Problem with LLD company

Cars / Motoring / Insurance
1

We apologise for the long email but we need to give you all the facts for you to get the full picture.

We sold our car and replaced it with a lease car (LLD). The whole process was not something we rushed in to. We did our homework and made sure we got the car we wanted after asking lots of questions of the Lease company. We did all this through email using Google as neither my wife nor I speak French good enough to carry out a proper conversation.

Whenever we asked a question, it was answered almost immediately (or at least by the next day) and we finally chose the car we are now using. The car was delivered on 29th July - there were problems with it straight away, but the man who delivered it spoke with the Lease company agent and their words were ‘do not worry - all these problems will be fixed by us.’

Then the famous August shutdown followed so nothing was done, no emails were answered and we were left with a car with various problems that needed fixing - and fast.

The cars advertised on their website are supposedly fully serviced, well looked after and maintained, and in excellent condition. This was not the case with our car. The service light was on when we took delivery, there was a problem with the passenger seat belt not retracting and there was ‘serious juddering when driving off’. All of these faults were reported on delivery date.

Since then, we have found it difficult to get answers to our followup emails asking for this repair work to be carried out and for them to pay for it. Our fear is that if it is not done soon, serious problems would occur and would be very costly to repair.

We had the car serviced today and even though it is just over 2 years old, the garage reports that the two front tyres need replacing and realigning.

We feel that we should not be held responsible for previous owners having abused and misused the car, which is clearly what has happened with such a young car.

So how do we get this company to admit they have sold us a faulty car and for them to pay for the necessary repairs. The car is still under the Renault warranty but we have no idea how we go about getting them to agree that they will pay for these repairs.

Our emails remain unanswered. We originally thought that if the car was fixed, we would be prepared to keep it but we now think that to commit for 5 years to a car that was not in a good state when it was delivered is not the best way to go.

Unfortunately as I mentioned, our French is not good enough for a conversation so it would have to be a google translate email.

So what advice can you give us to point us in the right direction please.

2

I know nothing of leasing cars @Rachel05 beyond understanding what it is, but it strikes me that the first thing you need is a bi-lingual friend or at least, as I have, a French friend who can relate to you in slow, or even written, French that you can understand.

Secondly perhaps get a legal opinion (by the same method if necessary) of whether and how in these circumstances you can get out of this contract. Even if it is fixed now I sense you will never feel comfortable driving it.

Best of luck. :slightly_smiling_face:

3

I am a bit confused here so excuse me. I do not understand why you took delivery when the warning light came on, surely you should not have left the garage and refused to take it. I always thought and family members have had leased cars, that they were new cars only and not occasion as the leasing company/garage are responsable for all servicing etc and then at the end of the period you have signed up for you can either pay and buy the vehicle or start again. That is my take on the vehicle and it sounds to me like you have signed up for something totally different. On a different note, a friend here bought a four year old car off one of the internet direct to customer sales site and because a problem arose after a few months, they offered to take it back and repair or refund his money in full. He decided to get his money back and just as well he did ashis grandad offered him a better vehicle at no cost. If I were in the OP shoes, I would go to the local Répression des Fraudes office and speak to them, I have used them a few times when we have had problems with telephone companies and they sorted it quickly and freely. They can give you advice.

4

Thank you both for your input.

@David¬_Spardo – In an ideal world, we would love to have a bi-lingual friend who could help us. We live in a very small hamlet and our nearest neighbours are a non-English speaking OAP couple. We are not involved with many English folks so can’t get any help there. I really don’t want to go down the legal route yet – I’m sure things will sort themselves out, if only they would answer our emails. I think our next move is to get in touch with a translator to see how they can help us. I think this is something that can be done either over the phone or by email. I don’t think it warrants a home visit.

@shiba – the car was delivered to us, we did not collect it from a garage. LLD can involve you leasing a new car or an occasion one. You can pick and choose many extras or options like whether you want to include maintenance/service. Dependent on whether you choose LOA or LLD (which we chose), at the end of the term you can either take on another car or, in our case, we have the opportunity to pay for a further 18 months and the car becomes ours. The driver who delivered the car did say that if we weren’t happy with it we could change it for another one but we can’t even get anyone to answer our emails. The guy who ‘sold’ us the car did write to say that he had passed the file on to the After Sales people but whomever we write to, there is no response.

I’m not one for being heavy handed and as I said above, I don’t want to go down the legal route just yet. All I want is what was advertised and promised – a clean, well maintained car.

5

That is commendable but I think you need to start being firm and with the force of the law behind you unless you want to be locked into paying for an unusable vehicle.

If it were me I would visit my local mairie and ask if they can recommend a source of help.

6

No things won’t sort themselves out. There is normally a length of time, sometimes not much at all, within which you must reject an unacceptable item. In tbe law, and it may be, or have to be, in the contract.

My fear would be this company could be going bust.

I don’t know the law on this but as well as taking other posters’ advice above, I’d be at the door of the mairie to ask for help as soon as they open and, as our Poste is there too, I’d take paper, pen and envelope ready to send a notice of rejection that same day by post to the company’s official address, Recommandée with Avis de Réception (it’ll cost about 11 euros). Or whatever the mairie advises. Take the contract with you.

I hope my guess above turns out to be all wrong, and not needed, but I wouldn’t take the chance.

PS if it’s still under guarantee you could maybe take it to a Renault Main Dealer and get a quote for everything to be fixed. Don’t let tbat delay whatever it takes to reject the car. For one thing a devis would be good evidence of the faults with tbe car. However this looks like so much time has elapsed the company could accuse you of the damage so time is of the essence.

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