Cinch complaint – what would you do?

We brought a car via Cinch and it happened to need a fix under warranty which was dealt with quickly and easily at a main dealer (one of the keys was a bit broken so it was replaced). While the car was with the dealer they checked it over and found that one of the brake callipers was missing a bolt. This was also repaired under the warranty and I’m pretty happy that the car is in good condition now. I don’t want to return the car under the 14 day policy because I’m otherwise happy with it.

I’m pretty shocked that the car made it out of their “255 point inspection” with half a brake not even attached to the vehicle so I made a complaint. I feel like if it weren’t for the key replacement happening at the dealership then this wouldn’t have come to my attention until the next service, the next MOT or maybe more likely an accident caused by the faulty brakes.

They’ve just responded to my complaint offering £50 which doesn’t feel particularly adequate given the potential consequences. I don’t really know what I actually want out of this apart from feeling like £50 doesn’t cover it, what do people think is fair? What would you do?

Interesting.
Nothing to contribute but just following to see what people say. Got my van back from MOT and rear brake caliper,disc and pad replacement with loose wheel nuts.
Similar as in no harm done but could have been bad.

Yeah exactly, on the one hand I’m not out of pocket, no harm was done and it’s fixed. On the other hand 😱 THE BRAKES WERE NOT ATTACHED TO THE CAR 😱.

I don’t really know what I actually want out of this apart from feeling like £50 doesn’t cover it, what do people think is fair? What would you do?

Really need to figure out what you’re after. Is it money (when you’re not actually out of pocket) or just a proper apology?

Personally I think I’d just be after an apology, would take the £50 for the inconvenience of having to go to the garage at all, and leave it there

So how much were you expecting?

I’d take the £50 and order a massive takeaway.

So how much were you expecting?

That’s the thing, I don’t really know? I suppose:

I’d take the £50 and order a massive takeaway.

…is about the right answer?

How far had you driven the car before it went in for the warranty work?

I suspect if its any amount of distance, they could claim that it has worked loose or similar (highly unlikely i know).

It sounds like they want to resolve the issue and try and please you. Which is a damn sight more than some companies would do. Was there any request of proof or a report required?

As others have said, decide what you want from them and go from there.

If not, enjoy your free take-away and beer :D

I’d threaten them with returning it and squeeze them for £100 and have a right old bender.

Take the £50 and realise your a lucky sod :)

geordiemick00
Full Member

I’d threaten them with returning it and squeeze them for £100 and have a right old bender

Gonna look like a right dick if they call your bluff and you end up handing back a perfectly good car

You have said you dont want to return the car because you are ‘otherwise happy with it’

But you are feeling as though you havent had enough compensation for some risk you have suffered…….i will let you into a little secret in purchasing a vehicle. There are absolutely no 100% guarentees. Even new vehicles have failings off the production lines. Bolts threaded. Fluids incorrect. Torques incorrect Etc etc. It happens and it will be 10x more likely on a used vehicle.

How do you want to play this? Do you want £100…..£1000…What do you want?

Even worse for you. If the car went through the 255 point checks and this issue was missed. What if there are loads of other things they have missed……OMG

You have a nice car, its had its key sorted and they thankfully found another issue which they corrected. They have even given you some money as way of an apology. Personally i would be thinking that at least i know the warranty will stand up if needed and the company listened to me.

Had they not told you about the bolt and simply fitted it, you’d be none the wiser.

Maybe the 255 point inspection doesn’t cover the brake bolts (I’d be genuinely surprised if it did) and it’s just that an eagle eyed mechanic spotted it and did it? Maybe there was no missing bolt and a mechanic just said that to look good to his boss?

Take your £50 and be happy with something for nothing.

Joys of buying any second hand vehicle, the 255 point check is generally a marketing gimmick, is the washer bottle topped up, do the light work (checking all of them probably accounts for 20 of the checks). Is it even realistic to expect them to check every little thing? How likely is it a brake calliper bolt would be missing? If it had bald tyres, collapsed shocks, windscreen wipers that were ineffective I think it would be fair to expect them to have been checked. If you really want to kick off ask for the list of 255 things they checked, if brake pad wear was one of them you might have cause for complaint because if they missed the bolt they might not have done a check they were claiming they had.

Not a surprise that the 250 point (or whatever it is) is a load of balls. Is it cinch that also claim to ‘refurbish’ the cars,or is that one of the other new secondhand car firms? I wonder what the refurbishment covers, presume means give it a wash and put new tyres on if they’re down to less than 3mm tread left.

So much bull involved in the secondhand car sector, despite all these new buy online firms trying to give the illusion that their secondhand cars are that much better than the secondhand cars you might have bought from your local dealer that you don’t need to see them before you buy, they all just get them from the same places and punt them on after a (very)cursory look over.

It’s all owned by British motor auctions. Webuyanycar buy the cars. They siphon off the ones they want to be sold via cinch the rest go to auction

Dunno what cinch are like

But I bought a car last week. Thought I’d have a look at cazoo.

They were about 1000-1200 quid more expensive than main dealer on all of their vehicles of the style I was looking at (think nearly new Aygo sized vehicles)

Not only that. The vehicles I viewed were largely rough as tits. Now fair play to them They were upfront and honest they showed the issues sure….but they were really charging beyond top dollar. Tbh if I was a betting man I’d have said they were ex hire or ex car club cars going by the damage.

I picked up a rare top of the line model ( a few tiers above anything on cazoo) 1 owner /FSH from a main dealer with none of the poor cosmetics shown on cazoos pictures and paid a reasonable delivery to have it dropped at my door.

And still paid about 700 quid less than the rough looking options from cazoo.

It seems as though they really don’t want you to buy the car either. The whole site is driven to you financing.

All stank of bright House to me.

Not sure what the op actually wants. There is no way checking the torque of a caliper bolt was one of 255 checks.

OP, what is it you want from Cinch?

If you don’t know, is £50 enough to distract you? Or are you concerned the vehicle is hiding some future horror? If the latter just give it back and forget about it.

Despite having my SO by my side at any used car purchase from a Mercedes dealer I always felt uncomfortable. As a trained BMA negotiator my SO is a principled and effective person in this sort of sale so the outcome worked for us and them.

What I found annoying was things such as you have found. Needing a warranty replacement of whatever in the first few months of ownership. Having to replace brake pads and discs at the next service etc etc.

Like you, I am not sure what recompense I expected but I would invariably ask for a discount on parts and service. Getting this was a reasonable thing for both sides. They have their margins. I had my buyer’s remorse.

Since changing my perspective on cars. And wanting a BEV at a time Mercedes said ‘ha ha ha. Ours is just a compliance vehicle’. As a result I have shifted to new cars. Changing jobs has made this possible and it is not something I would have contemplated 5 years ago.

My sister had a similar thing after her Colt had brakes replaced at the Mitsubishi main dealer under warranty as part of a recall. It was a loose bolt on the carrier that had worked loose (the design meant it couldn’t fall out unless you undid the other one too) and was only spotted by the fitter at ATS when she was having a puncture repaired 2 days later. The dealer gave her a free service and sent a bouquet of flowers, which seemed fair.

I wonder what the refurbishment covers, presume means give it a wash and put new tyres on if they’re down to less than 3mm tread left.

I was actually doe the Royal Portbury Docks today doing a delivery and went past the Cazoo prep centre and they were doing lots of work on quite a few cars. Everything from alloy refurb to bumper repairs so some companies do it properly at least.

Here’s food for thought, if they were just replacing a key why would the dealer go to the trouble of randomly putting the car up on ramps to check it over? Out the kindness of their hearts.

Here’s food for thought, if they were just replacing a key why would the dealer go to the trouble of randomly putting the car up on ramps to check it over? Out the kindness of their hearts.

My i3 went in for a recall to swap the slow charger over, it’s just like a big laptop charger. I wanted to just hand in the old one and get the new one back.
They had the car for 45 minutes, had it up on the lift and did their standard vehicle check including a video pointing out my nearly worn out tyres. So yeah, it is a thing.

As for the original question, I’d take the £50 and think nothing more of it.

I fear there’s something of a difference between “one of the brake callipers was missing a bolt” and “THE BRAKES WERE NOT ATTACHED TO THE CAR 😱” in capital letters. Which was it?

I fear there’s something of a difference between “one of the brake callipers was missing a bolt” and “THE BRAKES WERE NOT ATTACHED TO THE CAR 😱” in capital letters. Which was it?

This.
But I would have thought that taking the wheels off checking the brakes would have been of the checks tbh.

One of the brake calipers was missing a bolt, which meant that ‘THE BRAKES WERE NOT (PROPERLY) ATTACHED TO THE CAR” is what I’m betting

I’m in the ‘enjoy your takeaway’ camp.
Ive had a brake caliper bolt work loose shortly after having work done on them, twice, on different cars. So i might be tempted to say it’s not that unusual.
Nobody was hurt, so buy a lotto ticket too, you’re on a roll.

255 point check

Is marketing bollox.

Human error?
It happens I’d move on.
I once replaced a pair of front struts and forgot to tighten the camber adjustment bolts.
I took the car directly for its MOT, which it passed.
On the one way home I took it for a wheel alignment, as it felt a bit odd.

The fitter spotted the MOT sheet on the seat and pointed out the (very loose) camber bolts.

My error not doing the bolts up and the MOT inspectors error not picking up the huge amount of movement in the camber.

don’t really know what I actually want out of this

It would have been better if they had offered £5. Then you could have been really indignant, which is what you seem to have wanted.

Well, if the OP had to faff around taking time off work to sort out issues that Cinch should have spotted before selling the car, then £50 sounds a bit shit to me.

A few more £ wouldn’t go amiss given the hassle.

Thanks for all the responses, I think the main thing you all helped me think harder about was the question of what exactly do I want from this. I’m not too fussed about being compensated beyond the car being fixed (which it was) so £50 seems fine, whatever.

The thing I really want to hear is that they’ve done something to make it less likely to happen in the future. They do list brake callipers as one of the “255-point car inspection” checks so it seems pretty unlikely that this would’ve been missed if the checks had actually been carried out properly.

As far as the £50 goes, I’ve accepted it and will spunk it on the aforementioned massive take away. Having said that I’m already down £20 for taxis to and from the dealership so maybe it’ll need to be fish & chips rather than curry.

Here’s how I responded (they included some excuse about how the last MOT wasn’t carried out by them as if that was a valid reason):

Regardless of who performed the last MOT, would you not expect this to have been picked up during your 255 point inspection? You even list the callipers (as well as brake pads and discs) as one of the things that are checked here https://www.cinch.co.uk/car-inspection

The £50 gesture is appreciated and I’ll accept it with thanks but the real reason for the complaint was to make sure that you know about it and can look into why it happened and hopefully avoid the same thing happening again. Could you please let me know if this has happened?

Doesn’t say what they do with the calipers to be fair and I stand by my previous statement. The only way a torque wrench(or any wrench) went near that bolt was if they changed the pads.

I was actually doe the Royal Portbury Docks today doing a delivery and went past the Cazoo prep centre and they were doing lots of work on quite a few cars. Everything from alloy refurb to bumper repairs so some companies do it properly at least.

I work for Cazoo, as part of one of the logistics teams, and we now do a whole lot more work on cars than when it was just refurbishment of ex-Motability and Arval lease cars. Alloys were treated as a consumable, more or less – we didn’t even note it down on arrival inspection unless the wheel had suffered significant damage. Now, we fully refurbish most alloys, either rubbed down and fully repainted, or the diamond cut finish is re-done, we had a machine installed specifically for that purpose, and it’s continually in use. We have an MOT facility being built, and whereas before we had two inspection ramps, we now have six, and we have mechanics on site which we didn’t before. The attention to prep work before paint is almost obsessive, when cost justifies it. We have rejected very high-spec cars, because there was a lot more work needed doing than was initially thought, one of those was an Audi RS6 Avant, which apart from bodywork and paint, also needed a full set of discs and pads, plus a service. That’s £1600 just for the brakes…

We have a number of Porsches in being worked on, along with an Alfa Giulia Quadrifoglio, (sp?), which has just had a full new set of tyres fitted, at probably £360 a corner. We also had a load of Mustangs go through, as well as Teslas, and those probably went out better finished than they came in…

Part of my job, after the cars have been through initial mechanical work, is to take them out for a run, for six miles, and note any possible issues – odd noises, wipers, lights, gear shifts, cruise control, etc. I also get given a list of cars for maintenance checks, which includes checking the screens, tyre pressure, battery voltage, all lights, etc., before they go into the workshops.

A lot of cars just need minor bodywork repairs, we have a bunch of people doing smart repairs, taking out minor dents, etc, without needing paint, and that’s highly skilled work, then there’s smart repairs to interior fittings, like steering wheels where there’s been a disabled handle clamped on; that needs the stitching cut away, the foam rebuilt, and the stitching redone.

Someone above said the cars he looked at were really rough – you could tell that from an internet photo? The ones not considered cost effective are passed on; we had a load of legacy Motability and Arval cars that had been sitting around for ages, some since first lockdown! They were looked at again, and most got taken away on transporters, twelve transporters a day at one point, over 500 cars. The transporters were mostly BCA and Cinch…

I’m going through the workshops every day, and I see the work actually being carried out through the various stages, prep, paint, finishing, etc, so I see it in detail.

Soon, we’ll be able to get our own cars serviced and MOT’d on site with a discount, so again, we’ll see work being carried out on our personal vehicles, not just those for sale.
I’ve been with the company for nearly four years, Cazoo only officially took over last October, and the changes to the standards of cars and work being done are noticeable.

Few years ago I took my new (to me) sports car out for its first run. Got pulled over by the police within half a mile. Apparently no brake lights, despite having passed it’s mot only hours earlier

I kept the car, but didn’t get a penny back from the dealer

If I was op I’d be glad it’s fixed and move on. Ultimately at least you know at least one of your brakes is properly attached now, most folks driving a second hand car don’t know that for definite!

This is really interesting to hear and makes me whish that Cazoo had the particular car and spec that we’d wanted in stock.

Cazoo only officially took over last October, and the changes to the standards of cars and work being done are noticeable.

Don’t suppose you’ll tell us who was in charge before?

Someone above said the cars he looked at were really rough – you could tell that from an internet photo?

Have you viewed your own website ?

I see Cinch advertise as having largest selection of cars for sale(online). Guessing as they ain’t as picky with quality of cars makes sense !!

That is when you click a particular car they have a section called imperfections where they show photos of damage with a cazoo branded ruler next to it. (Which is a positive) ……

Now the size of car I was looking at -significamtly more of their stock(nee all of it) had a high number of imperfections – but were priced against stock at other retailers without that damage ….

I’d threaten them with returning it and squeeze them for £100 and have a right old bender.

We know. You’ve got form I recollect.