Tuna Acciaioli

My experience with MotoNovo Finance has been nothing short of devastating. I entered into a car finance agreement in good faith, only to discover that I had been deliberately misled by the dealer about the APR. From the very first day, I raised issues: the car had multiple faults, no service history was ever provided despite me begging for it, and the dealer never even registered me as the legal keeper.

I attempted to cancel the agreement literally one day after the cooling-off period, which ended on a weekend, and I lawfully rejected the car within 30 days. Yet MotoNovo refused to acknowledge my rights. Instead, they continued taking money from my account, putting me in arrears, and threatening me daily with action.

I explained again and again that I am a single mother of two. I told them I had no car to take my children to school and was desperate for help. I even reached out to the CEO of their parent company, Aldermore Group, but they did nothing.

MotoNovo has breached FCA rules and the Consumer Credit Act by failing to treat me fairly, ignoring their duty of care, and disregarding clear consumer rights. Their treatment has been ruthless and predatory, showing no compassion, no accountability, and no respect for the law.

If you value fairness, honesty, and even the most basic level of care, avoid MotoNovo at all costs.

MotoNovo just replied with the below LUDICROUS comment: We will assign a complaint handler and resolution may take 8 weeks. Here is my response:

YOUR REPLY MAKES ZERO SENSE. YOU ASSIGNED A COMPLAINT HANDLER 5 WEEKS AGO AND THEY HAVE GIVEN ME THEIR FINAL RESPONSE. YOU ARE REFUSING TO HONOUR YOUR LEGAL OBLIGATION TO END THE CONTRACT AND REFUND ME MY DEPOSIT. INSTEAD YOU HOUND ME DAILY. I REQUESTED EVIDENCE OF THE SECCI SIGNED BY ME TWICE NOW, WHICH IS AN FCA MANDATED DOCUMENT WHICH MNF KEEP DODGING.

SCAMMERS! AVOID!! We ordered a £35 bath mat from here which was advertised as “Luxurious and Cloud like to step on”. Many weeks later we received a piece of cardboard from China covered with a thin lining of the cheapest, most disgusting polyester on. They have an attractive website with very good photos and videos which is how they get you. Shameful.

BEWARE, THIS COMPANY IS A SCAM! I took and initial assessment on this company’s website and immediately reached out to them to cancel any automatic renewals of my trial (Because I know these companies tend to have auto-subscriptions in small print). My first email to them was almost immediately after I took out the trial - on the 2nd June - to which they replied with instructions to cancel in the app. Their instructions did not work and I followed up with another email on the 5th of June explaining clearly that I was not able to cancel via the app and that I needed them to manually cancel any subscriptions they might have activated. They never replied to me. A month later I found out they have been hitting my account with £55 subscription fees! When I reached out to them, they explained to me that their terms and conditions explain that I need to cancel my subscription within 14 days. I told him I never even took a subscription but because I know how these companies operate I still had emailed them immediately to make sure no subscriptions were activated . But clearly, they still have gone ahead and activated the subscription and blatantly stole my money. I am now disputing this via my bank .

My call was handled by Bethany who was super efficient and a pleasure to deal with. She provided me with numerous options very clearly and succinctly, and arranged a good warranty plan that suited my needs and budget - all was done very expediently. So far I am impressed!

About a month ago, I bought a pair of white floating shelves from this company who trade via the B&Q Marketplace. They sent me a pair of black shelves instead of white. I messaged them and they got back to me several days later asking for pictures of the shelves and the label which I sent back to them. Since then I have been chasing them non-stop to get my money back. They wrote to me to say they sent me a replacement pair to which I replied that this is not what I wanted as I have already bought an alternative pair elsewhere. The lady who dealt with this via email appears to be profoundly incompetent and told me that in that case she would stop the dispatch and refund me - several weeks later there still no refund.

PLEASE READ!!!! SCAMMERS! I purchased five ceiling pendants from Homediy For approx. £450, however, very shortly after discovered that many other sites had the same pendants for at least 30 to 40% cheaper. I messaged Homediy within two hours of placing the order (as they do not have a contact number, being in China!). I told them I would like to cancel my order because I have found the products much cheaper elsewhere. They got back to me the next day and offered me a £100 gesture of goodwill if I kept the products. I responded to say I would still like to cancel and a full refund. In the meantime, their charge was showing on my bank account as pending. They completely disregarded my email and proceeded to take the money out of my account and even had the audacity to send me an email to say “we are now processing your order”. Just to be clear, their terms and conditions state that cancellations within 24 hours are free of charge and the customer is entitled to a full refund. However, just like many other reviewers here what they actually do is they pretend that they have not seen your cancellation request and proceed to process your order and do not refund. My bank has now initiated a dispute with them and refunded me the amount, but these kind of companies leave a really bad taste in one’s mouth because they have no values, no sense of ethics and they are simply out to get you. Every penny means a lot to them so their terms and conditions are actually absolutely meaningless.

I had a dispute with a furniture company who adamantly refused to refund me for a returned office chair on the basis that it was assembled. Samantha Harris from the Furniture Ombudsman brought this dispute to a very rapid resolution by contacting the furniture company and working through a resolution. Although I was not able to receive a full refund, I got back a significant partial refund. I am very happy with the speed and effectiveness with which the Furniture Ombudsman assisted me. Much appreciated.

I purchased an office chair from Woods to help me feel more supported while working from home, as I have suffered a recent severe back injury. The chair came in 4-5 parts which my partner put together for me. Unfortunately, I found the chair to be uncomfortable and not suitable for my needs. I contacted Woods, who sent me instructions to send it back. I packaged the component parts carefully with bubble wrap and put it in its original box, taping it with strong tape, ensuring no damage would occur during transportation. To my surprise, I received a message from Woods stating that they would not issue me with a refund as I had assembled and disassembled the chair. I explained to them that I had not used the chair and I had only assembled it to test the back support. I stressed the fact that I put the chair back together extremely carefully and even with more protective wrapping than it came in before. The customer service representative was very unsympathetic even though I sent her an image of my MRI and explained that the reason I had purchased the chair was for the high back support and I had no way of assessing its suitability for my needs without actually putting the chair together. The customer service agent was very unsympathetic and uncaring and demonstrated extreme inflexibility, and despite me quoting relevant parts of the Consumer Act that protects customers against this kind of unfair rigidity when it comes to returning furniture that cannot be assessed without being unboxed, she stood her ground like a dog with a bone, offering absolutely no compromise or even understanding. It was as if she was reading from a manual, and like a parrot, kept regurgitating their senseless refund policy. Definitely will not be purchasing anything from them and would discourage anyone who does. They really do not understand customer satisfaction or goodwill, which is a shame. They gave me the impression of being in business solely for profit and nothing else, judging by the vehemence they safeguarded whatever tiny margin they make off this £89 chair. Petty and embarrassing, really.

Fantastic company - Vast range of carpets to suit every budget, and super fast delivery. Have bought many rugs from them over the years.

Attn:

ARVAL CUSTOMER SERVICES / ARVAL TOTAL LOSS TEAM

3rd October 2024

Re: Refusal by Arval to provide legally required data to contracted client.

To whom it may concern;

I am writing to advise you that since requesting a settlement figure last Friday morning (27/09/24) I have still not heard back from yourselves re: the settlement value of the car registered YY70 UXE which was written off as result of an accident whilst under an existing lease agreement I have with Arval.

Arval’s refusal to provide this data which I am legally entitled to, has resulted in significant distress to me and my family as a result of the uncertainties surrounding the financial resolution of my claim against third party’s insurer.

No doubt you will appreciate that a traumatic accident like the one we had where a 12-year-old child was involved would already take a toll on any family. Both my son and I continue to suffer the physical and psychological effects of this accident. However, we had expected the resolution of our claim to go relatively smoothly, as the accident was due to no fault of our own.

Sadly the entire process has been blocked by yourselves, who are refusing to collaborate and issue a settlement figure that I can provide my vehicle insurance company.

In the meantime, I continue to pay for the lease of this vehicle which I no longer have access to.

Without the settlement figure we remain in complete uncertainty as to whether we will be able to claim the remaining contract value from the third-party or whether we will be able to afford another vehicle which we are reliant on to be able to continue our normal lives.

The impact of this financial uncertainty has been very challenging to deal with at an already stressful time for our family.

Our insurance company has now provided us with legal assistance. We would like to give you notice of our intention to take this matter to court should we not hear back from yourselves with the settlement data that we have requested, within 24 hours of this notice.

Tuna Acciaioli





HORRIFIC CUSTOMER SERVICE!!!! LEFT ME IN A COMPLETELY AWFUL SITUATION.
My lease car was written off after my car was hit in an accident. I cannot make any progress with the insurance companies until I get a settlement figure from Arval but Arval simply do not get back to my emails. Me, the lease company and the insurer have all been trying to get this info from Arval for a week now (The Total Loss team can only be contacted by email apparently and there is actually NO ONE there I am sure of it!) So now I have been paying for a car for over two weeks that I no longer have and I am not even allowed to cancel the direct debit as they harassed me already when I did and I cannot settle the matter with the insurance to get another car so me and my young children absolutely stuck. I will report this to the Ombudsman no doubt when it’s all over so others don't have the same happen to them. Horrific experience - made the pain of the accident far worse for me.

I bought two Myers Briggs tests for £1.95 each and Blossomup.co signed me to a subscription for £49.90!!!!! Without my authorisation! Nowhere on the MB test screen or before or after was there any mention of this! If there was, it must have been so conveniently hidden The only place they inserted anything about a subscription is in the order confirmation email for the MB reports I bought and it was all the way at the bottom of the email. I find this so profoundly unethical and predatory. This is people’s hard earned cash. I am a single mother with two small kids and I cannot afford this kind of expense for nothing. I wrote to them and awaiting a response.

Horrific customer service - stay away! 1 year after I spent £300 on a home wifi unit, it stopped working. No telephone service and three separate “live agents” ended the chat abruptly midway through “technical support”. So zero technical support and we don’t have internet in the office room.

***** UPDATE******* In response to their reply below, I called Close Brothers who told me a pack of lies and once again did not help. I have letters written by their own staff on their own letterhead, (and so do Experian) admitting their error and promising to remove the default marker, several times, since the 14th of December - how they can deny any knowledge of this matter until late February is simply unfathomable.
Today I was told they actioned it on the 6th March - speaking to Experian, this again turned out to be false information. I have now left the matter in the Financial Ombudsman’s hands and my partner has initiated legal proceedings through his company’s legal firm as this has had a significant impact on our financial status, our ability to take out a mortgage on a family home, and caused a great deal of emotional distress and reputational harm.

ORIGINAL POST DATED 20 MARCH:
Close Brothers erroneously entered a default marker on my credit file in August 2023. This was an error on their part and I disputed this on the 14th December. Close Brothers agreed to their error and removed this entry in December 2023, remediating the problem. However, in January 2024 they added the erroneous default entry back to my credit file for reasons unbeknown. I contacted Close Brothers once again and they once again agreed that my account was up to date and the default entry was inaccurate. Simultaneously, Experian have been fighting my corner as they can see this issue has been going on for sometime and despite having many other credit accounts I have never ever had any arrears let alone defaults on any of them. I raised a formal complaint with Close Brothers in early February upon seeing that months later that the issue was still not resolved. Their complaints team assured me the entry would be removed. Today is the 20th of March and my credit rating is still showing the horrific impact of the erroneous default entry. Close Brothers are an utterly incompetent, unethical and uncaring company who have no qualms destroying people’s lives - they have ruined my credit score when I had never ever defaulted and never done so in my entire life. They have messed both myself and Experian around for months and months. I have now raised this with the Financial Ombudsman as I am literally at my wits end so are all the lovely people at Experian who have fought with me to get this utter mess cleaned up.

SHOCKING. Didn’t deliver the packing materials they promised. Damaged MOST of our furniture and clothes. Several valuable items dissapeared. Dumped our clothes without any protection on van floors. Delivered at 9:15pm and finished assembling our babies’ beds by midnight. Kids slept on the floor. Denied all liability and told us they won’t even review our claim for damages for lack of “activating the insurance” that they so heavily advertise! Images we took from within their van prove how reckless and uncaring they were with our life belongings. Calls to their three directors were unreturned over 2 days. Started legal proceedings today. Hugely hurt by the way we were treated and will seek compensation.