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Consumer Complaints Service

Make a complaint about a SIMI member

We deal with complaints about buying a vehicle, or the service or repair of a vehicle, by SIMI member companies. A copy of your complaint will be sent to the member company for a response.

What you’ll need
  • Your vehicle registration and odometer readings
  • Key dates: purchase, repair, when the problem started
  • The garage’s name and address
  • Receipts, invoices, emails or photos
About 10 min
1

Can we help?

Answer four quick questions to check your complaint is within the scope of the service.

1. Is the company a SIMI member?

We can only deal with complaints about SIMI member companies. Not sure? Check with Find a Member.

2. Have you started legal proceedings?

Complaints that are the subject of court proceedings are outside the scope of the service.

3. Have you contacted the company?

You should try to resolve it with the company’s senior management before making a formal complaint.

4. Did the problem start more than three months ago?

Complaints should reach us within 3 months of the problem first appearing, though SIMI may accept later complaints where circumstances justify it.

Your complaint looks within scope Carry on with the form below.
You can still apply Your complaint is over three months old. SIMI may accept it if the circumstances justify it, so please explain the delay in “What happened?”.
2

How we use your information

SIMI is a data controller for the personal information you give us during the complaints process, including your name, address, phone number and email.

Read the full Data Protection Statement

This Statement describes how we use your personal information in connection with any personal information you provide in the course of the complaints process to us. Please take the time to read it carefully. You have a number of rights in relation to your information including the right to object to processing of your personal information where that processing is carried out for our legitimate interests.

When you use the SIMI Consumer Complaints Service, the SIMI, will be one of the companies responsible for handling your personal information (known as a “Controller” under Data Protection Law)

The personal information collected by us in the course of the complaints process includes your name address, contact information, telephone number, email address, and any other details furnished by you during the complaints process.

1. The purpose and legal basis for processing your information

We collect and process your personal information in order to deal with and attempt to resolve your complaint. If you do not provide us with all necessary information we may not be in a position to deal with your complaint as effectively. If this is the case we will advise you accordingly.

We do this in our legitimate interest of the effective resolution of complaints within the motor industry.

2. Your Information and Third Parties

The Dealer: we may pass your personal information on to the dealer and all other parties involved in your complaint.

Third Party Service Providers: We may share your personal information with third party service provides that perform services and functions at our direction and on our behalf such as our accountants, IT service providers, printers, lawyers and other business advisors, and providers of security and administration services.

Any party at your request: we may disclose your personal information with a party with whom you specifically request us to such as your lawyers or other professional advisors.

The Retail Motor Industry Standards Tribunal: we will pass your personal information to the standards tribunal so that they can make a recommendation on the complaint.

3. Storage Periods

We may hold your personal information for a period of 6 months from the date of completion of the complaints process. We may hold this data for any longer period if we are required to do so.

4. Transfers outside of the European Economic Area

We may transfer your personal data outside of the European Economic Area. These countries do not always afford an equivalent level of privacy protection and in such circumstances we will take specific steps, in accordance with data protection law, to protect your personal information. In particular, for transfers of personal data, outside the EEA where there is no adequacy decision by the European Commission we may rely on contractual protections approved by the European Commission.

5. Your Rights

You have several rights under data protection law in relation to how we use your personal information. You have the right, free of charge, to:

  1. check what type of personal data we hold about you and what we do with that information. You are also entitled to receive a copy of this information;
  2. rectify any inaccurate personal information we hold about you;
  3. erase personal information we hold about you;
  4. stop us from using your personal information in certain cases, including if you believe that the personal information we hold about you is inaccurate or our use of your information is unlawful. If you exercise this right, we will store your personal information and will not carry out any other processing until the issue is resolved;
  5. object to us using your personal information where we rely on our legitimate interests to use your information. We will stop using your personal information unless we can demonstrate an overriding legitimate grounds for the continued processing of this information; and
  6. receive your personal information in a structured, commonly used and machine readable format and to have that data transmitted to another data controller.

These rights are in some circumstances limited by data protection legislation. If you wish to exercise any of these rights please contact us using the contact details contained in this complaint form. We will endeavour to respond to your request within a month. If we are unable to deal with your request within a month we may extend this period by a further two months and we will explain why.

You also have the right to lodge a complaint to the office of the Data Protection Commission.

3

Your details

So we can contact you about your complaint.

4

The company

Details of the SIMI member you are complaining about.

Choosing from the list fills in the address for you.

Have you contacted the company about this?
5

The vehicle

6

Your complaint

What does the complaint relate to?

7

Evidence

Receipts, contracts, quotes, invoices, emails, adverts, screenshots of web pages and photos all help.

Do you have proof of the transaction?
Do you have documents to support your complaint?

No electronic copies? Print the completed form and post it with copies of your documents to SIMI Consumer Complaints Service, 5 Upper Pembroke Street, Dublin 2.

8

Solution and declaration

Note: A copy of this form will be sent to the member company for a response.

Thank you, we have received your complaint

Thank you for taking the time to complete our Complaint form, your complaint will now be reviewed by the Consumer Complaints Service in order to ascertain is the complaint within the scope of our service.

You should receive formal notification regarding the status of your complaint within the next five days.

We have outlined the guidelines for the complaints service below.

  • The Society’s Consumer Complaints Department mediates in disputes between member companies and their customers. The service is primarily through written correspondence. If a complaint cannot be resolved through mediation the SIMI Retail Motor Industry Standards Tribunal may be requested to recommend a settlement to the Company.
  • The Service is free and is only available to customers of SIMI member companies provided their complaint is within the scope of the service.
  • The Consumer Complaints Service operates a formal complaints resolution process. Formal notifications of complaints are sent to companies together with copies of relevant correspondence from complainants they have ten days to respond in writing to the Society. Complaints and responses to them must be in writing. Impolite references in written response to complaints should be scrupulously avoided. Responses should be factual and should be accompanied by supporting documentation. Responses may be forwarded to the Company for further observation.
  • Either of the parties involved may commission, at their own expense, an independent consultant engineer’s report which may be submitted as evidence.
  • Unless the company or customer notifies the Society in writing that the matter has been resolved, unresolved complaints are scheduled for referral to the SIMI Retail Motor Industry Standards Tribunal 14 days following notification.
  • The SIMI have worked to ensure the Tribunal is both independent and seen to be so. The Tribunal operates independently from the SIMI Offices although we provide the administrative support for them.
  • It is by this degree of independence and credibility that the SIMI Complaints System and Standards Tribunal can act as a genuine alternative to the Law Courts for consumers and can be recommended as such by State Agencies and Consumer Organizations.
  • The Independent Chairman is a retired Rights Commissioner with over 10 years’ experience in this role. The second member of the Tribunal is a Consumer representative while the third is a retail garage representative from the SIMI membership. Additional Industry experts in Sales, parts, service or repair works are also normally in attendance to support the Tribunal with technical clarifications.
  • The SIMI Retail Motor Industry Standards Tribunal is chaired by an independent Arbitrator and includes representatives of the motor industry and a leading consumer advocate.
  • Failure to resolve complaints following a Tribunal recommendation is regarded as a breach of the rules of membership of the Society and will be dealt with accordingly by the Management Board and the National Executive Council.

The complaints service can be contacted by emailing standards@simi.ie