COMPLAINTS PROCEDURE 

Complaints Officer Contact Details:

Name: Lisa McMenemy

Telephone: 028 38 338833

Address: Seagoe Industrial Area, Portadown, BT63 5QD, Northern Ireland 

Email: lisa.mcmenemy@prenticegroup.co.uk 

Regulated Complaints:                 

Automotive Compliance Ltd, The Factory, 44 Alfred Street, Gloucester, GL1 4DD

Telephone: 01452671560

E-mail: complaints@automotive-compliance.co.uk

HOW PRENTICE PORTADOWN LTD, TRADING AS PRENTICE MINI, HANDLES COMPLAINTS

We aim to provide a very high standard of service to every client. It is important to us that all complaints are resolved as quickly as possible and to the complete satisfaction of our clients.

Any complaint verbal or written will be referred to our Complaints Officer at the earliest opportunity or to a member of the senior management if the Complaints Officer is unavailable. Our Complaints Officer is responsible for ensuring that we thoroughly investigate any complaints.

On receipt of a complaint we will:

• Acknowledge the complaint promptly
• Make contact to seek clarification on any points where necessary
• Fully investigate the complaint
• Discuss with you our findings and proposed response

Adviser, Provider or Quality of Goods

Clients often express dissatisfaction to their adviser about the product provider, or the quality of the goods. We will need to establish whether or not your complaint relates to the advice given, the advisers service, the service or performance of the product provider, or the quality of the goods. If unclear, this must not delay investigation and we will proceed with our own investigation.

If the complaint is about another party, we will refer details of the complaint to the third party and confirm this course of action to you in writing.

Investigation

The Complaints Officer will establish the nature and scope of your complaint having due regards to the Financial Conduct Authority’s direction:

• Deal with complaints promptly and fairly
• Give complainants clear replies and, where appropriate, fair redress

Complaints Settled within 3 business days – Informal Complaints Process

Complaints that can be settled to your satisfaction within 3 business days can be recorded and communicated via an informal process.

If a solution to your complaint is proposed and you indicate your acceptance, we will promptly send you a ‘Summary Resolution Communication’, being a written communication from us which:

• refers to the fact that you have made a complaint and informs you that we now consider the complaint to have been resolved to your satisfaction;
• We will tell you that if you subsequently decide that you are dissatisfied with the resolution of the complaint you may be able to refer the complaint back to us for further consideration or alternatively refer the complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service;

In addition to sending you a Summary Resolution Communication, we may also use other methods to communicate the information where:

• We consider that doing so may better meet your needs; or
• We have already been using another method to communicate about the complaint.

Complaints which cannot be resolved within three business days

Where the Complaints Officer judges that your complaint cannot be resolved within three business days, or they were unable to resolve your complaint in this period, the formal FCA complaints procedure will be followed. This process requires that we:

• Send you an initial response letter within five days of receiving your complaint, or immediately on realising the informal complaints handling process will not reach a resolution;
• Provide you with details of our complaints handling procedures;
• Fully investigate the complaint and, where necessary, make contact with you to seek clarification on any points;
• Send you a final response letter as soon as possible, but no later than eight weeks after receiving the complaint, detailing how your complaint has been resolved and if any redress will be offered.

Final response

Our final response letter will set out clearly our decision and the reasons for it. If any financial redress is offered, a clear method of calculation will be shown, and it will be paid promptly and in full.

We will include details of the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) in our final response. If you are not satisfied with the outcome, you may be eligible to refer your complaint to FOS. You must refer the matter to FOS within six months of the date of this letter or the right to use this service is lost.

If we cannot resolve the complaint within eight weeks, you may refer your dispute to the Financial Ombudsman Service. This service is free to use. Their consumer helpline is available on 0800 023 4567 or 0300 123 9123 or you can visit their website at www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk

Closing a complaint

Where we receive confirmation from you that you are satisfied with the findings of the investigation and any resolution we have proposed, your complaint will be considered closed.

Where no confirmation has been received from you within four weeks of our final response letter, your complaint may also be considered closed.

BMW COMPLAINTS  PROCEDURE

BMW (UK) Limited (BMW) is committed to providing products and service of the highest standard. But we do understand that sometimes things can go wrong. If you have a concern or are dissatisfied in any way, we’ll do our best to help resolve the situation in a fair and transparent way.

BMW will investigate all complaints competently, diligently and impartially obtaining additional information as necessary. Every complaint will be assessed fairly, consistently and promptly taking into account all relevant factors to ensure a fair outcome for you.

Step 1: Discussion with your BMW Centre.

If you have a concern with either your vehicle or the service you have received at your BMW Centre, please firstly raise this with the Service Manager or Head of Business at the BMW Centre itself. They are best placed to address your concerns and if required, will contact us directly on your behalf.
 

Step 2: Contact us.

Should you remain unhappy with your BMW Centre’s response, please contact us by your preferred method from the list below.

Write to us at:
Customer Service
BMW (UK) Limited
Summit ONE
Summit Avenue
Farnborough
Hampshire
GU14 0FB

Call us on: 0370 5050 160

Calls are charged at the local rate, plus your phone company's access charge.

We're here:
8am - 7pm Monday to Friday

Email us at:
customer.service@bmw.co.uk

What you will need to provide.

To help us investigate and try to resolve your complaint, please provide us with the following information:

• your name and address;
• details of how we can contact you;
• a clear description of your complaint;
• details of what you would like us to do to rectify the situation; and
• if appropriate, copies of any relevant supporting documentation.

Our commitment to you.

We’ll thoroughly investigate your complaint and offer a fair response that will take into account all the information available to us.

We will do our best to resolve your complaint quickly, sending a Summary Resolution Letter if your complaint can be resolved by close of the third business day following receipt. If your complaint relates to our credit broking activities and cannot be resolved by close of the third business day, we will:

• within 5 working days, provide a written acknowledgement of your complaint and give you the details of who is handling the case and how to contact them
• keep you updated on the progress of your complaint, and
• within 8 weeks of receiving your complaint, we will either: write to you with our final response and the reasons for providing this response, or explain why we are not in a position to give you a final response and let you know when we expect to be able to provide it.

In some cases we’ll need to contact your BMW Centre for more information. If appropriate, we may refer the complaint directly to them for information or action.

We may not always provide the answer you are looking for, but we’ll make sure we offer a clear explanation for our decision.

Financial Services

If your complaint relates to a finance agreement with BMW Financial Services, please click below for details on BMW Financial Services’ complaint handling procedure.

Step 3: What if I remain unhappy with your response?

If you are dissatisfied with either our final response, or the reasons for any delay in providing our final response you may be able to ask the Financial Ombudsman Service for an independent review.

To be able to ask them for an independent review your complaint must be in relation to our credit broking activities that is to say any marketing material or recommendations we make in relation to any finance offers from MINI Financial Services, a trading name of BMW Financial Services (GB) Limited, and you must have given us the opportunity to find a resolution first. You must also be a private individual, or a business, charity or trust with an annual turnover of less than 2 million euros and fewer than 10 employees.

If you wish to pursue your complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service you must do so within 6 months from the date on which we send you our final response letter. The Financial Ombudsman’s details are:

The Financial Ombudsman Service
Exchange Tower
London
E14 9SR

Telephone: 0800 0234 567

Email: complaint.info@financial-ombudsman.org.uk

Website: www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk

You may also raise a complaint with any of the trade bodies listed below.

THE MOTOR OMBUDSMAN.

The Motor Ombudsman is the UK's government-backed, self-regulatory body for the motor industry.

Fully-impartial, it is the first ombudsman to be focused solely on the automotive sector, and self-regulates the UK’s motor industry through its comprehensive Chartered Trading Standards Institute (CTSI)-approved Codes of Practice. BMW is accredited to the Motor Industry Code of Practice for New Cars.

Over 7,500 businesses, are accredited to one or more of the Codes covering new cars, sales, vehicle warranties and servicing and repair. These drive even higher standards of work and service, and give consumers added protection, peace of mind and trust during the vehicle purchase and ownership experience.

Address:
The Motor Ombudsman
71 Great Peter Street
London
SW1P 2BN

Telephone: 0345 241 3008

THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION’S ONLINE DISPUTE RESOLUTION SERVICE.

European legislation guarantees consumers:

• fair treatment;
• products which meet acceptable standards;
• a right of redress if something goes wrong.

To help ensure that companies meet the standards set by the European Parliament, consumers now have the right to address their complaint to the European Commission’s Online Dispute Resolution (ODR) Service. For full details please go to: https://ec.europa.eu/consumers/odr/