Not upheld: Goods and services under S75 complaint against Alphabet (GB) Limited

Decision detail

Summary

Miss L complained about a car supplied under a contract hire agreement with Alphabet (GB) Ltd, reporting that it cut out intermittently since January 2019. She sought to reject the car as not being of satisfactory quality. Alphabet declined, citing the absence of any identified fault. Multiple inspections by Audi and independent engineers over 764 miles failed to replicate the cutting out issue or identify any fault, though a universal ghost code was found and confirmed to be unrelated to the reported problem. The ombudsman found no evidence of a point of supply fault and concluded the car was of satisfactory quality, therefore not upholding the complaint.

The Ombudsman's reasoning

The ombudsman applied the implied term under contract hire agreements that goods must be of satisfactory quality. Where a fault presents within 6 months, the business must put things right or show the car was of satisfactory quality at point of supply. On balance of probabilities, the available evidence from multiple inspections and testing failed to replicate or identify any fault. The ghost code found was confirmed by the Audi engineer to be unrelated to the cutting out issue. Therefore, there was no evidence of a point of supply fault.

How this compares

Source

Read the original decision on the Financial Ombudsman Service website