Car broken after 1150 miles, dealer being an arse

Reezer

Reezer

Reezer

Associate
Joined
27 Oct 2002
Posts
897
Got my new Citroen C4 VTS HDi 5 weeks ago and it's just broken down...

The RAC guy citroen sent to collect me thought it looked like the high pressure pump had packed in but couldn't be certain because of the complexity of the HDi apparently. So he towed me to my local citroen service centre.

This was thursday night about 6.30. I rung the dealer at 9 the following morning to find out what was going to happen and they said they didn't have the car. . .
After 20 minutes on hold they found the keys and noticed the only black car parked out front :rolleyes:. They then told me they were too busy to even look at it for "about a week, wednesday if you're lucky" and that if it is the pump they will have to order it which will take at least 48 hours.

They wouldn't even give me a courtesy car... I can get one for 48 hours off the roadside assistance people but can't get it till 10pm monday.

Oh, and to ice the cake they said I'd have to bring it back another time to have the 1-1.5k check up/service.

Apparently this dealer has a history of scratching the crap out of cars and claiming it was like it when it arrived... that would really **** me off. I would never have taken the car here if I had a choice but since I was towed I'm stuck with them.


I realise that cars break down, but after so few miles? And does it HAVE to take that fricking long to fix? And where is my damn courtesy car!

Do you think it's worth contacting citroen uk and having a good moan?

Should be able to return it for money back like you would any other consumer item that packed in within the warranty period but NOooooo cars are special...

I wish i had waited and gone for the Focus ST or new civic but I needed a car by then for my mother to have her car back! Bugger...
 
This is clearly not acceptable. If my expensive new car had broken down and I had been treated like this I would be absolutely fuming. They should be all over you like a rash with apologies, ensure you get a replacement car and get yours repaired as soon as possible.

Phone Citroen customer service and tell them what has happened - they will put a rocket up the dealer to get it sorted out for you.

Was this the same dealer that supplied the car?
 
Are you kidding me :eek:
I would be kindly mentioning to the chap that his cars on his forecourt look very vulnerable and does he have a problem with vandalism in his area.
Then i would ask him how much all his cars on his forecourt were worth, just as a point of interest of course.
Whilst wandering around his forecourt i would show him the pictures of his wife picking his kids up from school and ask him if he wanted to purchase some very good family shots. At a reasonable price of course, say the price of a Brand new Citreon C4 VTS HDi. :cool:

Seriously dude you need to hang of that phone to Citreon main 24/7 until its sorted. Moan your heart out, then whinge, then threaten and cry a little if that helps. I cannot imagine being in your situation without loosing it entirely.


Wanders off taking Warrior helmet off muttering bannable words. :mad:
 
Reezer said:
Do you think it's worth contacting citroen uk and having a good moan?
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Thats what I would do first. As for a courtesy car I am not sure you need to ask Citreon that as they may be contracted to supply one.

The RAC should have done a bodywork inspection so if there is any damage when it's returned then you have proof it happened whilst in their care.
 
K.C. Leblanc said:
If they're not too far away it might be worth contacting your prefered dealer and seeing if they can pick it up.
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A very sensible suggestion. I am sure you would be well within your rights to request any work carried out at your preffered dealer. Mention this on the whinge call to Citroen.
 
Get onto the head office and tell them the problem, then as said your prefered dealer. Get onto trading standards too, if they are as bad as you think they will be happy to help you.

Dont threaten anything your not willing to carry out either, dealerships get threatened with solicitors and trading standards on a weekly basis so have heard it all before. If you say your gunna do something then you must do it :)

If you have no luck with head office, get in touch with companies house and find the personal details of a director. Write them a letter, he (lets be honest, its hardly every a bird :p) will always pass it onto someone who will go beyond the call of duty to help you out.
 
With citroen assist, you should have had a CHOICE of which dealer you wanted your car at anyway. I had them take mine 50 miles when it broke down.

Secondly with its age and milage, i'd request my money back (which you are will within your rights to do), then see what the dealer has to say about fixing it. :)

I'll hazard a guess that they will fix it asap then. Oh and Citroen Assist HAVE to provide you with a courtesy car, they will rent one if needs be.
 
malc30 said:
Whilst wandering around his forecourt i would show him the pictures of his wife picking his kids up from school and ask him if he wanted to purchase some very good family shots. At a reasonable price of course, say the price of a Brand new Citreon C4 VTS HDi.
Click to expand...
WTF is that supposed to mean? Are you saying he should imply a threat to his family!? :eek:
 
my C3 had a computer failure after 2k and it took them 5 weeks to get the part but they did give me a saxo after me kicking up a fuss on a saturday when the place was full of potential buyers, all I said quite loudly was
"you sold me a brand new C3 and now its broken and you wont give me a courtesy car"

Also hang on let me phone my colleague at trading standards works very well on the likes of currys so citroen shouldnt be any different.

I called Citroen UK everyday until they rushed the part from france for my C3
mind you since then it went wrong a further 7 times with ECU problems which was a pain which is why after 3 years I just bought a Mazda, I love citroens they just need to be more reliable I truly loved my old BX
 
Thanks, I'll give them a ring... or maybe a letter would be better received... maybe both...

I was thinking of getting a courtesy car from them then driving it through the showroom laughing maniacally... that would make me feel better...
 
I had a similar complaint when the clutch went on my company car with my local garage, they didnt seem to understand the concept of keeping me informed. I had to ring them to get updates.

However thinking back on it, I broke down at 6/7pm on a Friday, the car was towed for one hour to the garage, and they agreeded to put it in there secure area despite being closed and the security guard would let us in.

I remember getting really annoyed when it took longer than a week, and they kept fobbing me off saying it would be ready tommorow. However thinking back what do you expect them to do? They are busy, and you have flung your car upon them. The only bad thing was the communication with me.

Took them one week and a bit to fit my new clutch, and didnt actually order it until 3 days before the work was done :rolleyes:

Lucky with it being a company car, I had a courtesy car when I needed it, and I do feel for you dealing with it as joe public.

PS. I wouldnt buy a Citroen :p, or a Peugeot for that manner.
 
had a similar problem when the gearbox went on my fabia , you will probabley find that citroen will pick up the hire car bill after the 2 days are up (thats what skoda did) just ask the dealer to get autherisation
 
Too bad you bought a citroen, they might be worse than rovers and the bits are weird.#

Anyway, you do need to bypass this dealer somehow i would speak to the people you bought it from or citroen uk although they're all busy dealing with broken down cars, good luck, you're rights are a bit murky with cars, you need to check on the govmts web somewhere there will be a guide.

Buy a toyota next time, they are only too pleased to help if its under warranty.

fords i dont know, had a bad experience with one a long time ago maybe they are better now
 
I had exactly the same problem with a Citroen. one of the fuel pumps failed after just 6 weeks. It just wouldn't start one morning, I rang them to be told if I took it to them they would fix it. They just couldn't have listened at all to what I said about it not starting.
Anyhow, It got worse by the day I had the car taken to them by the AA and for 3 days I heard nothing so I rang them to be told it would be ready the next day, When I asked what was wrong with it they said "we don't know" and they was not willing to give me a courtesy car either. after 2 weeks I got a call saying it was ready for collection. When I got there it had dents along the top of both front wings, a dent in the bonnet and a large scratch down the near side rear door. Opening the bonnet revealed the air filter housing and induction bits in a big heap where they obviously couldn't be bothered to re-fit them.
I had a discussion about them buying the car back but, they insisted they were going to fix it. another 2 weeks passed and I got a call to say it was ready, so off I went to collect it. When I arrived they gave me the keys and said "We fixed your dents as a gesture of good will" it was at this point that I was about to murder their workshop manager. After giving him a major lecture on good will he then decided that he was going to give me a tank of fuel for free. On the way home the car stank of fuel and when I opened the bonnet the engine was covered in fuel. They had forgotten to retighten a fuel pipe they had loosened for some reason. The following day they sent their own recovery truck out to collect it and their driver managed to bend the chassis getting it on the truck so I demanded a full refund and threatened them with legal action at which point they said I had been unreasonable but, they would give me a full refund and I wasn't allowed to buy another vehicle from them :p (as if anyone of sound mind would!)
Just to finish, I like Citroens and now have another one but, its never been back to a Citroen dealership since it was new and I've never had a problem with it.
 
...and the saga continues...

Further to the original buggering about:

I went in yesterday and asked for an update; the bloke who came out was supposedly the head mechanic or something. He told me "You've put petrol in it"... I waited but no punch line came.

So I said, "No I have not put petrol in it" to which he responded "You must have, that's all we could find wrong with it". Ok then... so I said "If I have put petrol in it seems to have run very well for 3/4 of a tank considering..." to which he said "You must have put some petrol in it, realised and filled the rest up with diesel"... to which I said "Get me the service manager please".

Anyway, after that barrel of laughs the service manager said that he didn't think I'd put petrol in it and wouldn't be asking me for my receipts as his over zealous friend had suggested. He went on to say that he'd sent it on to a diesel centre where they would test the fuel and try to find the real problem.

Whilst I was there I asked about a courtesy car from them given that the Citroën assist one had to go back 8AM today (Wednesday). He said he didn't have to give me one and that it was Citroëns responsibility to do that. At this point I went off to ring Citroën customer care who gave me a case number and assured me it WAS the dealers responsibility under the terms of the warranty. When I told the service manager this he said "ok, but I don't have any courtesy cars; they are all out with customers". So that's it, I don't get one if my local dealer is out? Apparently that is the case. I asked him to ring Citroën with my case number and sort it out. He did and came back saying that my car was registered as a fleet vehicle and that only the fleet operator could deal with Citroën. Not really sure what I should do about that - the dealer I got it from have used a fleet code to get a discount and then flogged it as a consumer vehicle, a practice the local dealer tells me is perfectly ok if you can shift the volume required for the fleet discount.

He rung me up later to tell me the problem was the exhaust gas recycle valve and that they would get the part and fit it by Wednesday (today).

In the evening I rung Citroën assist to sort out the hire car and they told me it was main Citroën who had to authorise it for me.

This morning I rung main Citroën to arrange it and they told me it was Citroën assist... who told me it was main Citroën... who told me it was... ... ...

After getting bounce back and forth a few time I got ****** off and told the operator (at main Citroën) that this was totally unacceptable - brand new car off the road for a week, no courtesy car available at the dealer, no one at Citroën willing to take responsibility, and being passed back and forth like a mug. She said "I'm sorry Sir I can't help you", So who can?, "I'm sorry Sir I can't help you", So what, I'm stuck without a car and no one at Citroën can do anything about it?, "I'm sorry SIR I can't help you", Fine, thank you VERY much for your help.

I couldn't pursue it further because I had to get to work and the 48 hour car was due back on penalty of £200 fine for late return.


Not a happy bunny.


I then rung the dealer at 9 ish to find out what was going on and he told me it would be fitted and ready by lunchtime. Lunch time comes and he tells me the part was fitted but they found (caused) a fuel leak on the road test and it would take a few hours to fix but I'll defiantly (yeah right) have it by the evening.

And that is my story.

I'm rather unhappy tbh :mad:

I'm going to write a letter of complaint to Citroën and probably the MD of the dealer doing my service and possibly the broker/dealer the car came from.

A bloke in work who used to deal with car dealers said to send it to the MD's and end it with "If this is not brought to a satisfactory conclusion within 7-10 days I will be handing it over to my solicitor to deal with". Which is all well and good but I don't know what a satisfactory conclusion is any more... Ideally I would like my money back if I thought there was a remote chance of that but I doubt there is...

Any comments, advice, criticism, random facts, quips or condolences much appreciated ;)
 
If you want your money back, take it to trading standards, you have to give the dealer apropiate chances to fix the problem before you can request a refund but usually have to do so within the first few 1000 miles, ask about the goods being fit for purpose etc.
 
id call em, tell them you want the car fixed like now, if not possible you want a solid date for the repairs and a courtesy car (prefferebly a better model than yours) like now.

if no answer in 15 mins id tell them to call the police because you are coming to thier garage to make sure ALL the customers know what they have done to you and tell them they WILL require police assistance to remove you.

I had a problem with a high value no quibble warranty on a mobile phone once that the store was quibbling over, this worked well.

suppose it depends how much fuss you kick up, and why they hell did you buy of them in the first place if they have a reputation for messing people around?
 
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