Paying for Peugeot's Just Add Fuel, now have to pay extra charges

A question about : Paying for Peugeot's Just Add Fuel, now have to pay extra charges

Hi everyone,

2 years ago this month I bought a Peugeot 107 on their Just Add Fuel deal. A great little deal (I thought), where for a monthly payment I could drive a new car, get the insurance paid for, and have the servicing all included for the next three years. At the time, my car was literally seconds from breaking down for good, and I was 20. So insurance was more the motivator for this deal than anything else.

At the time the contract was explained, I questioned a particular part of it referring to milleage. On the sheet it said 20,000. I asked the salesman what this meant and he said, and I quote Oh that's just to tell Peugeot how many miles you'll do in the three years. It's nothing to worry about and it shouldn't affect you. At which point I said that I'd do a lot more than 20,000 in the three years, he laughed and said Ah it'll be fine don't worry. I signed the contract, and drove off happy enough thinking that I got a good deal.

Well, I didn't.

A year ago, I took my car in to a different dealership to get it serviced. At the time I was commuting from Birmingham to London for work, so the servicing was done at 25,000 miles. I had the car just over one year at this point. When I went back to pick up the car, the guy I was dealing with said that Peugeot won't pay for any more servicing because you've gone over your mileage limit. I questioned him about it, and he told me that when I bought the car I agreed that I would only do 20,000 miles in the three years. I automatically remembered the conversation I had with the guy who sold it to me. I was livid, rang up the dealership and I was told someone would call me back. Three times. Because I had a lot on my plate at that time, I let it slide. I shouldn't have, but I did.

Anyway, it's due another service now at 45,000 miles, a year on. In this time, I've taken it to a KwikFit to get it serviced which cost Ј170. Their salesman called me last Bank Holiday Monday and asked how I was getting on with it. As you can imagine, I ripped in to him, telling him about the servicing, the lack of returned calls, and also how I was driving the car for 6 months with the wrong number plates on (since been fixed by the dealership, who fitted them in the first place). He said he would speak to his manager and get back to me.

Yesterday, (so about 2/3 weeks have passed) I get a call from them reminding me my service is due. I asked the woman to put me through to their manager, where I explained the situation of the servicing, and yet another unreturned call.

We went through it, and basically the manager basically said that I signed the contract and thats final, there's nothing that can be done. Even though I told him I challenged the salesman about the millage, and that I even told the guys in there on more than one occasion I would be doing roughly 12,000/14,000 a year, he said there's nothing that could be done.

Now, I'm fairly sure this amounts to mis-selling doesn't it? I'm not looking to get out of the contract, although really with the way I've been treated I'm tempted. I want the servicing to be covered by the agreement, as that's what I signed up for and that's why I pay the money I pay per month.

Legally, where do I stand with this?

Best answers:

• what was said in a conversation its irrelevant as there is no proof. it comes down to the contract you signed, if you have exceeded the miles then you will be at fault.
• If you knew you would be doing more than 20k in 3 years and the contract said 20k, why did you sign it ?
• I know this is an old post, but I've more news on it.
  Because of the mileage problems, as I've stated, I'm now left with a MASSIVE excess mileage bill, ranging from Ј1,800 to about Ј3,300 (depending which way you look at how it's written).
  I've since written to Peugeot head office to complain about the misselling and misrepresentation. I've also forwarded on my documents to a solicitor, and told him exactly whats gone on and he has confirmed it was missold and misrepresented. The key bit of evidence I have is that when I was talking about my insurance and sorting that out with them, I stated I'd do 12,000 per annum with the car. So they were aware that I'd do much more than that, but willfully put 6,000. I've told Head Office this, and I've told them to look at it which I'm sure they will do.
  With the solicitor, he explained that if this is unsuccessful then I would need to take it to a small claims court. Here it would be a 50/50 case and it's entirely up to the judge. But he said its worth doing as it'll only cost me the money that I spent taking it to court.
  So I'll come back to you all when I have further news.
• Hi Mick
  Just wondered how much did you have to pay. Im 20 and wanting to do this deal but it says you have to be 21. How did you go about doing this?
  Hannah
• and is the insurance only at the low miles?
• It's crystal clear what excess mileage is charged at in these type of deals. So you are asking Peugeot to believe that the salesman lied to you and that you failed to read the contract you signed.
  At best you *may* get a goodwill contribution. However, if the contract had been set up as you wanted you would still have had 14k excess plus an increased premium for three years.
  Plus you have known about this issue for 18months. Sorry but this sounds more like your fault rather than anyone else.
• Same happened to my daughter. Her car gave up the ghost and I saw the just add fuel and thought that would be great for her.
  I visited a Peugeot dealership in Birmingham got her a great deal but as she lived in Colchester she decided to get it from down there. Visited a franchise told the sales guy what she wanted, the deal I had got, and waited for the response. Guy said he could could not match it then he could but not with the 15,000 miles per year she wanted. She said she wanted the 15k as that was her annual mileage and he said "that's no problem if you go over 10k, Peugeot don't check it and we don't bother as we usually contact you about 6 months before the end of the term to offer you another deal". Actual conversation word for word. So as I say is it Peugeot sales speak and to prove the point i received a call today 8 months before the end of the deal, negative equity in the car and for another car Ј7 less per month but dropping from a 207 diesel 5 dor to a 107 petrol 3 door?????
  Like our parents told us "if it sounds too good to be true it probably is"
• My JAF fuel deal leaves us 10,000 per annum and due to some family circumstances we are, after 1 year at 12,500. It would have been easy to do 8-10k before these circumstances changed. We intend to do less miles over this year to recoup the missing miles but it's clear in our contract that excess miles are charged but only at 8p/mile so 1,000 miles over will only be Ј80 and I'm sure we can live with this excess. Circumstances have got better but I'm not sure the main driver (my wife) gets the point of doing 7,500 between now and next March.
  We too had a slippery salesman who sold us (through the just Add Fuel deal) our 5 seater 107 because we occasionally have nieces and nephews stay with us. After the 14 day cooling off period passed (and we discussed if we should send the car back because of the serpent who sold us the car, but we decided that we made that decision to buy) and a few more weeks passed we had our nieces and nephews (three of them) over for a week. We couldn't go anywhere as a family because the 107 only has four seats, so I had to stay at home during my holiday.
  Finally, the finance company (Peugeot) tell us how our payments are going but the payments they say (Ј176.20/month) do not match the Ј192.77 that comes out as direct debit. This is because the Ј16.57 per month is the 'Just Add Fuel payment' taken by the dealership every month and Peugeot have so far been unsuccessful in explaining what this payment is, does and entitles us to. It seems to be another way of ripping us off. The salesman did not highlight it in our sales pitch, and there was an additional piece of paper stapled to the signed agreement which covered this. I tried to get Peugeot to explain this but the whole dealership refused to budge and stated 'but Sir, this is the Just Add Fuel payment, what on earth is the problem?". We go round in circles.