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Darren Culbard

Darren Culbard

Member since Invalid Date
2
Reviews
3.0
3 out of 5 stars
Average rating

Reviews by Darren Culbard

OC

Octopus Electric Vehicles

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1 out of 5 stars

Multiple Failings

Sales process is opaque, particularly in respect of the lease interest rate, which was never revealed. Challenged this on the basis that this is a financial product (not to mention general commercial transparency with a customer) and therefore regulated. The response to this was that because it is paid for through salary sacrifice the product is not regulated and they won't show the applied interest rate. Not sure that stands up too too much scrutiny... Decided to proceed - effectively had no other option if I wanted a car through the salary sacrifice scheme - and ordered a car. Vehicle that arrived had a material element of the specification wrong. Octopus tried to hide behind the fact that the manufacturer no longer offered this and this was not their fault. The fact that the Octopus ordering system showed the option didn't seem to be a factor. So too, there was no adjustment in the price to reflect that the option that was ordered and priced for (i.e. more expensive) was not delivered. No ownership or accountability. Promise of a charger, which was never caveated, appears to be worthless if you live in an apartment. Every excuse under the sun was used not to install this and there was no genuine attempt to. Also took a very long time to get to the stage of my application for this being rejected - serious delays on availability of engineers. The "4000 miles" alternative to a charger was in no way credible - the credit given (£400 at the time of contracting, understand it is now £600) - provides around 2,000 miles (although obviously the car, conditions and driving style influence this). Communications throughout have been appalling: inconsistent, ill-informed, contradictory and generally demonstrating ineptness. At a simple level, a significant number of emails coming back to me were without the previous messages, starting a new thread so nothing could be reasonably tracked. Previously stated points/ facts frequently lost. Overall, disappointing in multiple respects and gives the impression of a possibly credible energy company jumping on the bandwagon of salary sacrifice for EVs and looking to exploit/ milk a tax benefit designed for individuals for itself.