figure quoted. I decided to go ahead and sell it to them, but to my supprise I had to deliver the car to a carcraft
center, yes youve guessed
it they are the same company. I turned up and was met by a gentleman who had
all the parperwork out in front of him, he went out
and looked over my car, he came back in and told me that the new valuation of
my car was £4000 less then the internet site. Due to the fact that the engine
had been rebuilt and various things had been replaced. When I told him it was carcrafts fault that these things had broke he just
laughed, and I mean a proper laugh and said thats not my problem. So I left before I lost it with
him. So I am now stuck with a car that nobody wants, I cant
sell it back to them as they will only give me £500 for a car that has cost me
the £10,000 purchase price plus at least £3000 in personal repair cost.
Thank you for havingthis site where peolpe like me can rant as much as we want about the worst
company I have ever dealt with.
08 Jan 08From Jacqui Help! I part exed
my car for a Mini on Sunday (6th Jan). I then got it home and
realised the indicator was loose at the front of the car and didn’t work.
I tried virtually all morning the following day to get through to someone to no
avail. I then went on the internet to find that I could have bought a
similar car £2,000 cheaper and when I looked in the paper found a car exactly
the same as mine (although no mileage stated) selling at £9,799 instead of what
I paid £11,299. I was livid and drove down to the garage and said I
wanted my money back as I felt I had been ripped off. I was given some
spiel about cars that were purchased via the web or from adverts in the paper
only got a 3 month warranty instead of what I had got a 2 year warranty.
I’m afraid I believed the hype and they said they would fix the car.
However, they needed to order a part for it so now I have to take it back next
week to get it fixed. I was given £63 as a good will gesture. Anyway
I have driven the car this morning and I don’t like it. I know I can’t
change it just because I don’t like it but I wondered if you knew of anyway I
could get my money back and hopefully my old car?
Many thanks for any help you can give me
01 Jan 08From Sarah thanks for the information i was going to buy from carcraft
but i dont think so now carcraft have rung me 9 times to go to there showroom,does nac mean nacka cars instead?
27 Dec 07From Hannah Hi,
I've just found your Carcraft
website.... it's very good!
I'm a journalist currently looking at Carcraft and their dodgy practices.
I'm getting a lot of help from Trading Standards
but wondered where abouts in the country you are as I
may be looking for people to interview.
Hannah
13 Nov 07From Dom Littlewood Hi Andrew
I work on a BBC TV programme called Don't Get Done,
Get Dom with Dominic Littlewood.
I would like to speak with you about your
experience with Carcraft.
Would you be able to phone me on 2020.7713.6868 or
let me have a number where I can contact you?
I look forward to speaking with you.
Best wishes
Sion
25 Aug 07
From Mark
Hi Andrew,
After recently purchasing a car from Carcraft in Rochdale and subsequently
stumbling over your website I felt compelled to write to you with my experience
of their 'Hard Sell' tactics as way of verification of many of the other stories
and details repeated within so many other Carcraft Experiences.
I must say that the final outcome of my experience is actually a happy one, but
not one that was acheived easily and anyone not careful would easily have come
foul and ended up in needless amounts of debt.
So to start at the beginning...
I had been looking for a car on the internet and after finding a suitable
'03 Renault Laguna on the Autotrader website I was eventually directed
through to Carcraft in Rochdale, as I live locally this suited me and I quickly
found myself down at their premises to view the vehicle. Although the car
had already been advertised on the internet, it had yet to be valeted, prepared
and have its so called 120 point check, as I liked the look of the car anyway I
still went ahead with a test drive and satisfied with the look and drive of the
vehicle and based on Carcrafts promise to put right the minor faults with the
bodywork I decided to go ahead with the purchase at the internet ticket price
of £6,600. This is where it all started to get a little strange.
I told the sales guy that I would need take out a credit agreement and that I
was part exchanging my '99 Peugot 306, which I purchased for around about £3k
18 months prior. They initially offered me £600 for my old car which of
course I was not happy with, my initial recourse was to tell them that I wanted
at least £1,000 for the part ex at which point the sales man stated 'okay then,
we will cover it up and we will hide it by giving you money off the car, take
out a £5,000 loan and plus your part ex will cover it'. Placated I agreed
(thinking I would only therefore be paying my old car plus £5,000) and went
home expecting to hear from Carcraft the following day to finalise the deal as
I was told that the car would be ready for me to collect the next day...
yeah sure.
The next day I received a phone call saying that Carcraft could not finance the
£5,000 loan I required against the car as my credit history wasn't sufficient
'but' they said they could transfer me to another finance company called UCan
Car Credit who could offer me the money but their interest rate APR was twice
that of Carcrafts. I was initially surprised at this but agreed to a
meeting at the UCan Car Credit offices, which lo and behold, was situated in a
porta-cabin behind the main Rochdale Carcraft premises, which I found quite
strange.
Upon arriving I spoke to the sales man and after he mulled over several figures
comparing them against what I could afford to payback and the required amount I
needed to borrow, he finally came up with a total settlement figure of
£9,000. This, remember, was for a £5,000 loan, basically almost doubling
the cost of the car. As I'm not a thick cookie and realising that
after all I am only borrowing money, I asked the sales man that if
'theoretically' I gave him £5,000 on the spot there and then could I drive away
with the car the same day? He replied 'Yes', to which I replied, 'Okay
then, I'll go have a chat with my bank manager...'. He wasn't very pleased
to hear that, but obviously couldn't do a right lot to stop me...
I then went to my bank branch, spoke to my financial advisor and promptly
walked out with a bankers draft for £5,000 with a total settlement cost of
£6,500. What a saving over what UCan had offered me, and surely my bank
would be the first to refuse me if my credit rating was poor?
After turning back up at Carcraft with the cash in hand I drove away half an
hour later in a 'new to me' '03 Renault Laguna, laughing to myself. Remember
they had only offered me £600 part ex for my car, however as they had already
agreed (although in their eyes on the basis I was taking out credit)
to reduce the ticket price (to hide the low part ex price) by £1,000
they had to honour that agreement, giving me a total saving of £1,600 on
the initial Carcraft ticket.
In the end I ended up paying to Carcraft £5,000 plus my part ex for an internet
ticket price of £6,600. Saving £2,500 of needless finance by taking out
the credit with a 3rd party.
What I have learned from this endeavour and from reading other peoples
experiences on this website, you should always make them think that you
are looking to take out credit with them, this puts them in a safe frame of
mind believing that they can offer you all kinds of discounts only to claw it
back later on through the finance. Hold out on the value of your part ex,
if they think you are taking out credit with them they will think they can bump
it back on to that later. It helps if you already know which car you want
and if possible have other credit lenders available to you, either your bank or
another reputable one if possible, NEVER take out the credit from Carcraft or
from one that they 'Suggest' as guaranteed it will be a Carcraft owned company,
subsiduary or partner in someway.
As far as I'm concerned I was one of the lucky ones who played their system and
won, I'm sure that this won't always be the case and I feel sorry to all those
that have lost previously. I would never recommend Carcraft to anyone,
they are con artists and are out to take you for everything they can.
Play it safe, always keep your options open and be clever, remember you don't
need to borrow THEIR money to buy their cars.
Kind Regards,
25 Jun 07
From Melissa
Hi, you say on your website that you have names of people high up in the
company who can be contacted for complaints. I need to know who to direct a
strong letter of complaint to about the
Many thanks,
20
May 07
From
Steve
Hi there. I am going through similar with carcraft
12
May 07
From
David
(08/05/07)
I am writing to you about my recent purchase of a (fiat grande punto 2007)(5 miles on the clock) from carcraft
before buying i had the chance to take the car for a
test drive and i found that the car was perfect to
drive and there didn’t seem to be no faults with the car also i was told that i would be
driving this car away the same day and everything had been sorted and ready to
go.
when purchasing the car i was ask to wait for 30 mins to
see a finance adviser after waiting 2 hours to see the finance adviser. i signed the papers to agree the
finance that was being set. during the time of the
singing of the papers, the head of sales came into the room and said that the
log book had been misplaced and i was not going to be
driving away the punto the same day.
(this was after having to catch 2 buses to get to the store in lakeside)
after agreeing that i would not be taking the car
away, the head of sales said that the car was going to be taxed and delivered
in 1 to 2 days on a low loader.
(09/05/07)
After receiving a phone call saying that the car was going to be
delivered today I agreed to say that someone was going to be in for the
delivery.
about 5:30pm the car was
delivered by 2 sales staff that had drove it from lakeside which now added 30
miles to the 5 miles on the clock at the time of purchase. my
son was the only person in at the time and they dropped the car off and handed
him a broken wind mirror. which he was told that they
had broke on the travel to deliver the car.
my son had not been given any
papers to sign and just given the keys to the car. he
was told that he could bring the car to car craft and a replacement mirror
would be fitted no fees/charge.
When i had got home from work my son had told
me what had happened. I went to go look at the car and to park it in the garage
on my journey to park it i was hearing a ratterling and thumping sound inside the front of the car
and a scraping noise from the brakes when braking.
(10/05/07)
I phoned carcraft about the car. I was put on
hold for 15 mins till i had
been told that she could not find a book to book the car in and that she would
phone me back the following day about getting the car fixed and where the tax
was plus why it was drove from lakeside when it is a brand new car which was
supposed to be delivered on a low loader.
(11/05/07)
No phone call was returned.
(12/05/07)
I drove my van to lakeside carcraft, ask to see the manager while seeing the manager i spoke to him about my problems with the car.
I was told that it was nothing to do with carcraft
after they make a sale it was up to costumer care. where
i went in to one of there offices and used there
phone.
Phoned costumer care where i was transferred
from one place to another this lasted for 15 mins.
When i eventually got threw to someone. I told
them the problems and that there staff must off thrashed
the car down the motorway when being delivered. She then told me that her staff are responsible drivers and they would not do anything
like that.
she told me the car is still
under warranty for a year and that i should take it
to a garage. I then told her that the car is brand new and it should not have
to go in to a garage just yet.
(During this time i have just received the
D.V.L.A log book which is still not been signed over so the car is still by
rights there car.)
p.s please could you help me
in any way.
Thank You.
09 May 07
From Sam
I have just found your internet site and wish to thank you for showing
me that i'm not alone in my troubles after purchasing
a vehicle from Carcraft
On 19/6/05 i purchased a
18 month old Toyota Rav-4 from Carcraft of Rochdale.
12 days later on 1/7/05 while it packed outside my then girlfriend's address
the vehicle caught fire and exploded. My girlfriend failed to settle the
insurance claim and in November 2005 i ran out of
funds to pay the finance on the now written off vehicle.
I now am in May 2007 with a charging order on my home instigated by the
finance company who acted on behalf of Carcraft. The
latest letter i've received from the finance company
solicitor's on 1/5/07 threatens me with with
re-possession proceedings if i don't pay them nearly
£26,000 incl court costs which they say i owe them
I suffered from depresion and had a break-down
in December 2004 and the stress of thi situation is
totally unacceptable.
I wish, like many it would seem, that i had
never heard of Carcraft nevermind
bought a car from them one sunday
afternoon in June 2005.
Once again thank you for your internet site. I've still got a lot of
work to do to get this matter resolved but your guidance has shown me that it
may be worth it in the long term.
Thank You
Sam
06 Apr 07
From John
Many thanks for your excellent website. I was
searching for "carcraft" with the intention
of going to the North East branch this weekend when your site came up. Your
website has saved me a wasted journey!
26 Mar 07
From Karen
Since Friday I have had 5
calls regarding a customer who has applied for car credit
. At first, I ignored it then I had a message on my voicemail
asking the gentleman to call them about his credit application.
Again, I ignored it.
I had a call Saturday, yesterday (which I was not at all happy about) and now
today at 12.30. I have just called to complain about having calls for
someone else and a lady asked me twice for my address which I declined to
give. I said that they didn't need my address as I hadn't made such an
application and to change the details they had got for this guy.
My dissatisfaction was
clear to them and I hope not to hear from them again.
I'm not a driver and if I
were, based on this experience, I wouldn't go to them they are crap and
obviously get details wrong and upset people.
05 Mar 07
From Mark
Hi Andrew
You think you have had problems with Carcraft. I have attached a copy of a letter that I sent
to the finance company that arranged the finance on a Land Rover Freelander I brought from Carcraft
last year. The finance company don't seem bothered either.
The letter details all the problems I have had with
Carcraft.
The car was collected from my house on the 4th Dec
2006 and is still at Carcraft.
Any suggustions as to how
I can get Carcraft to take the Car back.
Regards
-
letter:
I brought a Land Rover Freelander, from
Carcraft, , West Mids on 24/07/2006
with finance arranged with yourselves. After driving the car for a couple of
days I found it difficult to engage 1st and reverse gears and an
unusual transmission noise could be heard at low revs. I phoned Carcraft and
arranged for the car to be repaired. This happened about a week later,
Approx
one month later the same problems occurred,
The repairs were o.k. for approx 6 weeks but I could still hear an unusual transmission noise at low revs.
It
was just after 6 weeks from the 2nd new clutch being fitted that I
noticed difficulty engaging 1st and reverse gears again. The
electric window on the drivers door stopped working as well. I phoned Carcraft
to inform them of the problems and I was told that I would have to take the car
in to be inspected before they would agree to repair the car and arrange for a
courtesy car for me. I arranged to take the car to Carcraft the next day after
work. Whilst driving home from work I noticed that the heater was not working. When
I arrived home I checked the engine and was shocked to find the engine cylinder
head gasket had failed and the water that should have been in the
cooling/heating system was in the engine. I phoned Carcraft to inform them of
the new problem and they stated again that we would have to take the car in to
be checked before they would agree to do the repairs and arrange for a courtesy
car. I informed Carcraft that the car could not be driven, and after a number
of phone calls they agreed to collect the car on the
When
the car was collected I informed the driver that I was not happy with the car,
he laughed and told me that he collects 3 to 4 cars a week with similar
problems from unhappy customers of
Carcraft. I phoned Carcraft the next day to find out what was happening
with my car and when we could have a courtesy car. I also informed Carcraft
that I was not happy with the car. They phoned back and informed me that the
cylinder head had been sent away to be repaired. This is the last phone call I
have had from Carcraft in Darlaston,
My
next call was handled by xxxxx of customer services based in Cardiff.
I informed him of what had happened and he arranged for a report to be done on
the car and that Carcraft may take the car back and re-finance the car due to
the quality issues I have had. The report was done and on the
I traded a Ford Escort s reg, for which Car craft gave me £50.00 towards the cost of the Freelander. The finance arranged with yourselves was for £9375.00 plus interest to be payed over 5 years. Total to pay was £14.015.40.
We
have still not got a courtesy car which has caused a lot of problems and extra
cost for my wife and I. We have not heard directly from Carcraft since
We have no faith in Carcraft or the car they sold us. We have had problems with the car since we brought it. Can you please help us. We don’t want the car back and we would like you to use your powers under the consumer credit act, 1974, as stated on our credit agreement to cancel the contract with Carcraft.
Yours sincerely
13 Feb 07
From Harninder
Hi,
I read your notes on Sunday after I had
purchased a car from carcraft.
I have just got my money back in full after I
told them I was going to contact my solicitor to start legal proceedings about
misrepresentation and advising cars for sale that they didn’t have.
Regards
27 Jan 07
From Karl
Hi - Glad I found your website, Today I
filled out an application on-line for credit on a nice 2004 VX Corsa 1.4 Auto.
When I filled out a P/ex value form - I was
told my P306 1998 was worth £840 when I paid £1500 in June and Parkers value it
at £1300. I put this in the e-mail and they come back and said they would give
me £1340 for my car as part ex. Plus they could do Buy now pay 2008 even thou
it is not mentioned anywhere.
I asked for the e-mail address for the
Ge Capital bank was the finance company I was with when I had my last car
in March 06 - I ended the aggrement as I had spent
£3000 in repairs only having the car for 2yrs with no money back, When I rang
up - They said they could get any car - So I asked for a Yellow Volvo S40
they said no problem - got there and what a dump - was offered two cars with
dents (But it had taken me 6hrs to get there - I just wanted a car) They car
had a fuel problem - It cost me £45 to fill up, their garage then drained half
a tank and would not refund me - I spent 5hrs in their garage for it still to
be broken I then had to drive back to Gatwick with a faulty fuel thing (They
said I could not have my old car back as I had signed the aggrement
and where very demanding over this - all 4 of them) Merc
fixed the problem at £450 which I had to pay and the company never gave me the
money back.
The car was way over my budget, and not worth
that.
I also had to put more deposit down and they
would not take my car as deposit after they said they would and pay Yes car the
difference *That was another bad company*
This was with a company in Darlaston -
THESE COMPANIES NEED TO BE CLOSED DOWN BY THE
GOVERMENT.
I would rather have a push bike then go throu all that again.
Have you heard of anything from Perrys or
Thanks again for my lucky escape.
All the best
Karl
1 Dec 06
From Anonymous Carcraft Ex Employee
hi
been looking through your site..... god how i laughed you dont even know the
half of it mate.. i worked there for 5 years at one
of the sites were shall i start... one man bought a citreon xantia, driving home
front whell comes off hits the central reservation
smashes it up on the bypass .. we collect the car on a truck give him a
two year old astra and rip up his finance package to
keep him quiet... once a car had a electrical fire behind the dash in valet,
was going out on an instant told to leave windows sown and spray lot of air freshner in it once out of the gates its up to the warenty company...
oh and lots of car with jig
marks underneath them sold for top cash... the list goes on... like i say i worked behind the scenes i seen alot of shit go on and
would rather go to a scrappers to get a car...
hey here is a good
one if you wanna track the car down... a 2.5v6 gsi vectra reg Vxxx xxx sold to a customer took it for a service to
find out that the car had been in a heavy front smash he rejected the car
then was put back on sale in the show room for top cash again... that was at
sheffield site.. had jig marks all over underside of the car....
15 Nov 06
From Kushis
We bought a car from carcraft . When we took the
car in to get serviced the car had a engine and gear
box leak, the car had the wrong wheels (to big for the car). The mercedes garage has faxed the all the information for the
repairs, phoned them and writtten to them. They have
not made a single phone call to me to go a head with the repairs. The total
bill will cost us £1200 plus vat. what should we
do and why do they make life miserable for the customer?
Is there not something that we can do to warn
potential customers of Carcraft. They will learn when it starts to hurt them financialy
30 Oct 06
From Dean
Hi Andrew.
I just typed in carcraft on google,
and it came up with your site as well, which i have
just finished reading, glad everything worked out for u, and thank you for
saving me a small fortune, I WILL NOT BE GOING THERE!!!, thanks again.
Dean
P.S.
keep up the good work, u ever thought about doing this for a living,
going round buying crapy cars! then
charging people to view your findings! this time next
year we could be millionaires rodney.
11 Oct 06
From Jan
Hi Andrew,
I am also having problems with Carcraft.Namely
quoting amounts when purchasing per week,then
typing the agreement in monthly amounts.Then adding
all sorts of charges and telling me the calculations were the same.When I realised the two formats did not equate,thet did not want to know.
Do you happen to know who they are regulated by.
29 Sep 06
From Pete
Hi Andrew,
I sympathise with you and your experience, I have been an automotive
engineer for over 30 years and yes I bought a car from Carcraft.
In August this year I bought a BMW (2002) diesel from Carcraft Leeds, it is an excellent car, but, I can't
understand why so many things are missing or wrong.
The BMW Servicing record book and all vehicle user hanbooks
complete with the original BMW wallet missing.
Unique BMW glovebox torch, will only recharge
in a BMW, missing, Unique BMW 1st Aid kit, missing.
BMW Warning triangle missing.
Toolkit items missing,
Original locking wheel bolts replaced, replacement key does not fit in
tool kit.
I have spoken with the original and only previous owner and the vehicle
was complete when sold to Carcraft.
The car has been checked by a BMW Specialist dealer and the car checks
out fine, at the sametime I had an oil service which
was due and included the renewal of the Automatic Transmission Fluid. This has all been logged on the cars'
computer.
I had noticed on a long drive that I had vibration from the front wheels
at speed and under braking, wheel balancing I thought. I took the car to my local MOT Testing
Station and Tyre Dealer to be checked. 2 mismatched tyres were on the front, 1
an original Michelin (RHF), the other a Russian (unpronounceable) copy, a low
budget discount tyre, that we couldn't even find in the buyers catalogue. The Michelin was spot on balance with a total
of 15g of weight, the other had over 280g and was out of balance, the weights were removed and rechecked. The wheel would need over 300g to balance,
plus the tyre was deformed making it impossible to balance properly. I decided on a pair of new Goodyear tyres for
the front, balanced and fitted (20g between the 2) for a heavily discounted
£130. The rear tyres were from the same
Russian maker, but looked OK so I left them.
I contacted Carcraft, who told me tyres were
not covered, also I should have contacted them first.
(I forgot to mention this is my wifes car, work away
from home and I wanted a strong, reliable, safe car that she could depend on
while I was away). So me the engineer
knew the danger, but should wait for someone else to say the tyres should be
checked and changed, sorry but my wifes and my safety
come first. I have been getting
vibration from the back (suspect Russian tyres), so I contacted Carcraft, a result, "Have the vehicle inspected and
ask the dealer to fax the report to us".
I visited every specialist tyre dealer in Sleaford,
Hope this proves even the good cars can be bad.
Best regards,
25 Sep 06
From Suzi
Dear Andrew
Im really glad you started
that site it has been very helppful and i guess i need your help!
I hope you dont mind me writing to you, I know
you seid you get lots of emails and I dont half expect a reply from you, but am ever so worried..so the story starts... me
and my partner bought an MG ZR (2002 reg 47000
£6000 GE CAPITAL FINANCE) on the
28 july 2006 yes, LESS than
2 months
ago!
We wernt impressed with their service to start
with after breaking down less than 2 miles from their
we got the rac out who towed it to an MG ROVER garage and called carcraft who said we had done 10 miles over 3000 so we would have to phone NAC
even though we have had the car less than three months!
the mechanic looked at it
today and as it turns out the water pump is gone and needs replacing...NAC said
they would pay for that... then the mechanic called us again and said the cambelt was soaked due to the water leak and needed
replacing.. and the head gasket is blown due to overheating the mechnic told us that NAC wont pay for it as its a total of
£1100 for just the gasket and the cambelt!AND one of
the pistons is gone!
(he siad this must
have happended b4 2 months ago!)can
u belive that? in his own
words he siad "if thats
may car mate i would want a new engine!"
we called NAC and told them
that we wanted the head gasket covered, they said they would have to send an engineer
to look at the car tomorow to make sure we weernt driving it around while it was screwed! what with smoke coming out of it? crazy!
basically we wont fork out 1100 (this is the smallest amount without the
piston so god knows what we will be asked to pay) for a car we bought less than
2 months ago, this damage must have been there when we bought it..
basically we just want to take the car back and cancel the finance... do u think
we have a good case? i dont
want to be i na situation
where i have a car that doesnt
work and finance of over 6000, i am a mobile auxilliary nurse so i need to get
the patients houses and have no car at present! i am
losing money becuase of this and can only use the company car
rarely if this takes long to sort out like you i will
have lost thousands in earnings, any advice I would be so grateful to you, I
really admire what you have done and read all your info, I guess i just need reassurance in the mean time that i have a case and they cant fob me off... Many Thanks
20
Sep 06
From
Brian
Hi,
Carcraft!!!, Where do I begin!, My
partner and myself visited Sheffield 2 weeks ago after having finance approved
by U can car credit. We were there for 6 hours. Eventually we were
sold a landrover freelander. To our horror we had to pay a £200 pounds
deposit (when we were told no deposit was needed) We were rushed through
a credit agreement and given the keys. More horror the £7500 car had just
cost us £14,711.04 because the Apr was 38.2%. Which is more than what we
were paying on the last agreement we had with welcome finance. The same
company That they said they had used.
Anyway, we drove home and accepted the faxct
that we had a big bill for the next 4 years. The today the phone
rings...it was U can car credit.....they wanted a copy of my wifes contract of
employment, which she does not have. So they tell us that we have to
bring the landrover back by 7pm tonight or lose our deposit. I asked the
manager for my money back in cash as they had already taken it from my
bank. He said he would call me back. The phone rings.... Yes Mr
morley I have your cash and your old car, come up and we will do the
swap. We drove all the way to Sheffield a dist of 85 miles. I
arrived and asked to see the manager, Oh he has gone home and there is a bit of
a problem, your old car is in Rochdale!!!, They are supposed to be
delivering my old car tomorrow along with my £200 pounds to my home address.
I am so F**ked of with carcraft it is untrue.
How I wish I had read your website!
Please give me your views if u can.
07 Jul 07
From Jonathan
Hi there Andrew
Another idiot who bought a car from Carcraft, and I work in the motor industry, so god help
anyone out side the industry.
Purchased a vehicle from their west midland branch,
back in Aug 2004, a Renault Laguna on a 52 Plate, a nice diesel with 20,000 on
the clock, like everyone else, the high pitch selling practice, trying to sell
all the extra’s, which I turned down, other than a 5 year warrenty,
which I thought would be a good idea, as A, I was planning to keep the car 5 years, and B I had heard stories about the electrics on
the Laguna been some what not the best, this Warrenty
from NAC, of course belonging to Carcraft, which by
the way they make out its actually by the RAC at the time , I though yes, this warrenty covers electrics so I’ll have the warrenty.
The nice sales person explained, this wonderful
peace of mind package covered everything from clutches to gear boxes to the
electrics, and even circle the nice booklet explains all sorts including a I
could make a claim up to 1500 pounds.
Anyway to cut a long story short, a few weeks back
while I left work, the front wheel had started to stick, as I pulled of from my
works car park, lucky for me is my works
which is a main car dealership, a GM dealership so I left my
car at work.
The service dept had finished for the day, so next
day I got the car in, and after 30 mins I was told
the gear boxes had failed, at first I thought they were joking, this car was 3
years old, and had done 40,000 miles, nothing at all for a diesel.
I thought to myself, dam, but however I have that
all singing and dancing warrenty which I pay a arm
and a leg for every month, so I gave
myself a a pat on the back for having that warrenty in the end.
The gear box was removed and sent to a specialist
gear box place in the centre of
Once the gear box was taking apart, they did a
report which basically, said the gear box had been a mechanical failure, as
pins holding the gear wheels had failed.
My dealership then rang NAC; upon they said they
would send down an independent person to check the gear box on their behalf.
Two days later, oh by the week this sounds quick by
this time my car had been of the road now for some 3 weeks
Today Friday 7th of July, my dealership
contacted these Muppets, and guess what they said……The gear box had failed due
to wear and tear and would not honour the warrenty
claim??????
Wear and tear, of course the gear boxes has wear and tear, and so does every other part of a
motor car, unless you don’t use the car and keep it in a garage.
The gear box failed through mechanical failure due
to the car been driven in other words and we won’t be paying out on that is
what NAC are saying.
I had a closer look at this NAC warrenty,
and guess what, it does say in its exclusions, it
won’t cover wear and tear.
What a load of bullsh**t,
a motor vehicle is in constant use, with thousands of parts been used while
driving a car, each one has wear and tear, so basically I have a warrenty that’s worth less than a bog roll, because not
matter what happens to your vehicle, they can claim its down to wear and
tear…….
So where does that leave me, well first of my
father is pretty high up in Honda, and I’m a preparation manager for GM, so I’m
on the inside as such, and I’m going to do everything my power to expose these
pirates for what they are.
As for my car, well these morons don’t realise that
I have a report too, stating that the gear box failed due to mechanical failure
from a very well respect out fit.
Their so called independent
examiner, who by the way is been paid by Carcarft
(NAC) and spoke to a lad down at the
gear box place (I have been working for this company 2 years now, and have got
away with never getting a claim through) Shows what a smart arse he is,
cause like I say, been in the inside as
such I get told everything, Muppet! So in other words, I will do all I can to
invalidate a claim, even if its fraud.
So where are we now, well rang the finance company
up, got to ring back tomorrow as the person I need to speak to wasn’t there
today, basically this car is owed by the finance company and at this present
moment, the gear box is on the other side of the city, the car is in bits in
the car park, and the fly wheel and clutch is in the workshop. NICE CAR
The bill for a recon gear box is 1300 pounds which
like I say NAC are not prepared to pay. I WILL not be paying for this come hell
or high water.
I am prepared to go to full war with Carcraft, and use all my contacts to expose this thieving,
lying, cheating scum
who give the motor industry a bad name
The finance ombudsman, the federation of motors,
etc will be informed to, already trading standards have been informed, who are
taking a very keen eye on this, as I point out in a heat argument this evening,
its one thing selling a dodgy DVD, it’s a another to rip a young decent working
family out of thousands of pounds, which trading standards agreed.
Carcraft
should and will be closed down if it’s the last breath I take, if I have to
stand out side their place and had out leaflets about these pirates I will do
so.
ITS going to cost them
more than its cost me.
Anyway Andrew, love the website, are you still on
going or have you given up the cause to destroy Car witchcraft.
Love to here your view, and if there is any other
websites on the net dedicated to the cause of been shafted, the more we can
really get together, the more power our punch will be.
Hi there Andrew
Thank you for your email about our friends at Car
Craft, since I last wrote you, on Saturday, I have sent letters of complaint to
NAC, Carcraft, and the finance company, also since
then I have had the old gear box return to my dealership.
I work for GM, a large Saab, Chevrolet and Vauxhall
dealership in the midlands, when the old gear box returned, all the technicians
(GM Trained to gold standard) laughed when they saw the gear box, and their
fraud report.
Two of the cogs teeth, have totally gone, while the
third is in perfect condition, as well as the rest of the gear box unit. In
other words their so called wear and tear policy is total cobblers, if its was
wear and tear, then all three cogs would show wear and tear, and secondly
because of the severe damage to two of the cogs, it’s a case of total failure
immediately, and not slow wear and tear in there report, the car wouldn’t have
been driveable for 1000’s of miles prior.
I have made clear to NAC, and Carcraft
that I do work in the motor trade, and they have broken laws already, when I
purchased my car, which
I had to take that day, which was on a Sunday, no road tax was
provided, (A Duty and care is placed upon a car garage, that a valid
certificate of insurances is provide and the vehicle is taxed while leaving the
premises) Hmm nope on that score.
Because Finance was offered as well as extra’s, a
FSA document is suppose to be explained to you, none was ever presented (against the
law)
Also Sundays is a funny thing with selling cars,
you are only suppose to be allowed to view a car on a Sunday, you aren’t
suppose to, arrange finance, purchase the car and then take it away all on the
same day, if you ever look at their adverts…viewing only is typed in very small
print, next to their opening times on a Sunday. (hmm
my car was bought and driven away all on the same day, very naughty…….)
Where we are now:
Letters sent to NAC warrenty,
Carcraft customer careless, and the Finance company,
so waiting on their responses, I won’t hold my breath.
I also have had two emails, one from AnnaFoxx, some special consumer producer on TV and another
from a lad that’s getting a pile of
complaints together to send to a national newspaper that suppose to be
interested.
I’ve told Anna Fox about your website, I hope you
don’t mind, so I wait for responses back now, I’m in the process of sorting a
website out for myself, so to hell with their lawyers, they can’t take, what I
haven’t got, well other than a car without a gear box. So let them sue……..
I don’t know how hungry you are in terms of getting
this company totally lamb blasted, if you do have any respondents to your
website about the way they have been treated, I would love if you past them on
to me, so I can compile a dossier against this company, the more I have, the
bigger hole they are going to have to dig, to get out of this one.
I don’t understand why Trading standards aren’t doing
something about this company, but if I can get enough together and present, i.e customers complaints etc, I will chain myself to their
office in till they do something about this company once and for all….
I will keep you informed.
08 Jul 06
From Barbara
Hi,
I bought a ’54 VW Polo on 3rd May 2006 after one
day the rear door handle fell off ;-) It was fixed after 3 weeks. When it went
in for repair I also told them there was a problem with the brakes, making a
crunching / grinding noise, but only intermittently and unfortunately not ‘on
demand’. They told me that they couldn’t find anything wrong with them. Yet it
still happens and I’m sure they are faulty.
I’ve also noticed scratching and chips in the
paintwork, pieces of the trim not fixed on properly and other small problems
with the car.
Two weeks ago the police called me to ask questions
about the car and tell me that it had been involved in a road traffic accident.
I took the car back to Carcraft yesterday (07/07/06)
and listed all these points and they have asked me to bring it back on Monday /
Tuesday for an exchange. The mechanic there told me that it looks as if it has
been in an accident as the front bumper has been replaced and the 2 front wings
have been moved??
I am not happy with the car or the involvement of
the police. Carcraft tell me it isn’t showing on
their checks that it has been in an accident.
I also was told it had air conditioning at point of
sale which it doesn’t.
Please could you advise me what to do as I don’t
wish to take an exchange if there is a possibility of cancelling this
horrendous contract.
I paid £7700 with a deposit of £1500 cash and £600
for my old Micra. So had £5600 on
finance.
Thank you
Barbara
07 Jul 06
From Bob
My experience with Carcraft is as follows:
-Bought a Renault Laguna Estate on Sun 12th March 2006
-Tue 14th it was back in
guarantee')
-Fri 17th had car back. Mon 20th
back in
-Tue 28th Back in
-Thur
30th had car back with new transistor.
-Wed 24th May (day 80 of the
warranty) - smoke from o/s/r caliper and after an inspection(not by carcraft) was
told that the caliper was sticking on.
Spoke to customer services the
same day and made plans to return car to
-Wed 7th June phone call from
customer services saying that the car was going for an independent inspection.
(Several phone in between call to say
the inspection had been done but the result had not been sent.) -Fri 16th got a
phone call from customer services saying that the car was OK and ready for
collection. If it was not collected I would be charged storage for the Laguna
and hire of the courtesy car. I asked for this in writing and was told a letter
was already in the post.(I got the letter on the
17th). I went to
All my problems stemmed from
central customer services in
The independent inspector, a
Chris Williams from Bridgend, did not look at the whole car he only looked at
the repairs done by carcraft.I have a copy of the
report. Is this the same person you are asking about at the bottom of your home
page.
All I can see is the tops of the letters and it will not scroll down.
If you have any questions please do not hesitate to e-mail
Bob
29 Apr 06
From Joanne
We
bought it on the 7th march 2006 from Carcraft in
On
the 24th march i decided to ring the DVLA to enquire were my log book was only
to be shocked and dismayed that i was being told that we were driving around in
an illegal vehicle. We had also insured
the vehicle Fully Comprehensive when we bought it only to be told that the
insurance policy was invalid and we were not even insured. The vehicle in
question was an MG ZR it had been exported out of
1
hour later he came back with the explanation that everything was fine and the
car was not illegal at all. He brought an HPI check list to us and said that we
could now drive away happy and that everything was fine I did not feel very
sure about this because I had spoke to the DVLA the previous day and remember
word for word what was said to me so I needed confirmation from them that what
this sales manager was telling me was true, I asked to use the phone and rang
the DVLA to see if this was the case. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing he
had lied and the story from the DVLA stayed the same the car was ILLEGAL. The
Sales Manager would of happily to let us drive away once again in a vehicle that
was illegal to be on then road. The lady
at the DVLA asked to speak to him while he was next to me so I passed him the
telephone he was becoming very angry with the women on the phone. He then said
he had to go and speak to someone.
He
later came to us and he told us we had 2 choices: 1.we can change to car
or 2. he would give us a courtesy
car and wait for the vehicle in question to be re-registered which would take
between 6-8 weeks. My partner and I
decided to go for a coffee and discuss it. 1 hour later he finally admitted
that it was negligence on behalf of Carcraft, meaning it was there fault. He
also told us that we couldn’t pick another MG ZR because they were all in the
same position and needed re-registering in
Luckily
i had all the paperwork from the finance company so i asked to use their phone
and called them, immediately they were very helpful and very shocked that
Carcraft could of allowed this to happened and said that they would call
Carcraft to verify what we had told them and then they would start with the
procedure of unwinding the finance contract and cancel it. I was very pleased
that the finance side of things was
being sorted without question. We went to find the Sales Manager to advise this
was going to be the case, he was not happy and said he would talk to someone
and get back to us yet again. Yet another hour passed and we were just getting
another coffee and some food in the canteen as we had been there all day when
he approached us and said that he had spoke to the finance company and they
told him that it was up to Carcraft weather we could cancel the finance and he
was not going to do this. By this time I didn’t believe a word he was saying so
I decided to call the finance company myself, yet again he had lied, he had not
spoken to the finance company at all and they told me that Carcraft were being
very unhelpful and not to worry they would sort it all out. I knew by now we were going to need a hire
car as we were left with no vehicle, I rang enterprise and asked them for a
small hire vehicle. They were picking us
up at 4 o’clock, the time now was 2
o’clock. We had been here since 9.30am, it had been a very long stressful
day.
We
walked down the reception after we had eaten although we didn’t eat hardly
anything due to all the stress we were under.
We were stood at the desk for some time before their finance Manager
came to notify us that the finance agreement was being dealt with and being
unwound. I was very Relieved, now there
was the question of the monies for the 2
cars we part exchanged. We could not
believe what they were offering. £3100 which was £1200 less than what we had
agreed The sales Manager came back over and joined in the conversation, He
tried to say that we were only entitled to the deposit back that was stated on
the agreement, but I told him what he had said to us the day we bought the car,
about the figures not adding up. He
denied any knowledge.
By
this time I was really worked up and just burst into tears, I couldn’t believe
what was happening after all they had done in the first place they were robbing
us too. I told the Sales manager that I
had put my trust in this company and they had let me down as a customer, I was
so upset and wound up we had to walk out.
We had to stand outside for 1hr and 30 minutes until the hire vehicle
arrived.
27 Apr 06
From Chris
Hello,
I'd like to inform that I took on Carcraft and
beat them at there own game.
This is the story
On (20/11/05) I visited the
Sheffield site after seeing their advert in a paper stating typically 0% APR
and nothing to pay until Dec 06. I saw
that you needed counterpart driving licence, bank statements and utility bill
to purchase a car, so I made sure I did not bring them to avoid been pounced on
to buy a car (advert also stated no pushy salesmen).
Once I arrived
with my partner and children just to check it out, we were homed in on by a
salesmen, we said we were just looking.
He then asked what our price range/finance was so he could just show us
what cars to look for and save time. I
gave him a figure of less than £3000, as there were some listed in their advert
- he showed me a V reg. Fiat Brava( 44,000 miles done) which looked very nice
and the only other cars were fiestas.
We went for a quick test drive then asked how
much we could afford, I quoted around
£100 per month at most - originally he stated it would cost over £30 per
week, but he went to his boss to see if he get a reduction, he then came back
with a figure of £26/28 per week if a put a £250 deposit down. I did this and paid the deposit, then the
finance dept. stated as the finance company would not pay for the whole cost it
was to be split between 2 companies.
After waiting for a
while a finance person came with the paper work to sign, he quickly went
through the details and now said the cost would be around £35 per week, the
first finance was for £82 per month for 3 years and the 2nd one £62 per month
for 4 and a half years. My partner and I felt uneasy about this but after
coming so far and paying the £250 which we would not get back i signed the
forms - I was not given the time to look through them are consider it just told
to sign next to where the person had crossed.
I t wasn't until
we arrived home and finally read through the agreement and saw the 30% APR and
the price of the car was £4900 and the total price was nearly £7000 we felt
cheated, I looked through a used car section of a paper and saw a W reg Brava
for £1895 or nearest offer and others for all for less than £2000.
It wasn't until i
got back to work and checked out Carcraft on the internet that i saw all the
complaits about them, people are mainly saying the same things about them -
avoid them at all costs.
I saw that the
contract said it was not cancellable, but I returned to Carcraft the following
sunday to see if I could cancel the contract as i was not happy about it. they
just stated that as the contract was signed on the business premises it could
not be cancelled, I know it is my fault for not reading the contract etc, but
so many people have stated the same and how foolish there were, we were just to
trusting.
Yesterday
I was checking the details of the Consumer credit agreements regulated by the
Consumer Credit Act (cancellable or
non-cancellable), the only way to get out of the non-cancellable is -
"Consumer Credit Act allows you to withdraw from the agreement before the
creditor signs it. The time period is very short and once the creditor has
signed the agreement it becomes 'executed' and you cannot then withdraw. To
withdraw from a prospective agreement you must contact the finance company or
their broker and inform them of your intention to withdraw. This can be done by
telephone but always back it up with a letter confirming the withdrawal."
I
checked my contact and one of the loans had been signed and dated, but the
other one had not been signed by the finance Co. yet - I am going to contact
Trading Standards today and visit the CAB tomorrow to see if it is advisable to
try and withdraw from the loan before it is executed, if it has not been
already. I dodn't what Carcraft would do about that.
My
girlfriend is now on a mission to inform as many people about
Carcrap/Craftycars and is writing to watchdog, local press, advertising agency
and anyone else we can think of. Even if
I am stuck with the agreement we would feel better if we could save more people
from been ripped off. We are thinking of
handing out leaflets to people as they go in to carcraft with all the horror
stories that can be found on various web sites.
Dealing with Carcraft is not the way - contact
the finance company - of the
2 finance deals I stupidly signed - 1 was countersigned by the finance
at Carcraft but the other wasn't .
Having checked this out you can withdraw from from
it if it has not been coutersigned by the comapny and executed - I tried to do this before it was too
late but was it failed, or so I thought.
I wrote this to the finance .co <<Cancel PPI..doc>>
I was very surprised when I received a phone call in January this year
from Carcraft telling me to return the car to them -
Result!
I eventuallly got all my payments back - even
the £250 so called deposit from Carcraft!
So if you can act quick enough and don't bother
with Carshaft they can be beaten.
I eventually bought the same car, just 18 months older for £975.
30 Mar 06
From
I do not know if yo can help but I have been trying to get carcraft to sort out the problems with my vehicle since I
bought it in October I have asked my solicitor to write to them and he is
getting the same run around as myself.
I have just wrote to Watchdog and trading standards today. If I could
send you a couple of the replies from carcraft you
may be able to point me in the right direction. Any help would be appreciated.
Thank you
19 Mar 06
From Stuart
Hi Andrew
keep up the good work this firm wants shutting down,
And only we members of the public can achieve this. My
story.
how i
was ripped off was, I bought a car for £8200.
The sales man showed me the car and said it was up for £8200,
i liked it and said if he would give me £600 for mine
i would have it. All is well till we got back to his
desk and put it up on the computer.
He said the propper price was £9400, I said i was not willing to buy it at that price,he went to talk to is manager, came back and said i could have it for the screen price £8200, By this time
the place was closing so i took the car home with no
tax disc, all legel according to carcraft
bull****.
My fault i had forgot all about my part exchange of
£600, when i got home i
looked at the paper work, he had only gave me £10 for my car but, i had no documents to this affect.
25 Feb 06
From Peter
Hello Andrew.
Before I go any further well done with your
site.
I purchased a Ford Mondeo
2.0 Turbo Diesel at the end of November and was told that the NAC warranty was
free for 2 years.
Was also told by the Salesman that no
remedial work would be out-sourced if I had any problems with the car. The Lying Bastard.
After going over my bank statement I noticed a
direct debit for a company called "Open and Direct"
which had taken £105. I looked into this and found out it was the NAC warranty
cover which I then noticed runs for 4 years which when added up puts another
£5,000 on top of what the car will end up costing me.
I paid £7,300 for the car with British Credit Trust
( £12,600 ) which is what I would have been paying
back to them plus the other £5,000 for the NAC warranty.
A couple of weeks ago the car developed an oil leak
from the engine, Fumes coming into car, clicking and crunching travelling up
into the steering column when the clutch is released.
Guess what ? They didn't
want to know when I called them.
It was not their problem they told me.
This went on for 2 weeks.
I called my bank and cancelled every direct debit
and informed Carcraft and British Credit Trust of my
actions.
They soon whipped into top gear and called me
apologising for a "breakdown in communications"
Well they are coming out to my home on Monday
morning to take my car into their workshop to carry out the repairs.
What they don't know is that they can keep the
thing and they can also take me to court as I no longer want the car as I have
not had the use of it for the past 2 weeks.
It was sold to me with 11 months MOT and not 12 as
they advertised, I was mis-sold
the NAC warranty as I was told that it was free for 2 years.
They were told by myself that the car was being
purchased for use by myself as a Private Hire Taxi !!!
And that the NAC had an unlimited mileage warranty.
I was also mis-sold the
vehicle under the promise that no remedial work if I had problems would be
out-sourced to any third partiy, and that all work
would be carried out in-house.
Andrew, Keep up the good work on your site.
It's great having some who can champion our cause.
ps
I've made only 2 payments off the car and under no
circumstances will I be paying any more.
I look forward to any legal action that they take
against me, I will relish it and am ready for battle.
23 Jan 06
From Anonymous Ex Carcraft Employee
Hi
Just reading through your website.
I used to work for Carcraft
in the Finance and Insurance team and will quite willingly discuss what we used
to do there and how I was taught to exploit money from customers but I dont want my name to be publicly displayed.
Feel free to contact me to discuss further.
worked in the Merseyside Site.
My concience got the better of me I guess, the fact
i worked 57 hours a week and was basically working to
rip people off wasnt what i
wanted to do with my life, Not only do they treat there customers like s*it
there staff get treated the same as well.
So why have you stopped updating the site, I know a colleague got sacked in
And the fact that there was such a site was seen as a big joke.
I can tell you the ins and outs of the finance and
how the finance agreements work, to they way the purchase the cars.
Carcraft are not doing anything Illegal, they have
a very strong legal team who make sure of this because they are very much in
the eye of trading standards.
The only time that Carcraft are going to see any
problems now is if the FSA or the Financial Services Authority are on to them. Of course wrong things are done, such as
hiding the APR with our fingers when we go trhough
finance agreements. Telling them that the warranty costs less that it actually
does, that was one I used to do quite alot.
Subprime customers are the most vulnerable in carcraft, this is where the FSA will come down on them with
a tonne of bricks if they were ever to be caught, when a customer goes subprime we will take about £1,200 out of the car and make
it look like were givin them a good deal but we then
go ahead to tell them that beacuase they have got bad
finace the apr has gone up
and we have given them the discount to compensate. we then go on to tell them
that because they have got such bad credit the finance company has said they
need to have an nac policy on there car so that if
they need to recover the car from them for non payment it will be in full and
working order and the cost of any repairs over the 4 years (subprime
deals are normally termed to 4 years) will not impact on there repayments. We
then would go on to tell them that beacuse of there
poor credit again the finance company have taken on board an insurance company
to secure there payments against loss of life accident and sickness and
critical illness.
There payments would go up by about £30 - 70 a week on average i reckon. for someone who has bad
credit and not a lot of money that is a lot.
This is breach of FSA, the sales pitch for the NAC warranty is breach of
trading standards and normally the customer will have no way to prove this as
in the closing rooms there are no cameras or microphones so its the customers
word against carcraft and it always boils down to
them signing the paperwork. Another trick talk to your customer about rubbish
as they sign the documents so they forget what there signing for and dont read everything throughly.
If you want to call me at anytime to discuss further then please feel free.
If any of the people who visit your website are in desperate need of help i will try and help them but id do it through yourself incase my name ever went back to carcraft
as i am sure there is something in my contract which
permits me from discussing all of this.
8 Dec 05
From Phil
Andrew
Was wondering whether you
have had any experience with other users
that have taken out a "Vehicle
Replacement Warranty" with Carcraft?
I did 4 years ago and have
since been in touch with London General Holdings
who administor
the policy and was told that they had no record of me.
My payments go direct to Carcraft. It would seem that I have been paying for
a policy that I don't actually have.
29 Nov 05
From Andy
just a quick line about those
scum bags.
We bought our car from the Sheffield Carcraft
about 3 years ago a Peugot 206 2 years old at the
time. We had an excellt buying experience However:
We were told that if we decided to take their payment option they could negociate the price, fantastic we thought any penalties for
paying off after a month ? No was the reply.
They had however stuck on the Gold Package insurence
on the docs after Id left knowing full well it wasnt
needed, this cost me an extra 3k when i called to pay
off the loan. Of course Id signed the Docs therefore couldnt
prove that they had put it on without my knowledge.
2nd there was a small scratch on the car for which I was to be provided
a touch up stick. This has still 3 years on not arrived.
3rd 11 months MOT: Head sales man told me that I could claim my MOT back
within the final month, I called the company the 12month guarentee
is with when approaching MOT time they informed this was not the case.
Oh yes and I was also asked to sign a blank form before taking the keys
which obviously I didn't I was informed it was an insurance policy which would
give me back the purchase value of the car if written off.
In short a set of total fcuking ba5tard5, i thought Dixons were bad but these guys are in a different
League.
19 Nov 05
From Jarvis
Hello mate!
I have just found your website,
i too have had a Carcraft
experience. If i had known then what i know now, i would not even have
set foot in that place (Carcraft Leeds.) The most annoying part? I have lost my old car, i can't get it back, they have sold it already, i knew i should have kept it,
still, that will teach me!
Meanwhile, i'm going to
try and help Trading Standards put another nail in the Carcraft
coffin.
I
drive a 17 tonne HGV for a living, this time last week i
was two inches away from driving it through their showroom and converting every
single car in there into a pancake!! Although, i would still like to do it....
Take care, and good luck!
I will keep adding new stuff as it comes in. Older stuff can be found Here