In November last year, I was made redundant from my job as a warehouse supervisor.
I have also been seriously ill as the result of a spinal stroke and am worried about my finances.
To help reduce my costs, I asked to return my electric BYD Atto 3 car that I obtained via a lease arrangement with Santander.
The bank says I must pay about £8,376 to end the lease early. That would be almost all my redundancy payout. Please help.
R.G., Bridgend, South Wales.
Lease fleece: Santander is charging a reader over £8,000 to end their car lease early after they were made redundant
Sally Hamilton replies: You have been through the wars. Not only did you suffer the stroke you refer to in November 2023, but you were struck down by sepsis three months later and underwent a life-saving operation.
To help with getting around – and so that your wife could visit you in hospital more easily – you decided to get a new car,
signing a five-year lease for your electric vehicle in December 2023 at a cost of £446 a month.
Then, due to a fellow colleague’s bereavement you went back to work in February to cover for him, despite still needing a catheter and stoma and requiring crutches to get around.
Other health issues then raised their head which made life difficult. then finally in November 2024 your firm landed the bombshell that it was making your supervisor role redundant.
Dismayed by the huge impact on your finances of having no job, I can only imagine your added fears when Santander told you the termination fee would be almost as much as the £9,000 your employer promised in redundancy payments.
Leases are popular because they mean drivers can get a new car and spread the cost over the years at a manageable level before handing the vehicle back to the provider. The longer the lease, the more affordable the repayments.
But there are drawbacks for those who want, or need, to end an arrangement early with many leasing companies not allowing the contract to be cancelled or imposing a hefty penalty, typically half the outstanding payments – as in your case.
I felt sorry for your situation and asked Santander if there was anything it could do to help you in your straitened circumstances by at least reducing the penalty.
The bank investigated your case, and a few days later I am pleased to say went further and decided to let you end the lease without any penalties.
A Santander spokesman says: ‘We’re sorry to hear about the challenging personal circumstances that R.G. is currently facing. Due to these circumstances, we’ve made the decision to waive his fee as part of our commitment to support our customers during difficult times.’
Meanwhile, you still need some form of transport and have applied for a vehicle via Motability, a charity that leases vehicles and electric wheelchairs to those on eligible disability benefits, with the benefits paid directly to the charity to cover the lease.
You have been awarded the higher rate mobility element of Personal Independence Payment (PIP) of £75.75 a week, which you say will cover the lease and all the other costs including maintenance, services, MoT, breakdown cover and insurance.
How can we kick up a stink over stolen perfume?
My 97-year-old mother ordered an £88 bottle of perfume from Boots online last August and it was delivered within a couple of days.
She had popped out at the time and the parcel was left on her doorstep. When she picked it up on her return, the package was open underneath. There was no perfume inside.
Boots has refused to refund her. Can you help?
J.N., Horley, Surrey.
Sally Hamilton replies: You elaborated on the efforts your mother made to get back her money – or another bottle of £88 Miss Dior perfume.
The tale had a whiff of customer service stubbornness, and it left you and your mother fuming.
After several weeks of toing and froing with Boots, your mother was told the ‘digital operations’ team had investigated and were confident the parcel had left its warehouse intact and been
delivered successfully and it would therefore not be giving her a refund.
She accepted that the package had been delivered – but by no stretch of the imagination could this be described as successful.
Some opportunistic thieves had obviously taken it.
Under the Consumer Rights Act 2015, a retailer must ensure goods reach customers in one piece. If a package is left outside their front door and gets pinched, as in this case, the retailer must offer a replacement or a refund.
If a customer previously specified that deliveries could be left outside their door, then the jury would be out on whether a refund was due. But this wasn’t the case with your mother.
You told me she rarely orders anything online apart from her Tesco food shop and if forced to name a safe place, it would be her neighbour’s house and not her exposed front doorstep.
You made a complaint on your mother’s behalf, including writing to the managing director of Boots. But the company continued to deny her a refund.
I asked Boots to look again at the handling of your mother’s complaint. This time the retailer agreed it had been at fault.
A Boots spokesman says: ‘We always strive to offer a high level of service and are sorry that we didn’t meet our usual standards on this occasion. We are in touch with the customer directly to arrange a full refund.’
- Write to Sally Hamilton at Sally Sorts It, Money Mail, Northcliffe House, 2 Derry Street, London W8 5TT or email sally@dailymail.co.uk — include phone number, address and a note addressed to the offending organisation giving them permission to talk to Sally Hamilton. Please do not send original documents as we cannot take responsibility for them. No legal responsibility can be accepted by the Daily Mail for answers given.
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