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The information provided here is my own assumptions and is given for advice purposes only. This is not official advice. I do not represent any legal bodies. I cannot be held responsible for any information given here or in any external links.
The site is to exercise freedom of speech and displays a truthfull report of events that
have happened. If any parties feel offended by what is stated, then I invite them to contact me to resolve it.
When I found myself in a difficult position with my car. I had a bill for over £1000 hanging over me and no car. There was absolutely no way I was going to be able to raise that money and I wasn't prepared to take out yet more loans and debt to pay it off. It seriously was a case of "Claim my rights, or loose my car".
The first thing to do, is familiarise yourself on consumer laws. Many consumers do not realise what they are entitled to. Some of the other stories I`ve heard have claimed that Carcraft have said one thing, but the law says another.
My local trading standards office sent me some advice leaflets which explained the best grievance procedure to go through which will help stand up in court.
If you have a problem, the first thing to do is contact Carcraft via their customer services telephone. Explain your problem, and hopefully they`ll understand and deal with it. If the resolution (or lack of) is not satisfying, and you strongly believe you have rights for complaints, then ask for the duty managers name and send him or her a letter in writing. To really show your strength, send it recorded and keep a receipt.
You have to be patient, give them a week to respond. Most companies should respond in writing if you have sent them a written letter in writing. Nothing said on a phone can stand up in a court later if you need to go that far.
Visit Consumer Directs website, to give you an idea of what your rights are, stand up for them and act on them:
Read through carefully, I found them invaluable for understanding where I stood in the eyes of the law. I realised that I was then in a position to take Carcraft all the way. Peoples experience have been that Carcraft will take a different stance when you know what youre talking about!
Details are here Consumer Direct - Cars
There is a bit of a question over this one? Youre car is off the road, and youre still paying all your payments and interest rates on it? Remember, if you bought your car and took out finance, then the car legally belongs to the finance company making them also responsible for the car if anything goes wrong with it. If you find you are getting no where with your finance company, then if you stop your direct debits, then they`ll soon be on the phone. However, you may find that its the Arrears department who are on the phone and not particularly someone who would be willing to actually help you sort out your car. All they are interested in, is getting your money. You also need to be careful because your finance company could throw a spanner in your credit record about late payments etc. What I did, was actually sent a letter to my finance company informing them that I was about to stop payments, another one telling them I had stopped payments and that they werent getting another penny until they sorted it out. It might throw them up a gear and they could pester Carcraft or NAC to get it sorted. If you do stop payments, dont stop it for long, a month at the most, then pay them back. But be careful this is a grey area. Just remember that the finance company are also liable, so if you are going to sue anyone, then you can sue your finance company. And tell them that. Dont just battle with Carcraft and NAC, Battle with the finance company too.
If you wish to report Carcraft to Trading Standards. You must report them to Consumer Direct. They CD now handle all 'first line' enquiries for Trading Standards and they can be contacted on 08454 04 05 06.
By calling the Carcraft call centre, you are speaking to people at the bottom of the pile as far as the hierarchy of Carcraft are concerned. These people are undoubtedly on low salaries and have no say as to the main functions of the business. They are given guidelines by their managers, who are given them by their managers. Even asking to speak to the manager, you arent going to be speaking to someone high up, maybe a team manager, or a shift leader. You may find that they are not going to be any further help. Well I certinately did. It was not difficult for me to obtain some contact details of people right at the top. And we are talking Cheif Executive level here. Due to legal reasons, I am not able to publish personal contacts details on the site. However I can re-assure you that it is not difficult to obtain names of and contact details of executives and senior managers at the company. I suceeded by contacting the highest up member, who then passed the email down to an Operations Manager who undoubtedly had more clout over what can be done than any shift/team leader.
If after you have followed all the advice from Trading Standards and you are still no where with getting your issue resolved. Then you may have the right to sue Carcraft, NAC and your Finance Company for the money you require to resolve the issues. Whilst constructing your claim, remember to add on Personal Grievance, All Personal Expeneses, including cost of phone calls, letters, bus fares, train fares, taxi fares etc. Put those on top of the cost of the repairs needed or the money you have lost. I found it practical to issue Carcraft with a copy of what I was about to claim, with a deadline, and then again 24 hours before I was going to submit this claim to the county court. http://www.courtservice.gov.uk Will give you all the information you need to issue a Small Claims against Carcraft/NAC/Your Finance Company. Please note, there is a charge incurred for filing a small claims, and if you loose you could find yourself with another bill plus of course, you will then have no option but to bear the brunt of the cost of repairs to your car. So you need to be pretty certain that you have cause to make a claim. You can also fill in your claim online. If you wish, you can go down to your local county court and obtain further information there. If you wish, you may want to speak to a solicitor. Some do some freebie phone interviews or 30 minute sessions and could help you understand where you stand legally. The site http://www.lawyerlocator.co.uk Should hopefully help you find someone.
There is no point denying it. At the time of writing, this site has had over 33,000 hits to it since it was launched in January 2004. I have received countless emails and guestbook entries of people asking for my help and basically saying "Thank you for your site, you may have saved me a lot of hassle. I am not going to Carcraft now" The site was never intended to put people off going to Carcraft. I did not create this site to try and hurt Carcraft, I simply wanted people to know what I had to go through to achieve my consumer rights. If by doing that has caused any discolouration to Carcraft, NAC or any other company, then it is their fault. A company prides itself on its reputation. Carcraft have a very high expenditure on advertising which in my opinion does a good job of hiding its real reputation. I urge anyone to write to consumer websites such as http://www.ciao.co.uk and to BBCs Watchdog Write to your local papers, Car magazines etc. Put it up on the internet like me. Just remember, you can only publish a true account of what has happened, you cannot say anything that will defame any person or company. You cannot copy or distort any company logos, brands or names. You cannot publish personal details of members of staff working at the company otherwise you will find their lawyers on top of you. I have heard of many people who have attempted to publish websites etc and they have found Carcrafts Lawyers on them. So far I have heard nothing from this site and it has remained up because it is a true account what has happened, and we all have a freedom of speech.
I wish you the best of luck in getting your issue resolved. Remember, paticence and determination is the key. Be Smart. Know your rights.
Need more help? I will see what I can do but cannot promise anything. |
