Motor ombudsman: what does success look like?

[Garrycotic]

A warranty is a financial product. I wouldn’t recommend using the MO if you can use the FO. I got a hefty payout from VW when it started to look as though the FO was going to find in my favour.

FO? Who/what is this please?

 

[Up10]

A warranty is a financial product. I wouldn’t recommend using the MO if you can use the FO. I got a hefty payout from VW when it started to look as though the FO was going to find in my favour.

That's interest. Would you care to expand on the type of issue you got resolved and how you went about the process?
Completely understand if you don't feel like it's appropriate.

 

[LemonDrop]

FO? Who/what is this please?

Its the Financial Ombudsman.

 

[LemonDrop]

That's interest. Would you care to expand on the type of issue you got resolved and how you went about the process?
Completely understand if you don't feel like it's appropriate.

In a nutshell: I took a minor issue with the All-In warranty to the FO. VW were claiming that the FO didn't cover ANY issues with the all-in warranty as it wasn't actually a warranty at all. Yes you read that right. When it looked as if the FO was going to rule that is IS an actual warranty and therefore they could look at my case, VW paid me 'compensation' which was too much to turn down. I suspect because they did not want to set a precedent.

 

[stoobthealien]

FOS (or the financial ombudsman) have a lot of teeth and from the perspective of someone who works in financial services they are generally pretty feared (and any time you go to them the firm you complain about has to pay for their fees!) - quite often a financial firm will try to resolve a complaint you have first as they don't want to have to hand you off to FOS who more often than not find in the customer's favour. So if you've bought a vehicle on finance or if the warranty is administered by VW financial services then I'd suggest that route - you need VWFS to give you a final deadlock letter before you're allowed to go there in order to show they aren't willing to go any further.

 

[Garrycotic]

Its the Financial Ombudsman.

Thank you. Subsequent post clarifies the follow up question I had. Many thanks both, wouldn't have helped in my case, but useful to know

 

[Vantastic2]

Had bad experience of The motor Ombudsman.
When our Cali was written off, we had to purchase very quickly a vehicle.
We bought a 2018 Skoda karoq. it had only7,750 miles from new and was 2 years old.
Various minor issues happened via the on board computer, reported when having a service but the dealer wanted around £200 for doing a diagnostic on car , which we thought was not worth it.
Then on holiday in West Wales November 2022 a torrential evening down poor of rain occurred and next day the car's electrics was dead.
Cut a long story short we had it taken to our local dealer that we bought it from Mon motors in Newport Gwent, where the fun began.
They had it for 1 month and we ended up with over a £4,000.00 bill!
They showed us that water entered via a faulty seam not sealed properly at factory. I kept the old log book of pervious owner as she had the car for only less than a year so wrote to her and she said if was in for water leakage problems but they couldn't find it but being unhappy she exchanged it.
Contacted Skoda and a waste of time just passing 'the buck' and for us to hold dealer responsible and even offered us a Xmas hamper!!! which we declined.
After doing lots and lots of research found many a Skoda Karoq of that year having Water ingress faults in same area that the water goes over the fuses!
As dealer sold me a faulty car and would not help We went to the Motor Ombudsman.
At first they said it was a case that they could help us with, but in the end they did not and we lost due to the fact we had a so called 2 years of trouble free motoring.
So who are the Motor Ombudsman?, who pays for there service? Well it is ALL the dealers chipping in to pay for the service.
Still don't let this put you off, have a go they might tell you like us that it is a case for them to look into but remember where there money come from.
Best of luck!

 

[LemonDrop]

Thank you. Subsequent post clarifies the follow up question I had. Many thanks both, wouldn't have helped in my case, but useful to know

If you raised the issue with VWFS when your vehicle was in warranty and they claimed your problem/fault/defect wasn't covered by the warranty, it doesn't matter that it is now out of warranty as the timing is based on when you first raised the issue. I would take it up with the financial ombudsman and definitely not the motor ombudsman. Don't believe VWFS if they say you 'have' to go to the motor ombudsman. You might find you get somewhere with the financial ombudsman.

 

[HKRC]

Thanks Jon. I have no issue with the VW Workshop/dealer but I do have an issue with VW Group as do many other posts on the forum. However, this is useful to know.

I totally agree with you. I also have had a similar experience with the VW company. I am wondering whether what is needed is a group action against VW. I do a lot of litigation and was involved in the successful action against RBS. If the number of people impacted is enough I am sure we could get funding for a similar group action against VW. The obvious loss is when you are sold a vehicle as a campervan but which VW now says has bellows that are not waterproof. Just need to establish how may people are impacted.

 

[stoobthealien]

I totally agree with you. I also have had a similar experience with the VW company. I am wondering whether what is needed is a group action against VW. I do a lot of litigation and was involved in the successful action against RBS. If the number of people impacted is enough I am sure we could get funding for a similar group action against VW. The obvious loss is when you are sold a vehicle as a campervan but which VW now says has bellows that are not waterproof. Just need to establish how may people are impacted.

Some of the law firms are after anything like this (they are pursuing specific DPF claims against certain manufacturers for example) - I suspect they would be up for it but of course they will want quite a cut!