November 2009
Back end of February this year, my wife and I had a VW Golf on hire, paid for by a third party insurance company, because they admitted fault when their customer hit our car. We had this car about 8 days.
Skip forward to today, and in the post was a parking charge for the grand total of £738. This was sent to us by the hire car company and the date on the notice was 28th October 2009/
The alledged parking violation was supposed to have taken place in Burton upon Trent on the 28th February so obviously the hire car company have sent it to us along with a letter warning us that they intend to charge my credit card with an admin fee of £35. So total charge at this point is £738 to the parking enforcement company and £35 to the hire company.
If we do not pay this immediately the parking enforcement company add £3 per day by way of "Liquidated Damages".
Of course on opening this letter my wife was in a panic and phoned me up straight away.Yes we had the car on hire with the correct registration on that date.
BUT, we have never been to Burton upon Trent and just out of interest I got out the sheet we got when we returned the car to check the mileage we had done during our hire period which was 148 miles.
Now from Google Earth, the distance from our house to the exact spot where we were supposed to be parked is 80.1 miles, so a return trip would be at least 160 miles.So if we had done this trip and adding on all the local running about, our mileage would have been greater than the 148 that is documented.
So this must be a scam, but how does it work ?
I have rung up the hire car company, and told them in no uncertain terms, not to charge my card for a £35 admin fee and to pass my details on to the Parking enforcement company for me to deal with direct, to which they agreed.
I will wait to see what turns up from the scammers.
Removed make and model and added a categoty of Legal and Motoring Advice since this is not VW Golf specific. Rob (Moderator)
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I have V reg. VW poll, done 75K miles. recently it gives a rattling noise when i press clutch to change gears especially with first and second gears, bit rough to do that. It disappears when I release the clutch or clutch is fully engaged. Nationwide says to change clutch which will be 380 pounds, already spend around 2000 pounds since i bought it 3 years ago,
Need some cheaper way of solving this issue please. Is there anything else wrong from what i said please.
Raj
{Moves to Technical Matters} Read more
I was quoted £150 for a new clutch on my Fiesta when it burnt out. He was swearing a bit thats a big job but said it was very easy. This was a Fiesta with a hydraulic clutch and not a cable one. £380 seems a bit too much for me, surely a local indie garage will do the job a lot cheaper? I know the gearbox has to come out but this is a Polo not a truck.
Also on a car this age if you just get 30,000 miles out of the new clutch if you don't do that many miles the car will be long in the scrap yard by then anyway.
I have a 99 car and there is no way I would pay £380 for a new clutch.
I know I can vacuum my keyboard to get all the cigarette ash and so on out, but is there a way of getting the thick deposits of DNA off the edges of the lesser-used keys, and indeed the fringes of my mouse, without risking any short circuit malarkey? It's a perfectly good keyboard and I don't want to have to run another one in.
I am afraid that if this goes on my computer will become a source of new and deadly viruses. Not the electronic sort, real ones.
{moves to computer related questions} Read more
email account and there is certainly a web based interface which automatically directs junk to the appropriate folder and then deletes it after a week. >>
L'escargot: As Spmcan says, check your email account by visiting your email web server at www.orange.co.uk
I think you can set spam filter settings there too.
I'm sure I have read somewhere that an 'L' driver cannot take the DSA driving test in a car fitted with an 'automatic release' electric parking brake (eg some Renaults, Citroens, etc) because of the way in which these brakes simplify a hill start. You just press the pedal and go.
I can find no reference to this on the DSA website, however. Can anyone confirm this please -- if it is so, I would apreciate chapter and verse. Read more
Are cars fitted with hill hold also unable to be used?
They would not be acceptable either.
It is probable that a test in a vehicle with an automatic handbrake would actually be conducted by an examiner, but even though a manual test had been booked only an automatic licence would be issued.
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Or just use the Sky box for the free Sky service?
can some body help me i have a corsa gsi 95 model, it has a immobiliser and the way it works i have to put the key in turn the ignition to the 2nd stage where all the light come on the dash and then press a botton on a remote fob which will make the engine warning light come on and in which case makes it ok to start it.
i tried to start it today and when im pressing the botton but the engine light has not come on, ive tried changing the battery in the fob and ive disconnected the battery for a hour and still no joy the immobiliser looks to be a factory fitted one no pirate cutting or odd wires.
can anybody help me please. lee Read more
i dont think so mate it was earthed under the carpets at the passanger side and the screw was not tight enough so i tightend it and it was spot on
Yesterday I tried to lower the electric window on the driver's side. When this didn't work I tried the window on the passenger's side and this lowered by about 3 inches before stopping. I've checked the fuse but this appears to be fine. I assume that the issue isn't with the motors since both windows stopped working at the same time. Could it be the switch. Any idea how I might be able to test this? At the moment all I really want to do is close the passenger side window as someone could easily get into the car. I can live without the windows working for the foreseeable future.
Many thanks,
Al Read more
as is usual with fine pewgots try shutting the window with the drivers door ajar (broken wires in door to A post see)
Our car had a new key with integrated (2 button) fob provided and coded by a Citroen dealer approx 18 months ago as the original was lost.
The fob has recently stopped working and I fear I may have dropped a clanger by taking the battery out of the fob overnight to take with me as a sample for a replacement - hence possibly having lost the coding as the fob will not work with the new battery in?.
I was in the motor trade a few years ago and seem to remember various combinations of pressing fob buttons and switching the ignition on/off used to be how you enabled the fob but am not having any success.
When the new key was made I remember some hideous charge for coding - anyone any ideas on how to do it yourself????. Read more
Thank you for the advice but looks like trip to the dealer is inevitable - I can't get any kind of response from the remote (even with a different new battery). Our local Citroen dealer quotes £51.00 for a re-code of the fob but obviously no guarantee that will solve the problem.
I was looking at or reading a story where a builder got revenge on a non-payer.
It brought to mind a nice little episode of mine many years ago.
As well as doing club breakdown work and moving classics I also ran a 24/7 advert in the Yellow pages.
I got a call one day from a guy who couldn't start, I quoted him the standard fee, about £25 then and went out to him. I thought it a bit suspicious when I saw him with his car, rather than waiting in his house. It was a simple jump start on a 4 pot rear drive thing, Escort, Marina...I can't remember.
Warming and charging it, I gave him my invoice..no extras. ' I've no money ' he said
' I'll take a cheque with a card ' 'Chequebooks in the house ' ' Go and get it, I'll look after the car '...'.I don't live round here ( scroty area ) , I'll post one ' I'd had enough, I knew I wasn't going to get paid...I didn't even know his real name.
I didn't say anything more about payment. ' Pull the bonnet catch and switch off ' said I. ' It doesn't sound right ' ' Sit in the car and keep the clutch depressed for me '.........give him something to do ! Next step, I pulled off the five HT leads and knotted them all together in a big ball which I tucked under the headlight, scribbled 'No money, don't fix ' on a scrap of paper, he couldn't see me from in the car, put the bonnet down and said 'It should be alright now '
Drove away, did a U turn and passed him desparately turning the engine over.
Had my £25 in revenge ...a dish best eaten hot in this case.
Ted Read more
who said anything about using a mobile phone whilst driving?
BobbyG did - "I phoned 999....."
You're lucky you didn't get 3 points for using a mobile while driving!
You are allowed to use a mobile without a hands free kit to make calls to the emergency services.
Hi guys,
Long story so here goes....
Bought a 306 HDi that had petrol put into it. The car was drained of the fuel and diesel refilled. Car ran but was a bit lumpy. THe car was traded in at a local garage and a lad bought it, 'drove' it home, parked it up.
A friend bought it and decided to change the fuel filter and empty the fuel lines as he said he could smell petrol still. Since then, the car no longer starts! he had it recovered and the garage told him the HP pump was faulty.
I bought the car off him and replaced the HP pump and injectors off another working 306 HDi.
The car STILL doesn't attempt to start. I (in a safe environment!) tried to check if the injectors were firing, and it wasn't.
I did a DTC scan today and got:
P0230 Fuel Pump Primary Circuit Malfunction (yet other pugs with this code still run?)
P0380 Glow Plug/Heater CKT A Malfunction (Pending) Whatever 'Pending' means with DTC's?!?!
I'm totally stuck and was hoping this would be a good car to resolve and use...proving me wrong!
Lift pump works fine, it runs for approx 10secs with ignition on and then when i try and start the car, the lift pump runs again. Fuel is getting to the injectors but the injectors don't seem to be opening up to let fuel into the chamber.
Dan Read more
if its a fuel related problem get yourself a aerosel can of brake cleaner spray some
into inlet manifold whilst someone is cranking engine over if its a fuel related problem
yourcar will start and run for a short time post results back hope this helps
Best Reguards Mickeybo
Browse
Received another "Statement" today, the total cost is now £810 and it will continue to rise at the rate of £3 per day if I don't pay it.
I wonder how high they will run it up before they threaten me with court action.