# Big probroblem with Ge Money & Car dealer



## ggg (13 Apr 2010)

Hi 
Im hoping someone might be able to help but prob not !!
Last year we traded in a car for another car with a dearlership,weeks later dealer went bust .As i was daftly not checking my bank statement often enough , when i did i realised that GEmoney was still taking payments for car that was traded in,.
We contacted dealer eventually and he said vaugely that he THOUGHT he paid settlement . Called GE Money no help, went to a solicitor who said could help maybe but do some more calling around. but he said cancel direct debit which we did as we have already paid about €2000 on a car we dont have ,and now we are been chased for repayments . 
We have made investigations ourseleves and Ge Money removed cars off the dealers forecourt when it went bust and sold off our car in an auction , we have actually seen our car in another town . Ge money will not retur calls or help in any way and we know we are going to get blacklisted if this goes on much longer . at this stage if we never get money back ,but dont want to be blacklisted or what happens when they come to lift a car that we do not have , any help would be great  ,Thanks sorry about spelling


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## Towger (14 Apr 2010)

You are not shouting loud enough at GE. You need to bypass the low level employees and anoy the management. If they only owe you 2k you can still use the small claims court.

Have you tried contacting the liquidator, at the very least they should be able to give you the name of the GE Money people dealing with the dearlership.


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## jack2009 (14 Apr 2010)

write a firm letter setting out your position and highlight that you sold the car to the dealer on x date and that you have over paid by Y.


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## VOR (14 Apr 2010)

My first question and a very importnant one is:
Was this an authorised GE dealer or some back street one man trader? If it was an authorised GE dealer you are in a far better position.

What did the solicitor do apart from telling you to cancel the DD? Did he/she write to GE?

Did you receive a letter from GE to say they were going to repossess your car?

Call GE now and ask to speak to a manager or team leader. Do not accept any one else. General rule is if they answer the phone they are not who you want to talk to. Explain what happened. Then explain that the car has already been lifter by them from the garage and sold. 

Ask for the account to be rolled back to the month when you traded in the car. Ask for your €2,000 back. If the dealer was a GE authorised dealer say that you took him as agent for the the company. Make sure you get them to take it off the ICB immediately.

Get the name of the person you are talking to and write to him/her. Explain AGAIN that the car was traded in. The dealer never cleared the finance. GE took possession of the car from the garage and sold it. You want your €2,000 back and you want the account rolled back to the month the car was traded in.


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## ggg (14 Apr 2010)

Yes I do think it was authorised dealer as he was a Main dealer for peugeot etc .
Solicitor will do more but had advised us to keep at GE money 1st .Have just spoke to them this morning i get through to complaints department as per usual but they will not let me speak to a team leader.
It is through a friend  that worked with dealer that we have found out the car was lifted by GE money and auctioned so its not totally on paper . GE Money keep saying they have no record of the car , but this friend was there when the car was lifted and was actually at the auction . 
Anyway complaints are putting the case forward this morning to team leader and she said she would call back today , but they never have called back so far ,  we have asked them to put account on hold .
What do u mean by roll back account ? 
Getting really mad now at them !!
Thanks for all the replies


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## VOR (15 Apr 2010)

Hi ggg, did you get a call? 
You seem to be saying that you did not receive anything to say the car  would be repossessed. Can you confirm this? It is very importnant. If there were no letters to you then I would argue that the bank did not consider the car to be yours and did in fact consider it to be the property of the garage. In such a case, how could they pursue you for the money?
By roll back I mean that as you had traded in the car, you deserve to recoup the DDs that were taken from that date. The garage were to pay the settlement figure on that date. Why should you keep paying? I'm not saying you will get it but you should look for it.
Also, the bank must know if they sold the car! They will have a record. Have you considered that perhaps another bank took your car by accident and sold it? I'm not saying that happened but it is possible. 

Now that you have started the discussions over the phone you should put it in writing ASAP and mark it for the manager's attention. A quick google search of "ceo ge money ireland" gave me the name of the top person in there. Write to him if needs be. That will get their attention.
PM me if you need anything further. Best of luck with it.


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## Luckycharm (15 Apr 2010)

Was the car on hire purchase or lease? You should also check here to see what history they have of the car- is it still showing in your name? 
http://www.motorcheck.ie/faq/is-there-outstanding-finance


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## lolax (29 Apr 2010)

1st if direct debits were leaving your account then there would have been no reason for the bank to contact you advise they may repo the car.
2nd if you have a copy of your finance agreement have a look at the type and the small print too.
Technically the car is not yours until the last payment if it is a hire purchase - it will say that you cant sell the car without the permission of the owner(which is the bank who gave u finance) and frm previous experince though unfair - if there was no issue with the payments and u didnt notify of ur intent to sell then the bank was not to know the issue and as we were told unless there is an issue with missed payments its not likely a bank would continue to check who the car is registered to.
had this issue with my sisters car previously through another bank and we did sort it out by chasing the dealer in question  - if u got a new finance agreement then record of ur old car being traded in will need to be recorded as it would technicaly be a part payment - if this is the case then  it is in black and white and the garage need to cough up, but with dealer going bust it makes it more messy maybe you would have a chance to recover the money owed when (if not already) dealers assets are liquidated but you would probably have to contact the liquidator - this might not be an option for you but worth a look.


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## MandaC (2 May 2010)

Shocking treatment.  To be honest, you are not aiming high enough with your correspondence.   You need to be more persistent.  Keep a list of anyone you every spoke to within GE.

As VOR said, it is easy enough to get the details of the MD.   Outline what has happened, including the number of phone calls you have placed to the GE team including lack of response.

Send your letter by registered post to the MD.  Request a reply in writing within 14 days.  GE would have to be licensed by the Financial Regulator, no?  State that you are instigating a complaint via the financial regulators statutory complaints procedure and request a letter (cant think to hand of what it is called, but it is more or less to state they have investigated your complaint)

Request your 2k back forthwith from the date of settlement and confirmation that there are no "black marks" against you.   

I work with the MD of a large company and can confirm that this approach works.  Your letter will be dealt with by the people who can and will make decisions.  

Under no circumstances, should you let them away with 2K.  It's your money.
Have a holiday, give it to Charity of your choice, but please do not let it go like that for something that is already paid.

Is there a liquidator involved with the Dealership?  Problem being, is that paperwork may be sketchy, that is probably why they are saying they dont have a record of the car, or whatever, it is there, just all over the place it is easier for GE to chase you.

Once the liquidator was appointed, things start to get messy, so it will be harder to sort out, you need someone at a level that can approach the Liquidator, or person within GE dealing with accounts from that company.  There will be a team dealing with "Dealer Risk" or probably long gone past Dealer risk at this point, but the point I am making is that the basic guys on the phone teams will not be able to deal.

Good luck with it and please keep us updated.


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## bond-007 (2 May 2010)

He needs a Final Response Letter.


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## VOR (4 May 2010)

lolax said:


> 1st if direct debits were leaving your account then there would have been no reason for the bank to contact you advise they may repo the car.



The finance company must follow a set procedures as outlined below


> *Can the owner (finance house) repossess the goods?*
> 
> The finance house can only repossess the goods under certain  circumstances. If the consumer has not yet paid off one-third of the  total hire purchase cost, the owner can  repossess the goods at any time without taking legal action against the  consumer.
> However, if the consumer has paid one-third or more off the total hire purchase cost, the owner cannot  repossess the goods without taking legal proceedings. Any deposit that  is paid at the start of the agreement or the value of any trade-in for  example, is taken into account in calculating one third of the cost.
> If this "one-third" rule is breached by the owner, the consumer is  entitled to end the agreement and can seek a refund of all payments  made.


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