London congestion charge exemption

[Saima]

I bought mine in March 2020 just before lockdown so it didn't go very far for ages. I bought from their Marylebone showroom which shares the MG head office site so I thought they would be offering good service.

I had the Comfort 2 update done in August 2020 - their first attempt only partly installed the update so the car had to go back the following week. Before driving off this time I checked to see if the update was complete which it wasn't so they tried again! So, 3 attempts to complete the update - not a good start. They've investigated a "scrunch at low speeds" under warranty and reconfigured the forward collision detectors, although the car is going back later this month for this to be looked at again.

First annual service in March was fine but I've had issues trying to get the car booked in for them to look at a faulty HVAC fan. (There is a thread on here about it and other owners are reporting a quick warranty replacement of the resistor pack sorts it out - often done within a week or so.) Its taken 2 emails and 7 phone calls to get the car booked in. The date I have is 7 weeks after my first contact with them about it - not very impressive.

I suspect you're right when you say they are a Nissan/Kia dealership and they are learning about MG as they go along. I'm in West London so, although they are 12 miles away, its an easy trip on the A40. I do get courtesy cars from them (subject to a £15 admin fee) as getting there by public transport is a pain. They do offer a collect and return option for servicing but only within a fixed radius of Eastcote. I'm about a 10 minute walk from their Marylebone sales office so I've tried to suggest they should offer the same collect and return service from there but that has fallen on deaf ears.

My alternatives would be Bushey Heath or St Albans but both are a bit of trek so I'm a bit stuck with them.

I bought mine from Marylebone too, and I believe they don't have any service facility - they use Eastcote themselves. There aren't enough staff in Marylebone (I heard about two managers leaving while I was purchasing my car) and I think they need two drivers to run the cars between the two centres. Apparently the driver Marylebone have is used for running errands like bank deposits and dropping mail etc - basically this set up is not organised/ geared for customer service, they seem to be having their own existential issues right now!

I am thinking of St Albans as a definite alternative, but am hoping that Eastcote might come back with some grown-up answers. I'm still within the time limit to return the car, as some of the issues people have shared are quite worrying, but I do like the car!!

 

[Saima]

Happy to report I recvd confirmation from tfl that my car is exempt, and they've given me an expiry date to next year - yayy!
But, like you @teepee , the website still shows I need to pay!
I wonder if there's any step we are missing??

 

[LoneRanger]

Happy to report I recvd confirmation from tfl that my car is exempt, and they've given me an expiry date to next year - yayy!
But, like you @teepee , the website still shows I need to pay!
I wonder if there's any step we are missing??

Pretty sure there's a so called annual admin fee of £10 or so?

 

[Saima]

Pretty sure there's a so called annual admin fee of £10 or so?

Oh yes, I had to pay the £10 first for them to even consider - this all seems the wrong way round to me, tfl use DVLA data so they should already have the details, we are required to pay upfront for something that's not very clear, and in the meantime we're liable for paying the congestion charge without tfl stating that it would be reimbursed!! Maybe I'm too old fashioned