Hi All, i’m looking for some help on if I have a case to sue Ford over a warranty issue. I’m a business owner and a Transit went in to the main dealer under a warranty claim as the brakes went stiff & was advised by a local garage it may be the wet belt & to take it to the main dealer as the van was still under warranty.

When I took the vehicle in, I had also printed off all service history to prove this was done within the required timeframes etc.

Ford then said the service invoices had to specify the oil used so I called the garage and asked them to resend the invoices stating the oil used which they did.

I was thinking all my ducks were in a row and we would be fine until the Ford garage the van is at said I had to produce the oil purchase invoices from the service garage to within 1-2 months of each service which I found strange.

I asked the local garage for proof of oil purchase invoices over the years, they sent me 4 or 5 from each year just to appease Ford that they did infact use the specified oil - including a invoice for a 199L drum.

Ford refused the invoices because they were not within 2 months of the service date.

At this point I made a complaint to head office, their response some days later was the warranty team require the invoices to be within 3 months of the service which I found strange as the local Ford garage said they had to be within 2 months - at this point I knew this wasn’t a Ford policy but the warranty team making up dates to worm out of a potential engine change.

I told them the service garage had proven they used said oil and Ford had no right to say that any garage must use only oil purchased within 3 months of a service when oil has an unopened shelf life of 5 years & an opened shelf life of 2 years.

I also asked for them to send me a copy of the warranty where it stipulates dates for which oil should be purchased prior to service & I also asked for a signed letter from the head of the warranty team saying oil purchased longer than 3 months before a service cannot be used & the reason why.

I then said I would provide that information to the ombudsman, my solicitor & that I would be seeking a loss of earnings on that vehicle for the two months it’s been sat there whilst they have played these games to try and wriggle out of honouring the warranty.

Since then, they have changed their tune & have not said another word about oil invoices or invoice dates - this is tells me Ford have got this wrong & realise I could have a case against them.

My van has been off the road for over 2 months whilst playing email tennis & calling head office to resolve the issue, the vehicle earns us as a business £900 per day so you can imagine that’s a big hit for a small company.

I guess my question is can I sue them for a loss of earnings because as far as I can see, in the end they have accepted the warranty without having to produce the invoices for the oil used which tells me this was something made up by the warranty team in the background all along - especially with the fluctuating dates they required invoices to be between & also as they couldn’t provide me with the policy on when oil has to have been purchased for a warranty claim to stand.

Any help would be appreciated, thanks.

 

 

 

13 hours ago, MJK1 said:

I guess my question is can I sue them for a loss of earnings

This is really a question for your solicitor. If you don't actually have one, if you pop into a solicitor's office you may find that they'll happy have a free short chat about it.

You can always try to sue, the given that suffering financial damage as a result of another party's arguably unreasonable behaviour is a sound basis for such action, but you'd have to convince the judge that they have indeed been unreasonable with their demands and with the amount of time taken to process your claim, and to the extent that you deserve compensation. That's going to come down to how effectively your point of view is presented to the judge and ultimately to the whim of the judge. I don't expect that there's any law giving any specific timeframe in which a warranty claim must be processed, but I could be wrong. Choosing to sue is always to some degree a risk, if you win then great, but if you loose then you may end up having to pay the legal costs of the other party, and you may have to pay your own lawyer either way if you employ one to represent you. But, disclaimer, I'm no lawyer, take my advice for what it is, you should consult an actual solicitor for proper advice.

Edit: Oh, just to add, the 'small claims court' may be most appropriate, but I believe that there are limits to the size of claims that they'll deal with, too a large claim would have to be heard at a different court. But your solicitor will explain that.