I want to take an Audi Garage to court - Advice please!

[Fatneck73]

You may have to push for it...as it's only really 'advertised' as a service / function of a credit card so trying to get some help when you've used your Debit card, may be a little bit of effort but as far as I konw...its the visa/mastercard badge that comes with all the protection irrespective of who's branded it (natwest, barclaycard etc.) and sold it to you as a 'service'. Good luck. And remember, whenever you sign for one of these...you agree to all of the small print a.k.a Terms and Conditions. But it may be that these T&C's can work in your favour so as boring as it sounds, it may pay you to read through these...your answer may be in there.

[adsgreen]

Credit card company won't want to know.
The dealer can (and fairly legitimately) claim it was a valid non refundable deposit.

You could have used distance selling regulations but at 2 weeks you are pushing the limits.

Personally, I'm a little surprised that you expected a two week holding for a refundable deposit. Granted that may have been what the dealer said which is the basis of the complaint and I agree it's wrong but I've never dealt with a car dealer offering to refund a deposit whilst holding a car back for so long.

[homerjunior]

So they didn't hold the car for that long. It took them two weeks to transport it from one dealership to another. The day we saw it was the day we turned it down so actually there was less than an hour for us in terms of turning it round. My fiance also works in Belgium hence the reason they didn't hurry in getting it over there.

I know they didn't have the car in in between as I had to go to Slough for a faulty window during the week before we were due to see the car. I saw the sales guy and he told me the car wasn't in and he would call when it did arrive so I could come have a look on my own. Needless to say I never got the call back from them but that is just by the by.

I have no issues with this if they had put this on paper but the constant changing of mind about what they will and won't refund us is ridiculous. I am pretty sure Audi has a set of standards and procedures to adhere too and if they aren't doing this then I am going to scream bloody murder till this is brought to the attention of the highest people in Audi UK.

[Fatneck73]

Do the audi garage have an answering service like most companies now, that says calls may be recorded for training purposes? if they do, chances are they recall ALL calls so under the Freedom of Info Act, i wonder if you could legally ask for those???

[homerjunior]

Love the thinking! We have given Audi till Wednesday next week to respond otherwise we will be talking to lawyers. Hopefully they will know about the telephone recording or know how to manipulate that so I will make sure I raise this with them.

[adsgreen]

Freedom of information act iirc only applies to public companies.
Private firms only have to release personal details under data protection request.

[Fatneck73]

Well that could be just as interesting...under the DPA, you are entitled to ask for anything and everything that they have recorded against your file.

[SteveCharlton]

I would say your best bet is to contact your card provider and tell them you want to start a Chargeback claim. The Chargeback process is very difficult for the retailer as the card provider will, invariably, debit the funds from them and place the onus back on the retailer to re-claim the funds from you directly, even if the retailer believes the transaction is valid.

See this link for more information on the Chargeback service:

http://www.which.co.uk/consumer-rights/ ... ebit-cards

Hope it all works out for you.

[Fatneck73]

Ooooo that's good...and I know it's correct. I can't remember how much trouble it is to initial the Chargeback but that'll be a good place to start.

[homerjunior]

Thanks for everything everyone, especially with me being a noob.

Writing to the head of Sytner seemed to speed the process along.

Have a good chunk of the money back! It seems most people already know about Audi Slough but in honesty it has left such a bad taste in our mouths we may never buy an Audi again.

C'est la vie.

Oh well,at least I'll be driving Davos to Stelvio tomorrow!

Thanks again.