Advise on grievences with dealership

admac21

Active Member
Aug 30, 2018
53
51
I'll try be brief with this, and add a TL;DR at the end.

So I received my Leon 4 weeks ago, and didn't request for them not to clean the car (despite seeing recomendations on here to request this) as I figured how bad can they mess up cleaning the car once? Well it turns out quite badly; after going over it at home I tried to take pictures and send them to the dealer to ask what can be done (there were multiple scratches you can feel with fingernail, and marks that look like a hose may have been dragged over the bonnet), they promptly replied advising a quick resolution, and they'd get it into their bodyshop for a polish.

That was 3 weeks ago -now on my part I probably should have been chasing them on this - but I also used this time to do some research/thinking, and I've concluded I don't really trust their body shop to do an adequate job of resolving the paint issues. So I've gone to a local detailers for an assessment and a quote, and got more bad news; along with pointing out more imperfections they found that the nearside front bumper has been resprayed! There is flat spots where its not been sanded down correctly, overspray onto the wing and under the headlight, and a very slight colour mismatch (apparently Desire Red is notorious for being difficult to colour match). So they reckoned with extra work they could fix all the issues except from the deepest scratches and the colour mis-match (which I don't really notice so I'm ok with that) for £625.

Now my dilema is I want to go to the detailers instead of their body shop as I know I'll get a better result, as such, I wouldn't expect the dealer to pay the whole cost but wanted to know if it was reasonable to ask them to contribute towards the cost. I've drafted an email which I'll add in the next post that I plan to send, but again I don't know if the way I've worded it is the best way to go (I have a habit of going into a lot of detail which people probably can't be bothered reading through).

I should also add that before all this, they had my car for 3 weeks after it was delivered from factory as they couldn't give it to me due to 'system issues', for which they gave me 3/4 full tanks of fuel, first service for free, and a bottle of oil.

TL;DR: Received car 4 weeks ago, paint condition quite bad so dealer said they will sort it, 3 weeks later still no word back from them, went to a detailers for an assessment who found the bumper had been resprayed. Now I want to go to detailers, and hoping dealer will contribute towards this but unsure how to word email to them. (draft email in next post).
 

admac21

Active Member
Aug 30, 2018
53
51
This is the draft email I plan to send:

Good afternoon XXX,

Hope you're well and enjoying the new showroom. I've been having a think about the paint situation and decided to go to a local detailers for an assessment and quotation. The result wasn't good as we found a lot more deeper scratches than what they reckon would be reasonable on a new car, in addition they've found that the nearside front bumper has been resprayed as there are flat spots that weren't sanded correctly, over-spray onto nearside wing and under the headlight, and a slight mismatch of the colour. They reckon they can correct all but the deepest scratches and slight colour mismatch on the bumper which could only be done with a full respray. I don't personally notice the mismatch so if the flat spots and over-spray can be resolved I don't think I'd need it resprayed. So what I'm wondering is if I were to go to a detailers instead of bringing it back to your body shop if you might make a contribution towards the cost, I don't think I'd be happy until the paint is near perfect, and I know a professional paint correction will bring the car to a better than new condition, as such I wouldn’t expect you to cover the full cost of this.


I'm still open to the option of your body shop, I'm just having some reservations having spoken to some people that are saying unless they're experienced with machine polishing there is a risk of taking too much clear coat off, or an uneven finish as they work that would need carried out would take a professional detailer 2 days to do, which would be unreasonable to expect from a dealer as they will have many more cars, and deadlines to meet. Of course I don't want to sound like I doubt their ability, and you'll likely have a better idea of their experience so if they do this to a good standard on a regular basis then I'd be happy to come down.

Kind regards,

Andrew
 

Legojon

I only wanted a remap
Staff member
Moderator
Jul 7, 2015
5,284
2,713
I think your being way too nice. Don't be rude, but it's your car. I'd be telling them what I want. Not asking politely.
 
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admac21

Active Member
Aug 30, 2018
53
51
I think your being way too nice. Don't be rude, but it's your car. I'd be telling them what I want. Not asking politely.

Yeah, I used to work in customer service for PC World, so I'm very aware how **** it is to have rude and disrespectful customers, so I'm perhaps being overly nice to avoid being seen as one of those customers. I've amended the email, I think it's more to the point, but probably still more polite than what most would send in this situation.


Good afternoon XXX,

I hope you're well and enjoying the new showroom. I've been having a think about the paint situation and decided to go to a professional detailers for an assessment and quotation. The result wasn't good as they found a lot more imperfections and scratches than what they think would be reasonable on a new car, in addition they've found that the nearside front bumper has been resprayed as indicated by flat spots that weren't sanded correctly, over-spray onto the nearside wing and under the headlight, and a slight mismatch of the colour. I’m not sure if you were aware this had been done, or what necessitated it, but they said that from their experience they usually see this done on cars that received some form of transit damage when being shipped from the factory. They reckon they can correct all but the deepest scratches located above the driver door and the slight colour mismatch on the bumper which could only be done with a full respray, but both should be significantly improved if not outright corrected. While I’m not happy to find the car has already had a repair done to the bumper, I also don’t want to have to go through the hassle of getting parts resprayed.

So with that said, I’ve attached a quote that details their assessment of the car, and what they would need to do to bring the paint back to a good standard (along with the associated costs) in the hope that we could come to an agreement to contribute towards the cost of the correction. I know you’ve offered to have your bodyshop look at it, and under the Consumer Rights Act 2015 I cannot reject any reasonable offer on how you’d like to resolve the issue in the first instance, but what I’d want is to bring it to a professional detailers as I know they can spend the time to get it right, and hopefully avoid any further issues.

Kind regards,

Andrew
 

Brimfull

Active Member
Nov 7, 2018
1,385
418
Wrexham
If you can feel the scratches with your fingernail then it will defo need paint and no amount of polishing, buffing or detailing will fix the problem. So don't accept any offer other than paint to sort the issue

Sent from my SM-G960F using Tapatalk
 
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Coopercupra

Active Member
Jan 5, 2019
118
33
So this is a brand new car you have revived with a poor respray, overspray and scratches?

You are way too nice in your writing. I suspect the respray could be the reason they had your car for 3 weeks wasn't because of "system issues" but because they were busy poorly fixing it.

I would be telling them what I wanted. and that is what you paid for a perfect and new paint job.
 
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Mar 7, 2019
3
1
I'll try be brief with this, and add a TL;DR at the end.

So I received my Leon 4 weeks ago, and didn't request for them not to clean the car (despite seeing recomendations on here to request this) as I figured how bad can they mess up cleaning the car once? Well it turns out quite badly; after going over it at home I tried to take pictures and send them to the dealer to ask what can be done (there were multiple scratches you can feel with fingernail, and marks that look like a hose may have been dragged over the bonnet), they promptly replied advising a quick resolution, and they'd get it into their bodyshop for a polish.

That was 3 weeks ago -now on my part I probably should have been chasing them on this - but I also used this time to do some research/thinking, and I've concluded I don't really trust their body shop to do an adequate job of resolving the paint issues. So I've gone to a local detailers for an assessment and a quote, and got more bad news; along with pointing out more imperfections they found that the nearside front bumper has been resprayed! There is flat spots where its not been sanded down correctly, overspray onto the wing and under the headlight, and a very slight colour mismatch (apparently Desire Red is notorious for being difficult to colour match). So they reckoned with extra work they could fix all the issues except from the deepest scratches and the colour mis-match (which I don't really notice so I'm ok with that) for £625.

Now my dilema is I want to go to the https://edubirdie.com/do-my-homework instead of their body shop as I know I'll get a better result, as such, I wouldn't expect the dealer to pay the whole cost but wanted to know if it was reasonable to ask them to contribute towards the cost. I've drafted an email which I'll add in the next post that I plan to send, but again I don't know if the way I've worded it is the best way to go (I have a habit of going into a lot of detail which people probably can't be bothered reading through).

I should also add that before all this, they had my car for 3 weeks after it was delivered from factory as they couldn't give it to me due to 'system issues', for which they gave me 3/4 full tanks of fuel, first service for free, and a bottle of oil.

TL;DR: Received car 4 weeks ago, paint condition quite bad so dealer said they will sort it, 3 weeks later still no word back from them, went to a detailers for an assessment who found the bumper had been resprayed. Now I want to go to detailers, and hoping dealer will contribute towards this but unsure how to word email to them. (draft email in next post).
Sorry to hear that. It's always upsetting when you buy a car, and suddenly some problems appear. Wish you to resolve them all.
 
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BigfatPaulie

Active Member
Sep 18, 2013
194
4
Nottingham
You are within your rights to reject the car ... you gave them an opportunity to repair it, and they dropped the ball.
Take it up with your lender (if on finance) or WRITE to the dealer directly if not.
Give them say, 14 days to respond (say this in the letter) and if they still wanna play aholes ... take it up with consumer rights (trading standards portal)

Send your letter by registered post, or if you can afford it via a solicitor.
 
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admac21

Active Member
Aug 30, 2018
53
51
Thanks everyone for the replies, I've got an update on the situation.

I know I now have a right to reject the car, but I didn't really want to do that as the cars otherwise fine and didn't fancy another 3 month wait for a new one, I also really wanted to avoid further resprays because I've heard it's a hard colour to match and I didn't want to give them another chance to **** things up, (plus, one respray is already one more than you'd expect on a new car!). What I did do was take @Rooster and @BigfatPaulie suggestion and got in touch with Seat finance who assigned me a case manager! Apparently they take complaints a little more seriously than the dealership, so they did whatever they do and got back saying they've agreed to splitting the bill with the dealer for the full £625 for the paint correction that I was quoted, and I've also put a little extra of my own money in to get an Optic Coat Pro ceramic coating that's guaranteed for 5 years.

So if the detailer lives up to his word and good reviews online, I should hopefully end up with a showroom quality finish (with the exception of the one 1cm scratch above door). Seat did also say that if I wasn't happy they were able to improve the scratch enough/not happy with their work in general then to get back to them for further remedial work (which I imagine would involve respraying), they also said they are upholding my complaint and gave me permission to contact the financial ombudsman, but I don't know what use that is unless I want to reject the car.

I'll update again at the end of the week with results of the paint correction and ceramic coating, and hopefully an end to the saga.
 
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