GDPR Car Dealership Issues

[Redmountie]

Good evening fellow Cagers, 

 

I was hoping that someone would be able to give me some advice on next steps. 

 

I recently purchased a brand new car from a car dealership.

Unfortunately there has been several issues with the vehicle. 

This has resulted in having to contact my local dealership to arrange to take my car to them. 

 

I did this and they were unable to fix the issue. 

Whilst there I had some really bad customer service

phoned the dealer principal to complain. 

 

The dealer principal was extremely rude on a phone call conversation, subsequently resulting ie me making a complaint to the national complaints department. 

 

As the dealer is independent, but still branded, they are unable to direct the dealership to provide them with a copy of the phone call. 

I need to get hold of this in order for them to review it. 

They have directed me to speak to the dealership. 

 

I have submitted a GDPR SAR request to the dealer but they have refused to comply with it unless i pay a £10 administration fee. 

Initially, i believed that they were still using the DPA 1998 to process the request, so have submitted a complaint to the ICO, asking them to carry out a statutory assessment of the business. 

 

I have now been contacted by the dealership stating that they are using the GDPR and that they require a £10 administration fee as they believe my request is "manifestly unfounded" and that under the circumstances they can charge a fee.  They have not elaborated any further than this. 

 

I believe the reason they are doing this is because the dealer principal (who coincidentally is also the data controller refusing to comply without payment) knows that the complaint is about them and that the evidence will show how rude and inappropriate he was on the phone. 

 

Has anyone got any advice please?

[London1971]

It's free now, the £10 was abolished under GDPR.

 

If they don't comply, and for free you can report them to the ICO for non compliance. They are the one's risking a huge fine, you have nothing to lose.  Just sit back, wait for the 40 days then make a complaint.

[honeybee13]

Can you tell us the name of the dealership please?

 

HB

[ericsbrother]

they can charge you to supply a copy of the call if the format you want is one that will put them to considerable cost or effort. A free copy would be somehting like a MP4 file and having the data burnt onto  a disc would be considered extra so lawful to charge for.

Companies do like to abuse this, foxglove energy being an example

[BankFodder]

It is worth making a complaint to the ICO – at least to have it on record.  The only problem is that since GDPR, the timescales for the ICO dealing with consumer complaints has increased catastrophically.

 

If you make a complaint to the ICO, you will have to break their arms in order to get a reference number and then eventually when you do, they will then inform you that after the issue of the reference number it will take anything from six weeks to 3 months before the complaint is even allocated to an investigator.

 

Before GDPR there was a much smaller level of complaint, you would normally get an email within six weeks expressing an opinion that such and such company were unlikely to have complied with their data protection obligations.

 

Personally I think the GDPR has backfired. I don't think it has changed anything other than opened a deluge of complaints to the ICO which because the ICO is under-resourced, has played into the hands of the companies because they are even less worried than before about complaints being made about them because by the time the complaint is looked at, the complainant is fed up or has forgotten about it and anyway, or the matter they are dealing with such as a complaint against a bank or against a utility company has moved on.

 

Anyway, make the complaint in order to get a paper trail.

 

 

[fkofilee]

**IMPORTANT**

 

Your first request to a company for information is never chargeable. It is only subsequent requests that are chargeable if there is no fault on part of the Data Holder (IE - They included everything but you have requested more that should have been requested 1st time round.)

[BankFodder]

What is the name of the car dealership please – I think you have already been asked this.

Also, didn't you record the call? You've been here since 2006 and our customer services guide has been around since almost that time. It is always going to be very difficult to get hold of a recording of a conversation which Incriminates the company that you are trying to retrieve it from.

[BankFodder]

Still waiting for the name of the car dealership on this please.