A car dealership allowed a staff member to take a customer's car home and drive 22 miles after the vehicle had been returned because of a safety issue. Beverley McClarnan, 46, says she believes the staff member used the vehicle on the school run.
Ms McClarnan, 46, had bought the car for her daughter's 18th birthday and said she had used a Ford car pass app to track the vehicle as it was driven around Swansea after it went into the dealership. She said it was returned dented and dirty with muddy footprints and ash left inside.
The dealership, Motorpoint in Llansamlet, Swansea, has apologised to Ms McClarnan and purchased the vehicle back from her. It said the staff member had used the vehicle as part of a company-approved process to test intermittent faults but denied it had been used on the school run.
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Ms McClarnan said she had bought a car from Motorpoint on May 7 and was expecting it to be ready with celebratory balloons for her daughter's birthday on May 20 but said it had not been prepared. They later realised it did not have cruise control as advertised so it was swapped for a black Fiesta Vignale. But her problems did not end there.
Within weeks, her daughter noticed the air bag warning light had appeared on the dashboard. As the light would come on and off. Staff at Motorpoint told Beverley and her daughter that unless she brought the car in when the light was on there was nothing they could do.
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"This was my worst nightmare as a mother. This is my daughter driving in a car where the air bag might not work properly. The safety issues are terrible," said Beverley. When she finally was able to bring the car in with the light on, Beverley's daughter was told the car was safe but when her mother joined her the staff member then agreed it needed to be looked at.
After leaving the car at Motorpoint on Monday, Beverley's daughter got a notification from her Ford Pass Car App at midnight on Wednesday October 10. The app records every trip she makes in the car, tracks the distanced travelled, tells her where the car is parked, when the doors are opened and how much fuel she has left.
Strangely, a new milestone had been reached on the app at midnight meaning someone was driving her car. Then at 2:37am the car was parked in Clydach and at 7:41am the passenger and rear door was opened. Around fifteen minutes later the car was outside a local school and then at 8:08am the car arrived at Motorpoint.
Beverley called the Swansea branch the next morning and was told by a staff member that it was standard procedure for staff members with a driveway to take home cars. Beverley said that prior to this phone call she had called Motorpoint's head office twice and had been told it was not standard procedure to do this.
When her daughter went to collect her car after work that day, she burst into tears. "It was in such a state," said Beverley, adding that there were muddy footprints on the door frames, white ash inside the car, chewing gum on the car mat and a dent on the back passenger door. There were handprints on in the backseat of the car where the pockets of the seats in front appeared to have been rummaged through.
Beverley said her daughter's personal space had been invaded and claimed that there was no camera footage on the dashcam as the entire SD card had been deleted. The Ford app showed the car had an additional 22 miles on the mileage from the journeys. Beverley and her daughter were offered a £100 valet service by Motorpoint but Beverley wanted more to be done. With her family at high-risk of Covid, she was not happy that the car had so clearly been used for the school run.
"It was just catastrophe after catastrophe," said Beverley. "I came down with the flu, I was ridiculously stressed. None of my friends or family will get cars from there now." Motorpoint bought the car back from Beverley on October 28. Beverley said she was told by Motorpoint that it was standard procedure for staff members to take home cars to identify issues with them but this should be agreed with customers first and the cars should not be used for personal trips.
The concerned mother added: "I want people to know that Motorpoint will allow workers to take home your car and use it to take their children to school and pick up their friends."
A spokesperson from Motorpoint has said they have very strict rules in place regarding security, mileage and usage when a car is driven to a team member's home.
The spokesperson said: "Motorpoint takes the satisfaction of its customers incredibly seriously. In the course of our thorough internal investigation of this particular case, we have been disappointed to learn that there have been areas where we have fallen below the very high standards we demand of ourselves. Where this is the case, we apologise unreservedly.
"In this particular case, as a gesture of goodwill and in recognition of any inconvenience caused, we arranged to buy back the customer’s car and to cover all agreed costs. As far as we are concerned this brings the matter to a close although our learnings will continue.
"However, we do dispute the customer’s full narrative of events, most notably around the issue of the vehicle in question having been driven to an employee’s home overnight. On this point, we wish to offer clarification and reassurance.
"Although not common practice, from time-to-time it is necessary for members of our vehicle preparation team to drive a customer’s car in real world conditions when a fault has been reported that cannot be identified using electronic diagnostics on site. This could be so the team can pinpoint a reported squeak or a rattle for example.
"This sort of real-world diagnostics is only ever carried out by a fully insured preparation specialist and only when strictly necessary. On occasion, to expedite the process for the customer, this testing may involve the team member driving the vehicle on their journey home. Where this is the case, we have very strict rules in place regarding security, mileage and usage.
"In this particular case, the customer’s car driven directly to and from the team member’s home and was parked overnight on a secure off-street driveway with security lighting and CCTV. Footage from the CCTV surveillance shows that the car did not move all night.
"Additionally, we categorically refute the accusation that a member of our team deliberately wiped the memory of the customer’s dashcam device. To protect the privacy of our customers and staff, it is standard practice to disable these kinds or recording devices while the car is in our care."
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