Helens Story

Helens Story.

The car purchased on 17th October 2014 was a Renault Scenic. I left a  £200 cash deposit left and the further £1290 cash was paid on 18th October 2014 totalling £1490.00.

18th October 14 the car was delivered, paperwork exchanged and promise of a 3 month warranty. The car was to be returned to the garage for problems that they were aware of before the sale, to be fixed as agreed before I handed over any money. Problems including heater, rear window motor, and dashboard trim replacing.  The other problems they completed before delivery of the car.

20th October 14 was the first use of the car, I got stuck on a large busy roundabout and could not get the car into any gear or take off the electric handbrake. I Phoned Rachel to report this and after she spoke to her mechanic, she told me to put my foot underneath the pedal and lift it up. This was a temporary fix and is still occurring intermittently.

22nd October 14 the Car was taken for repairs including the 3 left outstanding, squealing brakes and the problem with the clutch pedal.  Rachel was supposed to deliver the car handbook/manual and explain the warranty agreement. She had the car for 2 days but only fixed the heater.

Last week of October/first week November the car was taken for 3 days and the rear window motor was fixed.  The car came back filthy with mud and grease inside and out and had to be returned on the 6th of November to be valeted before a funeral on the 7th, this occurred in the dark so wasn't the best job because Rachel kept putting me off through the week.

18th Nov 14 Rachel picked up the car from my house to fix the turbo. She claimed that she rang a recovery service that came to collect the car because once getting round the corner she decided the excessive smoke meant there was damage and it was too risky to drive the car further.

18th Dec 14 the car was returned after the turbo replaced, by this time Rachel had had the car for over four weeks in fact 30 days. According to the Renault garage this should have taken two to three days at most.

19th Dec 14 A mechanic friend of mine came over because the car wouldn't go into any gear at all and the electric handbrake wouldn't release again, the car was still pouring smoke from the exhaust and the brake pedal was making a whooshing noise. I contacted Trading Standards and opened a reference case and gained advice. I was far too distraught to speak to Rachel myself so my friend rang her and told her I was so upset I couldn't deal with her anymore and that I wanted to return the car and get a refund. That was refused.

After a few days I relented on wanting my money back and I contacted Rachel offering her the chance to correct all the problems once and for all and asked her to collect the car and fix the problems as I needed the car for Christmas.

23rd Dec 14 the car was collected, strangely after her pumping the pedal the car went into gear and she drove it away. It was returned that evening with her saying that the clutch pedal had not stuck down while she was driving it and she couldn't repair the clutch until it actually broke. She stated that since I have had the car she has had it back for repair more days than I had it myself so she would put a fresh three months warranty on the vehicle. She told me she would come on 29th Dec 2014 to bring me the new warranty and the receipts for the turbo repair as this would also have warranty.

12 Jan 15 I rang Rachel as I hadn't been in contact with her since 23/12/14 as promised, told her I wanted the receipts for the work carried out and the warranty and I told her that the car had started making a loud rattling noise, a scraping noise and someone had told me that the exhaust was swinging side to side. I also told her that I was very concerned because since the car was returned before Christmas I had been constantly checking the oil and it had twice been topped up by myself.  Rachel said she would book it into the garage for the Thursday that week but would collect the car on the Wednesday.

14 Jan 15 I got a text from Rachel saying she was sick and she would call to arrange about the car the next day.

15 Jan 15 Still no contact from Rachel.  As advised by the Citizen Advice Bureau, I took the car to the main Renault Dealer in Peterborough who did a road safety check and health check on the car, where they found several things loose, unattached or missing, and other problems, some resulting from when the car had the turbo fixed. I have a copy of their report which cost me £65.

20 Jan 15 to date still no contact and still not collected the car for repairs.

The cars I was left to use were advertised on her website for sale and not courtesy cars, a Fiesta 1.4 registration number MA04FWU and a Mondeo 1.6 registration number ND55YAA.