Skyhook
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Ford: not that desperate for cash apparentlyI’ll put this here as there isn’t a ‘Your old car’ forum.
As I think I may have possibly mentioned once or twice, when the three year Options thingy ended on the Sportka SE back in January I decided to hand the car back to Mr Ford and buy a Panda 100HP.
I rang up the Options credit people to check and they told me simply to take the Ka to any Ford dealer and give them a call back to let them know which branch I’d left it with. All nice and simple, I told them which Ford dealer in Nottingham I’d be taking it to, and as the Fiat Salesgirl used to work for them she even rang through to the manager to let him know I’d be popping in.
Come Panda day, back in January, I dropped the Ka off, signed the paperwork then walked down the road to a brighter, more reliable Fiat future. I also rang the Options people that night to confirm where I’d left the Ka.
I must admit, I’d gone…er…several thousand miles over the allowed 18k miles per year (that’s with it spending four months sat in a bodyshop after two rear-enders too) so was expecting the 6p per mile bill to come through fairly soon. Apparently they let you off for small amounts but I was probably too far over according to the dealer.
However, I heard nothing for months. Perhaps I’d be let off after all. Then a letter came through from Ford… saying I still had the Ka and owed them a final Options purchase payment.
Muppets. I ignored it (and their calls) until another letter arrived. This time I gave them a ring and explained when and where I ditched the car.
All toasty for a month or so… then another letter, pay the final payment or give them the car back or they’d take me to court.
Another phonecall then, and another bewildered credit guy. There was no record on the system of my Ka being handed back, so I had to go through the whole explanation again.
Another few weeks…another pay/court letter. Back on the phone, and this time I got to speak to a particularly bright monkey who put his opposable thumbs to good use mashing his digits on his keyboard. “We’ve contacted your local dealer, and there is no record of your car there”.
“I’m not surprised, why would it be there? I didn’t buy it from there, I’ve never had it serviced there, I didn’t take it back there. I did however leave it at a dealer 30 odd miles away from there, near my office, as I told you before I dropped it off, after I dropped it off and in several phone conversations since”.
“Ah. I’ll look into it and call you back”.
He didn’t call back.
I called them again.
“Yes, we have the car” said a different operator, slightly exasperated and aggressive “you didn’t need to call us”.
Count to thr…
“I cocking well did need to call you, as you didn’t ring me back as promised, as I’ve informed you several times since January where the car is, and as you have still sent out letters threatening me with court action, even though you have had the car for half a year.”
Anyway… it all seems to be sorted now, and the nice lady at the Credit people is letting me pay off the excess mileage in instalments. Interest free too, which is nice.
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Gurney
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Brilliant 
Have Ford been nationalised? that's the sort of customer service we normally aspire to 
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Dr. Hfuhruhurr
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Never mind installments, they should waive the whole payment. Which they might do if you got a solicitor to send them a stiffly worded letter about their harrassment.
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DradusContact
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The ford options scheme, and other manufaturers equivelants, are the biggest scams going, dont undertsand why anyone would use them.
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Nice Guy Eddie
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PCP deals make perfect sense if you have no deposit and want cheap motoring for three years. You could probably get into a brand new Fiat Panda after scrappage for less then £100 a month. Sounds like a bargain to me.
I wouldn't do it myself as I don't like credit or the thoughts of only payng off the interest and depreciation but if I wanted a new car every few years and none of the hasle of desposing of the car at the end of the term they're great.
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DradusContact
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But you dont ever own the car, at least with tradition HP your working towards something. Unless your able to stump up the option final payment, which is typically £3000+, you dont own the car. And if you have that sort of cash available, you could of probably afforded to buy it outright.
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Boxer6
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| DradusContact wrote: | | But you dont ever own the car, at least with tradition HP your working towards something. Unless your able to stump up the option final payment, which is typically £3000+, you dont own the car. And if you have that sort of cash available, you could of probably afforded to buy it outright. |
You don't own the car with "traditional" H.P. either - or not at least until the final payment's been made. So what's the difference? And how many people make the final H.P. payment, then trade in for another car? A fair few, I'll bet, and every one of them has paid for their own depreciation (In a much more direct way - not saying PCP's don't account for it)..... doesn't make sense, really.
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Skyhook
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| Dr. Hfuhruhurr wrote: | | Never mind installments, they should waive the whole payment. Which they might do if you got a solicitor to send them a stiffly worded letter about their harrassment. |
I can't really call the letters threatening to be honest, and I did go over the allowed mileage.
It was funny really, perhaps I should’ve let it go to court, what with having a signed bit of paper from Mr Ford dated in January.
| DradusContact wrote: | | But you dont ever own the car, at least with tradition HP your working towards something. Unless your able to stump up the option final payment, which is typically £3000+, you dont own the car. And if you have that sort of cash available, you could of probably afforded to buy it outright. |
I was pretty certain I wouldn’t want to own the car after three years.
With the amount of mileage, and the number of warranty claims, when three years were up I didn’t want to own the car.
Options was cheaper than a loan or HP.
With the Panda scheme I can hand the car back at any time (with an extra months payment if it’s before full term), and with getting 25% off list price it makes sense to me.
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Dr. Hfuhruhurr
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| Skyhook wrote: | | I can't really call the letters threatening to be honest, and I did go over the allowed mileage. |
But if I read correctly, it wasn't that they were chasing, but the final payment that would have been due if you hadn't given the car back. And in any case, I think large companies who threaten individuals with legal action because their own paperwork isn't up to scratch deserve a good kicking. And a solicitor's letter is legal, whereas firebombing Ford's offices isn't.
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Skyhook
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Ah, yes, sorry Dr H, they were chasing the final £3,200 payment - but as I was for once squeaky clean I found it funny rather than harrassing.
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gonnabuildabuggy
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| Dr. Hfuhruhurr wrote: | | Skyhook wrote: | | I can't really call the letters threatening to be honest, and I did go over the allowed mileage. |
But if I read correctly, it wasn't that they were chasing, but the final payment that would have been due if you hadn't given the car back. And in any case, I think large companies who threaten individuals with legal action because their own paperwork isn't up to scratch deserve a good kicking. And a solicitor's letter is legal, whereas firebombing Ford's offices isn't. |
This winds me up too - both M&S and someone else sent me extremely threatening letters when they failed to direct debits from my account.
Cue angry phone call suggesting that if old Mrs. Miggins received similar she'd be very upset.
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DaveGibson
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| Boxer6 wrote: | | ....... You don't own the car with "traditional" H.P. either - or not at least until the final payment's been made. ......... |
I don't know whether it varies from deal to deal but when I bought the Rover 75 on 0%, it said the car couldn't be repossessed if I'd paid more than half the balance.
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ALF
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| Dr. Hfuhruhurr wrote: | | large companies who threaten individuals with legal action because their own paperwork isn't up to scratch deserve a good kicking. And a solicitor's letter is legal, whereas firebombing Ford's offices isn't. |
I agree - I would not find it that funny, as you can easily end up with a CCJ against your name for this sort of thing. When you know you are in the right, it's easy to ignore the letters then land in the shite. I nearly did with Demon Internet, I switched my service to broadband (using a specific switch package, which was supposed to convert the product into broadband and cancel the old dial-up) and they kept charging me for dial-up and sending threatening letters for months despite regular phone calls.
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scamper
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Sounds like a carry-on I had with British Gas recently.
Along the lines of "I want to pay my final bill (four months after moving out) but you seem incapable of sending me a bill despite regular calls, and now sending it to the wrong address and also charging me for late payment". At one stage i received 10 calls in one day from their snotty collections department threatening this and that, although customer service said these could not be stopped - " sorry about the collections department but they have to be offensive as they have to deal with some unpleasant customers and anyway, we have finally sent you a bill, but to a wrong address, but you should still pay". Its only when i made an official complaint the calls stopped. Funny that. I will not be using that shower of shit again.
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ALF
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It is a strong conviction of mine that in no walk of life do you actually need to be offensive. When people are being shitty with you, being very reasonable and friendly usually gets you much further. In terms of the workplace and company policy, it is never acceptable to be shitty with suppliers or customers. Apart from anything else, you are being paid to sit there and do that job, you are not doing it for fun, the least you can do is be nice to people!
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Bob Sacramento
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| DaveGibson wrote: | | Boxer6 wrote: | | ....... You don't own the car with "traditional" H.P. either - or not at least until the final payment's been made. ......... |
I don't know whether it varies from deal to deal but when I bought the Rover 75 on 0%, it said the car couldn't be repossessed if I'd paid more than half the balance. |
You're right, on HP, if you have paid more than 50% of the balance they can't just repossess it and you can hand back the car and terminate the agreement with nothing further to pay.
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scamper
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| ALF wrote: | | It is a strong conviction of mine that in no walk of life do you actually need to be offensive. |
Quite right. On answering the collections call i mentioned "sorry about this but is it possible you could ring back later, as as i'm very busy and in the middle of something important" (which i was) to which the reply was "well, i'm busy too and you need to pay your bill!" As i put the phone down and refused to answer any more of their calls it didn't get them very far either.
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