The reason I have not been made a blog post in a while is because some bad times in the world outside the Internet happened, and also I started and finished watching Battlestar Galactica. I will make a separate post on my love for that show because it changed my life ~man. I would like to start off with a loving memorial to my beautiful baby, The Batmobile. Although all the things that didn't work on it, and apparently only by the laws of gravity and my guardian angels was the thing being held together, IT NEVER LET ME DOWN. I would like to state that, it never let me down all the way to the shire and back week after week for nearly seven months. I miss you Batmobile despite you being a rusty deathtrap. I took some pictures of it the day I made the worst mistake of my life. Here it is
I bought a new batmobile from Luton, from a company called Hatters, on a Monday. It was a year older than the Batmobile 1 but was in a better shape, had a years MOT on it, you could get in on all sides and even had a CD player! As I was in desperate need of a car, I handed over a large majority of my wages and the old batmobile as part payment, and did the paperwork ready to drive away. However, after having got no more than 3 minutes down the road on to the motorway I noticed that the clutch was very low, in fact it had no biting point. I doubted myself and my abilities, but then smoke started pouring in and out of the car and the clutch went. I was about 2 miles from where I bought it, on the M1, with no hard shoulder at rush hour. As you can imagine I was very very scared, alone and in a highly dangerous position. Luckily for me the free recovery men came and rescued me, despite Hatters assuring me they would come and get me. They were no where to be seen for close to two hours. Funny, considering they were less than 2 miles down the road. Very shaken up, I was assured by them that they would fit a new clutch for me, and deliver the car to my house. As an apology they gave me £40. They seemed very genuine and nice, so I gave them the benefit of the doubt but advised if anything happened again I would want my money back. They delivered the car back to me a couple of days later, but lo and behold the speedometer wasn't working. I assumed it was to do with when they disconnected the clutch, so I took it to another garage and they fixed it for me. The car was ok for a couple of days, however I thought it would also be a good idea to join the AA, as I didn't really trust this car on a trip to the shire. I went to pay the lovely AA for my membership but my card was declined. Luckily I work pretty much above my bank, they were able to tell me Hatters had taken the payment for my car twice. It took them three days to even do the refund despite numerous phone calls and assurances it had been done. This made me miss out on seeing Interpol in Bristol as I have no money and was even left overdrawn! On the way back from the shire a week after I had bought it, the car started violently shaking and juddering, I pulled over and after nearly 6 hours of waiting in the cold, the AA man pronounced it dead as it needed a new engine. The batmobile 2 and I were towed back to my boyfriends about 2am. I was livid. I called Hatters to ask for my money back and gave them 3 options
1. Pick my car up from the shire and give me money back
2. I scrap the car in the shire as it is pretty much worthless now and they give me my money back
3. We go to court and I get my money back.
After a few days of them pissing me about not calling me back discussions they basically told me that I what I get for buying an old car and they won't refund me. So I am opting for county court!
I sort of fell into my career path, I never envisioned myself dealing with complaints, especially as I am not the most patient person and everyone annoys me and I hate being spoken to by shit and I hate authority. But that is what I do, I manage complaints for a telephone company. I have had several complaint jobs, all in the same industry of telecommunications, the hardest one was for the CEO of a very famous Internet service provider, but I actually love my job. I find being able to calm highly frustrated and sometimes shockingly rude customers down, and you do get a good sense of well being when you have resolved someones issue, especially in the past where it really was affecting their lives. I have also gained a vast knowledge of contracts, and contractual law. One day (money permitting) I would love to train as a solicitor doing corporate law, but for the time being I will continue being the end of the line complaints Queen. One of the few benefits of dealing with some hardcore complaints is getting to know the various routes that a person can take when they are unsatisfied with a product or service. A lot of people really wouldn't have the first clue how to take on a big corporation especially without the need for a solicitor or other legal aids, but it is in fact very easy. So here is my insider knowledge on how you can deal with any sort of consumer complaint, with relative ease, for free!
1. If your complaint is about a service, you can ask the company for their "ADR" procedure. ADR means 'alternative dispute resolution' this is used if they have not responded to your letters or emails or phone calls. It will give the companies procedure on what to do next if you experience a complaint.
2. Your first port of call once you have written and not had any joy is to the 'governing regulatory body.' When services such as water, telephones TV, gas and electric went private, the government made regulators to make sure these companies were not running riot! For communications you can go to Ofcom, gas and electric Ofgem, water Ofwat. These bodies will give you inside industry advice and will alert the company you are complaining to that you have made an official complaint. Sadly unless these bodies gain a large amount of complaints about similar issue for the same company they won't launch an investigation. However it does give some weight behind you if you want to pursue it further.
3. Report the incident to trading standards or Office of Fair trading, which now operate under consumer direct. This body have the capacity to pursue companies for unfair trading and can actually take companies to court and fine them separately to the specific industry regulators. Trading standards will generally give you some more advice on how to pursue the issue, and give you your legal rights. They will possibly advise you to go to the CAB or Citizens Advice Bureau who will be able to pursue the matter on your behalf, sort of like a legal aid.
4. If your dispute has not been resolved by this point, then your second to last place to complain is to the Ombudsman. If there is one available to you, I would recommend pursuing a claim through an ombudsman rather than a county court or small claims court. You can claim the same amount of money (up to £5000) and they are experts in the industry you are complaining about, rather than going to a magistrate. The ombudsman cannot pursue an investigation into the company or shut them down, but are there as an impartial third party who will look at the claim you have made and then the defence the corporation have submitted and make a decision based on the evidence supplied, just like a court would. It costs the corporation money for you to take the complaint to them, so they will want to avoid it at all costs. You will need to submit a claim, outlining your complaint and why you feel you deserve the money back/to be released from the contract/to be compensated and to supply sufficient evidence to support your claim. So for example in my case I would be claiming for compensation for being without a car, so I would have to submit my train tickets and taxi receipts rather than just saying I spent the money on that. Same goes for loss of business, you must be able to back up what you are saying. Remember it doesn't need to be all legally worded, but just make your claim and clear and concise as possible as to what happened and why you deserve the money back or other outcome that you so desire.
5. If the ombudsman has not found in your favour, then you can still pursue through your local small claims court. It is in effect the same process as the ombudsman, however you will be expected to attend the hearing, and pay court costs and speak in front of a magistrate, which is a bit nerve wracking! You can download an N1 form from their website. However if the company are found to be in the wrong, they will get a CCJ (county court judgement) on their records, which they will want to avoid at all costs and they have to by law abide by the judgement the magistrate has set out.
Even threatening companies with this knowledge and reporting them to their appropriate regulatory bodies, ombudsman or trading standards will usually scare them into submission, but not always. You can look to the CAB or Trading Standards for more free legal advice on your claim to see whether it is worth pursuing. A lot of these websites will also have template letters for you to use and send to the companies if you feel your letter writing skills are not up to scratch. There is so much help out there, it is just knowing where to look.
All I wanted was for a little car to get me to and from the shire, I clearly wouldn't be purchasing second hand cars if I were a rich young lady, but I did expect my car to not have broken down twice within the first 10 days of owning it, and that my friends is failing the Sales of Goods Act 2003. I will be pursuing these people through small claims, wish me luck! I have listed some good websites you should check out if you are are struggling what to do with a complaint.
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