Suns out & so are the A/C idiots

[Anglo9 26]

Loving this : C Max px we sold for £2k done 130000m but we serviced it , 2 tyres and a fresh MOT..cheap solid runabout you'd think ...

Customer :Hi. I purchased a cmax off you 4 months ago - HK07 WLC. I've been really pleased with it up until today when I turned on the air con only to find it's not blowing cold at all. Obviously this is the real first hot day we've had so I've not had a need to use the air con up until now. When I purchased the car i was obviously under the impression it was functional. Can you come back to me? I did take a warranty out but don't have it with me at the moment. Look forward to your response

Us :

Hello Richard ,

                       glad you are enjoying the C max .

Unfortunately we do not cover ancillaries  such as aircon/sat nav/parking sensors on our warranty

which , to be fair , has expired .

You may find it just needs a re-gas , but our focus when prepping a car (especially one that is 11 years old)

is understandably your safety and the cars driveability .

 

Kind regards

 

Dave @ Moto

 Customer :

Dave

 

Thanks for the quick response.

 

Whilst I am disappointed with your response I am also not surprised.

 

I appreciate the warranty has now run out but it wouldn't been of any use anyway.

 

Whilst I understand your reasoning behind prepping a car that is 11 years old prior to selling it what doesn't sit well with me is you seem to be almost saying that cars that age are sold with issues like this but as long as they are safe to drive then that should be ok for the customer.

 

Therefore I may well have been sold a car that had known issues with the air con (even if it does only need a re-gas.) and thus not fit for purpose. 11 years old or not the car should be sold with everything functioning as it should do.

 

Of course I will find that very hard to prove either way.  

 

Regards

 

Rich

 

SERIOUSLY ????

[D&M 66]

I think you should draw his attention to the part in the owners manual where it states that the owner of the car should operate the A/C for around 30 minutes once a month to keep the system lubricated and operational - seeing as he hasn't used the A/C at all for 4 months, against Fords advice.

I wonder how happy he'll be when he finds out he has to sign a disclaimer at KwikFit/National etc to say that although they are re-gassing the A/C, they can't guarantee how long it'll last for!

[Rory RSC 596]

With current gas prices a lot of them will be told to jog on.

[Stalker 180]

4 minutes ago, Rory RSC said:

With current gas prices a lot of them will be told to jog on.

My thoughts exactly, gas is surely classed as a consumable.

 

We would ask him to bring it in and we would check the car over. He might have clobbered something.... i always like to get eyes on it before pie-ing him off.

[Anglo9 26]

Think I'll just leave it there , he seems to have accepted it . Thing is I make a specific point of telling customers that we don't check the A/C on older cars because if it's not a gas issue the repairs are just so disproportionate to the cars value , same with parking sensors/bluetooth/satnav . The aim is get them safe and reliable , yet they get on their high horse about 'fit for purpose' FFS !

[SC Derby 259]

In future don't advertise the car with A/C and keep a copy of the advert and then you are covered. 

[justina3 518]

10 minutes ago, SC Derby said:

In future don't advertise the car with A/C and keep a copy of the advert and then you are covered. 

this is what we do, you see all the adds AC park assist blah blah can of worms, if you advertise if then it should work 

[Arfur Dealy 823]

1 hour ago, Anglo9 said:

Loving this : C Max px we sold for £2k done 130000m but we serviced it , 2 tyres and a fresh MOT..cheap solid runabout you'd think ...

Customer :Hi. I purchased a cmax off you 4 months ago - HK07 WLC. I've been really pleased with it up until today when I turned on the air con only to find it's not blowing cold at all. Obviously this is the real first hot day we've had so I've not had a need to use the air con up until now. When I purchased the car i was obviously under the impression it was functional. Can you come back to me? I did take a warranty out but don't have it with me at the moment. Look forward to your response

Us :

Hello Richard ,

                       glad you are enjoying the C max .

Unfortunately we do not cover ancillaries  such as aircon/sat nav/parking sensors on our warranty

which , to be fair , has expired .

You may find it just needs a re-gas , but our focus when prepping a car (especially one that is 11 years old)

is understandably your safety and the cars driveability .

 

Kind regards

 

Dave @ Moto

 Customer :

Dave

 

Thanks for the quick response.

 

Whilst I am disappointed with your response I am also not surprised.

 

I appreciate the warranty has now run out but it wouldn't been of any use anyway.

 

Whilst I understand your reasoning behind prepping a car that is 11 years old prior to selling it what doesn't sit well with me is you seem to be almost saying that cars that age are sold with issues like this but as long as they are safe to drive then that should be ok for the customer.

 

Therefore I may well have been sold a car that had known issues with the air con (even if it does only need a re-gas.) and thus not fit for purpose. 11 years old or not the car should be sold with everything functioning as it should do.

 

Of course I will find that very hard to prove either way.  

 

Regards

 

Rich

 

SERIOUSLY ????

What a cretin. 

Customers are obliged to check everything and show due diligence at the point of purchase. Your PDI sheet should have an section confirming the A/C works. 

[NOACROSS 414]

Had the same email today on a Ford Fusion sold months ago. I replied the same as you Justin. 

Within warranty I may have helped as goodwill gesture if I liked them. 

[andymc1973 199]

he is out of warranty anyway what does he want? cock socket

[Mojo121 229]

Really pleased with it up until he’s had to consider spending £40 re gassing the air con. Boo hoo.

How annoying. Leaves a real sour taste in the mouth for the rest of the day, this kind of thing.

[Stalker 180]

28 minutes ago, Mojo121 said:

Really pleased with it up until he’s had to consider spending £40 re gassing the air con. Boo hoo.

How annoying. Leaves a real sour taste in the mouth for the rest of the day, this kind of thing.

R134a has more than quadrupled in price... I don’t think anyone will be doing air con regas for £40 anymore. 

 

[sparky 274]

Justina and sc are bang on the money. 

[Mojo121 229]

10 minutes ago, Stalker said:

R134a has more than quadrupled in price... I don’t think anyone will be doing air con regas for £40 anymore. 

 

So it has. Fancy that. Any idea why? Shows how long it’s been since I bothered to regas one!

[Dealer 54]

3 hours ago, Anglo9 said:

Think I'll just leave it there , he seems to have accepted it . Thing is I make a specific point of telling customers that we don't check the A/C on older cars because if it's not a gas issue the repairs are just so disproportionate to the cars value , same with parking sensors/bluetooth/satnav . The aim is get them safe and reliable , yet they get on their high horse about 'fit for purpose' FFS !

Same here, getting bumpers off to renew condensers which have a leak from a stone hitting it, or compressors that are knackered. There's no point. Tell the buyer to gas it themselves....... Or go and buy a new car! 

2 hours ago, justina3 said:

this is what we do, you see all the adds AC park assist blah blah can of worms, if you advertise if then it should work 

Same...... If I know its not cold then i dont list it as a feature 

[Stalker 180]

14 hours ago, Mojo121 said:

So it has. Fancy that. Any idea why? Shows how long it’s been since I bothered to regas one!

Dunno really.

Probably one of two reasons:-

 

1. Because the manufacturers of gas want to make more money

 

2. From a tree hugging point of view - if its more expensive we might be more careful with it and not vent it to air etc...

 

My guess is option one.

[David Ayers 171]

14 hours ago, Stalker said:

R134a has more than quadrupled in price... I don’t think anyone will be doing air con regas for £40 anymore. 

 

Apparently R134a has quadrupled in price because there has been a poor crop this year!

Edited April 20, 2018 by David Ayers

[Stalker 180]

Seemingly there is a huge shortage that is putting the price up. We bought our last 12.5 kg bottle in jan for £205+vat. I’ve just bought two more today for £345+vat. I was advised by a local firm that has mobile vans doing air con gassing that suppliers could run out. And make it even more expensive  

[BHM 994]

On 19/04/2018 at 5:02 PM, SC Derby said:

In future don't advertise the car with A/C and keep a copy of the advert and then you are covered. 

+1. It’s a common bugbear so I don’t mention it in adverts for bangers. Tbh I don’t mention CDs or radios either for the same reason. I print off the advert & both the customer & I sign it, they get the original & I keep a copy.

[trade vet 697]

18 minutes ago, BHM said:

+1. It’s a common bugbear so I don’t mention it in adverts for bangers. Tbh I don’t mention CDs or radios either for the same reason. I print off the advert & both the customer & I sign it, they get the original & I keep a copy.

That sounds good,but we had a case where the ‘pull out’ radio was defective but we left it in.The punter was happy to replace or fix it but he later complained that he had advice that he was entitled to a good radio despite our agreement.Trading Standards got involved and we were informed that because the radio was included it should have been working.

[BHM 994]

1 minute ago, trade vet said:

That sounds good,but we had a case where the ‘pull out’ radio was defective but we left it in.The punter was happy to replace or fix it but he later complained that he had advice that he was entitled to a good radio despite our agreement.Trading Standards got involved and we were informed that because the radio was included it should have been working.

‘Pull out’ radio!!! When was this, circa 1988? 

[Anglo9 26]

5 minutes ago, trade vet said:

That sounds good,but we had a case where the ‘pull out’ radio was defective but we left it in.The punter was happy to replace or fix it but he later complained that he had advice that he was entitled to a good radio despite our agreement.Trading Standards got involved and we were informed that because the radio was included it should have been working.

Jeez....it's just getting worse , we'll be scrapping anything under £2000 or over 100,000m in a bit...not worth the bother !

 

[have a word with the wife 299]

On 19/04/2018 at 5:44 PM, justina3 said:

this is what we do, you see all the adds AC park assist blah blah can of worms, if you advertise if then it should work 

correct ! and going a touch further, when a customer climbs into a car, and sees on the dash, a switch, then he will rightly assume, that it works, so, we, the seller, must inform the customer, either verbally, in writing on invoice, or in the pdi, whether it does, or does not, agreed, its impossible to check the hrw for example, but at the end of the day, we buy cars, we sell cars, we make profit in between by supplying a customer with a car that is fit for purpose, 

 

On 19/04/2018 at 5:54 PM, Arfur Dealy said:

 

Customers are obliged to check everything and show due diligence at the point of purchase. 

sorry, but i disagree, 

[Mark101 536]

23 minutes ago, have a word with the wife said:

correct ! and going a touch further, when a customer climbs into a car, and sees on the dash, a switch, then he will rightly assume, that it works, so, we, the seller, must inform the customer, either verbally, in writing on invoice, or in the pdi, whether it does, or does not, agreed, its impossible to check the hrw for example, but at the end of the day, we buy cars, we sell cars, we make profit in between by supplying a customer with a car that is fit for purpose, 

 

sorry, but i disagree, 

+1 no doubt 

[Arfur Dealy 823]

Have a word with the wife.

The CRA states very clearly the following is excluded from the CRA.  Section 9 (4) b

 

The term mentioned in subsection (1) does not cover anything which makes the quality of the goods unsatisfactory—

(a)which is specifically drawn to the consumer’s attention before the contract is made,

(b)where the consumer examines the goods before the contract is made, which that examination ought to reveal.

If it isn’t a “distance sale” and the customer comes to your premises they have a responsibility as a buyer to show a level of due diligence. This includes checking the car for obvious faults. Now I would argue checking to make sure the fan blower and A/C would be once of the first switches to check.