Missing FSH Dealer issues

[Stodgey]

Hi guys,

Looking for a bit of help / advice.

 

I bought my mk3 1.0 ecoboost focus zetec from Evans Halshaw Merthyr in May of this year, the car was shipped from their Wigan Vauxhall branch with the "move closer to me" option. The car was advertised with full service history 18k miles and a price tag of £8795, when i picked up the car I was assured that the service documents would be forwarded to me. We are now in September and I have still not received said documents.

 

I have had several conversations both telephone and e-mail (resorted to the latter for documentaion purposes) over the last 2 months but had still not received anything, in the last email I sent them (to the sales person who sold me the car and the branch manager) I said that I would have to received the full service history that the car was advertised with or a refund of £1750 (20% of the vehicles value to cover the missing documents - various sources pin the value of an FSH somewhere between 15-25% so i hit the middle). They replied asking for time to look into it, this was 7.9.2017, I sent a follow up email 14.9.2017 asking for an update (figuring a week was more than sufficent time to look into it) but they appear to have gone dark with no replies from them.

 

Would the next step be to seek legal advice and take legal action or something else? I've never had this issue before so have no experience to go on, any of you had the same / similar issues?

 

Many thanks in advance.

[isetta]

do you have any legal expenses insurance or legal helpline (telephone advice) on your household insurance or motor insurance. some include it some do not.

being a main dealer with service stamps etc they could just produce a fake one and give that to you. you wouldn't know or be able to prove otherwise.

You could try contacting the previous owner to see if they can confirm that a full service history was handed over to the dealer

[south_bound]

What do you mean by FSH documents - isn't it just a stamp in the book for regular service work, which at that mileage I would expect it all to be?

[CyprusPluto]

Have you spoke to the General Manager; from their website, his name is Paul Pearce? If so and still no success, raise a formal complaint with Evans Halshaw Head Office.

Also give Trading Standards a ring

[Stodgey]

2 hours ago, south_bound said:

What do you mean by FSH documents - isn't it just a stamp in the book for regular service work, which at that mileage I would expect it all to be?

Yes by FSH docs I literally mean the service booklet with the stamps in it to confirm genuine mileage and that the vehicle has been "well" looked after.

[biff55]

They've dragged their heels for months so either its been lost or they never had it to begin with as they may not have been the seller of the car from new

i'd go straight for legal action at this point ,  on the grounds of damages / loss of value due to misrepresentation of the vehicle by the seller , just lodge the claim at local magistrates , it costs very little , and just sit back and wait for the matter to be resolved very quickly when a court summons appears in the dealership postbox.........

;-)

[south_bound]

2 hours ago, biff55 said:

They've dragged their heels for months so either its been lost or they never had it to begin with as they may not have been the seller of the car from new

i'd go straight for legal action at this point ,  on the grounds of damages / loss of value due to misrepresentation of the vehicle by the seller , just lodge the claim at local magistrates , it costs very little , and just sit back and wait for the matter to be resolved very quickly when a court summons appears in the dealership postbox.........

;-)

...and let us know how it goes.  I often wonder if these small claims legal action actually work or if it just sounds like a good idea at the time.

[Russ]

Any garage can (or should be able to) look up a cars service history wether that garage did the servicing or not. We didn't get a service book with our 08 reg (31,000 mile focus) and the garage sent us one marked up with dates, mileages etc but obviously couldn't stamp certain service intervals when they didn't service it. They did also send a computer print out to back the service history up with everything the car had had at all the services including damage to a rear door fixed! 

At the end of the day a FSH will add zilch if you sell the car back to a garage but adds to the value when they sell it!

[biff55]

35 minutes ago, south_bound said:

...and let us know how it goes.  I often wonder if these small claims legal action actually work or if it just sounds like a good idea at the time.

im not the person pursuing the complaint , just offering advice on how to do it.

as russ states above , a replacement service book and written conformation of the cars service history can easily be issued , just the dealers have had 4 months to do it and need a wake up call

[Phil21185]

Offer to pay them for it. The greedy gobsh*tes will soon find it then...

[Stodgey]

UPDATE:

Sent a followup email after 2 weeks of no news, asking if i had to go to his superior and trading standards to get a resolution.

Within 10 mins had a reply demanding proof that the car was advertised with FSH (lol) so replied with the following....

"Hi Mike,

That would be impossible for me to do so, I have the original invoice and receipt however it doesn’t include the service details of the car, as no receipt for any car I’ve ever bought would include. I also don’t have the original advert from the website as I didn’t foresee me needing to have proof of what the advert said later down the line, also the link to the car on the website ceased to work the day after I bought it, so unless the advert is still saved on your systems somewhere, I would think that is also gone.

All I have, as stated previously is Tyrone’s unrecorded promise that the service book would be posted to me as it was not with the car when purchased, and an email from him to Wigan requesting said documents with "car advertised with Full service History" in the heading.

Was the car an Evans Halshaw car from new? If so, are you not able to check the system for the service dates and request a reprint with stamps?

Im not trying to be a difficult customer, I have had excellent service from Tyrone and would use you again, all I want is the service history of the car for me to know that it’s been looked after and that the mileage is genuine. Should I need to sell the car on at a later date the lack of FSH greatly impacts the value of the car as you know, and all I seek is what I was told I would get, failing that, financial redress for the difference in value between the car with and without an FSH.

Thanks and regards,"

 

5 mins later i get a reply "ill ask the Wigan branch to check their systems"

 

I'll give them another 2 weeks then ill speak to Citizens Advice, Trading Standards and also the Law students at Swansea University as they take on pro bono cases to get experience.

 

As always, ill keep you posted with any news.

 

Incidentally this appears to not be an isolated incidednt with them and Evans Halshaw have had this issue multiple times before.

 

[CyprusPluto]

15 minutes ago, Stodgey said:

UPDATE:

Sent a followup email after 2 weeks of no news, asking if i had to go to his superior and trading standards to get a resolution.

Within 10 mins had a reply demanding proof that the car was advertised with FSH (lol) so replied with the following....

 

Im not trying to be a difficult customer, I have had excellent service from Tyrone and would use you again, all I want is the service history of the car for me to know that it’s been looked after and that the mileage is genuine. Should I need to sell the car on at a later date the lack of FSH greatly impacts the value of the car as you know, and all I seek is what I was told I would get, failing that, financial redress for the difference in value between the car with and without an FSH.

Thanks and regards,"

 

5 mins later i get a reply "ill ask the Wigan branch to check their systems"

 

I'll give them another 2 weeks then ill speak to Citizens Advice, Trading Standards and also the Law students at Swansea University as they take on pro bono cases to get experience.

 

As always, ill keep you posted with any news.

 

Incidentally this appears to not be an isolated incidednt with them and Evans Halshaw have had this issue multiple times before.

 

You're being very patient. I wouldn't give them 2 weeks

[Stodgey]

3 minutes ago, CyprusPluto said:

You're being very patient. I wouldn't give them 2 weeks

I want to show that ive given them enough time to look for what they need to so that way if i have to go down the legal route they cant say i didnt give them time.

 

on a side note, whilst loooking into this i popped the details of the car into the ETIS site and it has a recall for the degas hose, do i have to take the car back to evasn halshaw for that or can any ford dealer sort it as I have a much better ford dealership (DAYS) nearby who we get the wifes new cars from (options)?

[CyprusPluto]

55 minutes ago, Stodgey said:

Within 10 mins had a reply demanding proof that the car was advertised with FSH (lol) so replied with the following....

To me this is not a friendly response from someone that you want to be helpful.

The proof is available, as a web page can be recovered even after deletion. However, the dealership would have to do that as it is their page and the above response and the likelihood of them being liable, would mean they are not likely to do this. They would only do it if they were right or they were legally enforced to do so.

https://itstillworks.com/recover-deleted-pages-5065691.html

[CyprusPluto]

1 hour ago, Stodgey said:

on a side note, whilst loooking into this i popped the details of the car into the ETIS site and it has a recall for the degas hose, do i have to take the car back to evasn halshaw for that or can any ford dealer sort it as I have a much better ford dealership (DAYS) nearby who we get the wifes new cars from (options)?

You'll be able to take the car to any Ford Dealer; the key will be that it's done to Ford standards, not by whom.

[biff55]

Evans Halshaw , might have known , my branch takes a similar confrontational tone.

I'll never step foot in that dealership again , which means im unlikely to buy another ford either.

meh , plenty of other good cars out there.

[Phil21185]

After their famous extended warranty which doesn't cover a whole list of things, the last one being "any other undefined item" - so, what, ANYTHING on the bleeding car then?! - and when they replaced my badges the just stuck the new one over the old one I am reluctant to go back to them.

Why can't they understand that while being a charlatan in the business world is indeed a short term gain, it would be far more lucrative in the medium and long term to actually give a crap about what your customers think of you?

[shamus1]

i bought my car a 2014 zetec s  from evans halshaw on finance and was told and saw in advert it had full service history and when picked car up was shown ford folder etc...so presumed all ok but on getting home the service book had one stamp in it by them so I asked them where the other service stamps are etc... to be told they would look into it, two weeks goes by and not a word from them so I rang Barclays who financed the car and they told me the car had to be full history as finance agreement stated,they rang evans halshaw and at my request told them to come up with the history or the car will be returned.a day later I had a call from europacar who the original owner was and they told me car had 3 services by halford autocentre and emailed me the list and receipts of services,i confirmed this with Halfords and maybe your cars prvious owner was europacar hire as I have  been told they buy a lot off of europacar.

[CyprusPluto]

I bought my Focus from Evans Halshaw and they were very good, gave me a very good trade in on my Renault, provided me with a new service book when the original got lost and didn't even complain when I damaged one of the alloys of the test car. I suppose each dealer franchise has good and bad dealerships

[JW1982]

I do not know the UK situation but in many countries (for example the Netherlands and Germany) Ford stopped using the paper version of the service/maintenance booklet a few Years ago (approximately 2013). 

Instead of the paper service/maintenance booklet Ford now uses the DSR (Digital service Register). The DSR is part of the Ford Etis web based system.  On newer vehicles the service history basically consists of a printout of the DSR.

[iantt]

in the uk there still is the paper service book for stamping, but dealers do have to use the dsr to record the info. this enables any dealer to access the service record and print out for customer.

[south_bound]

2 hours ago, shamus1 said:

europacar who the original owner was and they told me car had 3 services by halford autocentre

It surprises me that Europacar use Halfords for their servicing rather that main dealer or their own in-house mechanics, given the volume of cars they must have, and not sure it would fill me with confidence that it was done at Halfords.

[iantt]

not just europacar, enterprise,thrifty too.

[shamus1]

well my car only had 30,000 on clock and 3 Halfords services through eueopacar, then evans halshaw so called full serviced it before I bought it and stamped that in book so not too concerned as I think the first 3 services would of only of been oil changes.

[iantt]

the Halfords services are done to manufatures servicing schedules in the first 3 years.