Apologies for the long-winded story.....



I bought a car from new 18 months ago from a Mazda dealership (A). The sales guy got me to buy a bluetooth device with it.
I checked that it would be covered under the car warranty.

Over the last few months, it's stopped working properly; the other person can hear when I speak, but their voice doesn't come through the speakers.

I eventually got around to taking it to a different dealership (B). They had a look last week and weren't sure it would be covered under warranty as it wasn't a Mazda product. But they said they would contact dealership A to see if they would cover the labour costs if it was found not to be under the Mazda warranty. The service guy (not service manager) at A said yes.

B's service manager contacted me Monday morning to let me know this, and we arranged that I'd bring the car in first thing on Wed morning. Which I did. I dropped the car off and went round to pick it up a few hours later. The loom was found to have not been secured properly and rattling around inside. When it was put back in position and secured using a cable tie, it worked fine.

Service manager at B contacted service department at A, who spoke with their service manager. He refuses to pay. So dealership B refuse to give me my car back unless I pay for it myself.

I think WTF?!!! Why should I pay? I was told this would be covered either under Mazda warranty, or by dealership A. Otherwise I would have either taken the car back to dealership A at some point, or not had anything done at all.

Neither A nor B budge, and B won't give me my car key back.

So I call Mazda UK customer service and they say they are sympathetic and will be launching an investigation. But they tell me that the only thing I can do is pay, and try and get money reimbursed after the investigation (obviously, depending on the outcome).

I had no choice but to pay the money to get my car back.

I have some sympathies with dealership B as they acted in good faith with dealership A, but ultimately it's not my fault they didn't get anything concrete from dealership A. I acted on what they told me, and I would not have bothered getting anything done if I had any idea I would have to pay for it. Furthermore, dealership B did not tell me anything about costs when I handed the car over and before they started work on it. (In fact, the service manager at A told me I was well within my rights not to pay anything. But what the heck was I supposed to do??!)

The question now is, what can I do if I don't end up getting my money back? Do I have any recourse at all, and if so, with whom?


Based on this experience, I certainly won't be buying a Mazda again.

 

Are we talking about much money?

 

Not very much in the scheme of things. Why?

 

Just that in the grand scheme of things the options you have may be more hassle than they're worth.

I do however appreciate how frustrating these things are.

I presume you have now paid to release your car. Did you pay by credit card?

 

My thoughts too.

If it's £100 or so I'd put it down to experience; your time is more valuable spent doing what you do rather than dealing with dealership pond-life.

FWIW a friend's partner has been shafted recently by a Mazda dealer.

 

I generally go with the philosophy that the principle of the consumer not getting shafted is more important.

The absolute cost bears no relevance AFAIAC.

But yes, I had to pay up to get my car back (by debit card). I'm very happy to cause them as much headache as possible though. I just wondered which avenues one could pursue.

And I have plenty of time on my hands.....

 

In that case I'd suggest a social media smear campaign.

 

You should have just turned up with your spare and drove off, its the priniciple of it as they agreed to pay?

Childish I know but if you dont get your money back test drive one of there better cars and take it to an empty car park and rag the crap out of it.... make sure you have some fun and take it back with bald tyres and a rattly engine........ value for money then

 

I'd wait for the outcome of the investigation and the fight your cause with Mazda.

Its certainly a right jumble of shit with you being the one that suffers.

 

That's against the law. Whilst in the custody of a garage, they are the lawful owners of the vehicle