TONY HETHERINGTON: £8,500 demands over van driving me crazy

Tony Hetherington is Financial Mail on Sunday’s chief investigator. He battles the reader’s corner, reveals the truth that lies behind closed doors, and wins victories for those left out of pocket. Below you can read how to contact him.

JF writes: I rented a Citroën Berlingo van from PSA Finance on a three-year contract that expires last November.

Due to interruptions during the pandemic, the contract was extended and PSA was scheduled to collect the vehicle on January 25, but the driver did not show up. I was flying abroad the next day so left the keys with a friend and it was collected on the 31st January.

Now PSA Finance has sent letters saying I owe £390 and a separate £8,143. It won’t say why.

Tony Hetherington replies: You were hit with a bizarre set of demands, which were not explained. You have not missed a single payment during the years you have rented the van, and you have returned it in excellent condition with only 18,000 miles on the clock. It has been well maintained while you had it with the last service last November. Yet you received a strange letter from PSA Finance in mid-February. It began: ‘Following our recent correspondence, your £8,143.60 arrears account remains open according to our records.’

This was a breach of contract, the letter added, and further warned that you could face late payment fees, further action and damage to your credit rating. But there had been no such recent correspondence and no arrears. All PSA Finance told you was that you owed thousands of pounds due to an unexplained ‘deficit’. And if this wasn’t bad enough, a separate letter from PSA Finance demanded £390, described as ‘repossession and tracing costs’.

Nevertheless, PSA Finance should not have had to repossess the van. It was delivered as agreed, just as the lease ended. And what tracing was needed? The company knew where you were and where the van was. You told me, “It’s like they’re plucking these figures out of the sky.”

PSA Finance is regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority, so you were entitled to better conduct. I asked the company for comment, and while it was deciding what to tell me, yet another question landed on your doorstep. This one was for £30, described as ‘auction cost’.

I went straight back to PSA Finance and this time the message seems to have gotten across. It told me, ‘Obviously mistakes have been made for which we naturally accept responsibility.’ The company added that you didn’t owe a penny let alone thousands of pounds. You need to ignore any ‘system generated’ correspondence already in the pipeline and your credit was safe.

The closest explanation for all this comes to a breakdown between PSA Finance and the outside company it hired to pick up the van. That company could not find you on January 25, as agreed, and did not answer when you called. However, we managed to find the same address on January 31 and collect the van. PSA Finance considered this an ’emergency collection’, although it’s not clear why, as your lease was valid until that day.

PSA Finance – which has changed its name to Stellantis Financial Services in recent days – has now sent you a written apology and is transferring £800 to your bank account as an apology for the concern it caused.

A parking fine… for charging my car

MW writes: I have received a Parking Charge Notice (PCN) from Parkingeye Limited, which I believe is very unfair.

I charged my electric car in the Asda car park in Ramsgate, Kent. It was a very slow charging point, but the closest to the company I’m with, BP Pulse.

If motorists are penalized for using a charging point, will this deter people from driving electrically?

‘Unfair’: The BP Pulse slow charger takes longer than an hour

Tony Hetherington replies: The blunt truth is that car parks with short time limits are not suitable for slow electric charging points. Asda is pulling in two different directions at the same time, imposing a parking limit of one hour, but offering a charging point that lasts longer than an hour. BP says it has no control over this, as it simply provides the charging point.

Parkingeye told me there are 10 conspicuous signs at the car park indicating that you can register within Asda to stay longer than an hour. But when I followed your route, I found that you would only pass one sign, and it says nothing about registering to stay long enough to charge your car.

If the same rules apply to the charging points as to all other places in the car park, does this not mean that petrol and diesel vehicles can reasonably occupy the electric places? Absurdly, Asda says yes. You are not the first EV driver to be penalized in this way, and Asda is not the only supermarket to operate in this way. When will the government come up with its long awaited fair parking scheme?

If you believe you have been the victim of financial misconduct, write to Tony Hetherington at Financial Mail, 9 Derry Street, London W8 5HY or email tony.hetherington@mailonsunday.co.uk. Due to the large number of questions, no personal answers can be given. Only send copies of original documents, which unfortunately cannot be returned.