What the Lord Giveth………

Finances are always tough nowadays, unless you’re wealthy already. My car is proving to be a real pain in the arse in terms of unexpected expense, with today’s debacle topping it all off.

The car lease I’m contracted into is administered by BYD leasing, and I recently had a message stating that they overstated the original value of the car, and thus overstated my annual leasing amount by £525. This meant that when the anniversary of the lease comes around in June, I’d be refunded that amount in a lump sum. Great.

My BYD Seal is great in most respects, but the servicing requirements with leased cars always seem over-cautious. I was advised that a service was expected every 12 months or 20,000 miles originally, but the schedule had actually been set at every 12,000 miles. OK then.

I set off to my nearest BYD dealership today for that very service (at just over £400), and thought I’d get a car wash beforehand - Morrisons in Morpeth, Northumberland. Having done that, and noticing that it was an extremely aggressive jet/brush job, I drove up to the garage, parked up, and then noticed that the flap that covers the charging port had disappeared. Damn. Once I’d checked the motor in, I legged it back to the car wash and found the missing bit of plastic. It looked like it would just clip back on, so legged it back to the garage and handed it over.

Cue a telephone call a couple of hours later. The whole little door/flap that covers the charging port needed to be replaced - at a cost of FIVE HUNDRED AND THIRTY TWO BLOODY QUID! There’s no point trying to get compensation from the car wash as I didn’t report it at the time, and the conditions clearly state they take no responsibility for any damage to the car during their process.

Once I’d picked myself up, I had to concede to this ridiculousness and get the car back. The part wasn’t readily available, so will be sorted later in the week. What the BYD lord giveth, the BYD lord taketh straight back.

Honestly……