Anonymous

Took legal action

We purchased a Citroen C4 Picasso from Car World in May 2024. The car was due a service and oil change which we paid car world to carry out on the day of purchase. The problems started on my home from the garage. The tyre pressure light came on and the tyre was flat by the evening. This later turned out to be a blocked valve. A week later the key fob stopped working and the service light came on. Thinking this was a simple fix I changed the battery. The key intermittently worked. I was unable to try a spare key as the car only came with one. Over the course of the next few weeks the problems became worse to the point where the car wouldn’t turn on. We had a diagnostic test done by RAC breakdown who confirmed several faults with the car. We realised we were within our 30 days to reject the car under the consumer rights act. We emailed car world to reject the car. We were contacted by Steph who said we needed to prove the car was faulty, even though we already had our diagnostic report from RAC. We paid for another diagnostic test by RAC breakdown and this produced similar findings. Steph suggested that we have the car looked at by a local locksmith. We agreed to this but still said we still wished to reject the car. The locksmith suggested it was a problem with the fuse box, but he wasn’t sure. We didn’t have a great deal of confidence in his ability to carry out the repair and it felt like we were being fobbed off with a bodged repair. So we confirmed to Steph, again that we wanted to reject the vehicle. The following day we received an email from Steph to say that as a repair had already started they were unable to refund us our money. We were fuming as no repair had started. We spent a further week having our emails and phone calls ignored or being subjected to bullying and intimidation by car world. Eventually Steph agreed for me to return the car, but at my expense. We paid for the car to be towed to car world (as it wouldn’t start). They had it on their garage for a further two weeks, again I had to call and email daily to get updates on the so called assessment process. It got to the point where I said I would be visiting the showroom in person and we sent a letter before court action. This seamed to get things moving, the following day they gave us a partial refund. They said they had to replace the starting switch- good thing we hadn’t gone ahead with the fuse box repair! However we were out of pocket for a number of costs associated with returning the car- the oil/filter service, towing, RAC diagnostic test and incurred taxi fare. They also charged us for a £84 valet and deducted a few hundred pounds for 30 days of mileage! We asked for a refund of these costs to which we had no reply. Therefore we commenced small claims court action. They were given two weeks to respond, they then asked for an extension of time! It went to mediation where they offered us less than half our money back. We did not accept the offer so proceeded to go to court. Shortly after the mediation I got a call from Step with an offer not far off our number. So we settled out of court. The whole process has been incredibly inconvenient for my family. We were without a car for over a month. Car world acted in a dishonest and malicious manner. If you’re reading this and going through a similar battle- keep fighting!