If only he'd bought a Volkswagen

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Wed 12 Sep 2001 14:03
If only he'd bought a Volkswagen - vin
A cautionary tale:

Mate of mine took a Polo on some kind of lease, at the end of which he could either buy the car or they would take it back.

Come the time (a couple of weeks ago), his wife faxed and asked them to take the car. She then phoned to make sure they had had the fax and waited for the nice man to turn up and take it away. And waited....

Yesterday morning, the bank rang and asked why they had run up a five thousand five hundred quid overdraft. Oh, yet, there WAS a debit to the lease company.

A day on the phone saw them go from "never received the fax" to "oh, yes, you're right" to "It'll take some time to sort out". Note the absence of "Sorry" in any of the above replies.

Remember this story when you sign a leasing deal that allows your company to take payments without further approval from you.

Vin
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Wed 12 Sep 2001 14:08
Re: If only he'd bought a Volkswagen - Alyn Beattie
See previos posting re the Direct Debit Guarantee. Your friends bank is duty bound to replace the money immediately.
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Wed 12 Sep 2001 14:37
Volvo too! - Paul Robinson
A client of mine had the same problem last summer. Came to the end of his finance agreement, returned his Volvo V40 to the dealership and took delivery of a new V70 on a new agreement. Shortly afterwards he had an embarrassing incident at his local petrol station, having filled up he handed over his switch card to discover it had been cancelled. A quick call to the bank revealed that the finance company had taken £8,000 out of his account.

The dealership did sort it out within a few days and pay expenses, but it was a nasty experience for the customer.
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Thu 13 Sep 2001 07:47
Re: Volvo too! - Andrew Hamilton
I think he should get compensation for damage to his credit worthiness. If people said who the finance company was it would help others looking for finance to avoid them.
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Thu 13 Sep 2001 09:00
Re: Volvo too! - Paul Robinson
I believe the finance company was Volvo itself. I think the moral of the story is that if you have that sort of finance agreement and are arranging to return the car, you should instruct your bank in writing that they are not to allow the final payment to be taken from your account. If the payment is still taken you can get the bank to replace the money immediately and it is their problem to recover the money from the finance company
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Thu 13 Sep 2001 12:42
Re: If only he'd bought a Volkswagen - John Regin
Must depend who you use. I had a car on lease from a company called Pendragon Contracts. Selected simply because they were cheapest. The finance was through Lloyds UDT.

They contacted me 3 months before return and despite knowing they were getting the car back and not getting a new contract they remained helpfull and attentive. The guy at Pendragon advised me to cancel the direct debit to ensure that the "balloon" was not taken, although UDT did not try to, and the car was collected without quibble at the agreed time.

Incidentally the bank said that I could not cancel the DD, it has to be done by the drawer. However when I said I would close the account (thereby automatically cancelling the DD) they suddenly found a way to stop it!

Jack
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