If after your final notice (in writing) the dealer still don't pay for your cash back, you can claim for the money through the courts by using 'Money Claim Online'.  https://www.moneyclaim.gov.uk/csmco2/index.jsp.  This is a fairly simple process designed to make it easier for non legally trained people to claim. Please note you will have to demonstrate you did everything possible to reach a solution with the dealer before issuing a claim, so before you do that you need to give them a ultimatum.

 

In the money claim online website, you will be offered a form where you can enter all the details of your claim. Please be objective (no insults, etc) and keep to the facts as you have a limited number of characters you can enter. 

 

I recommend you wait to claim for the full amount of the 12 month cash back owed by the dealer even if your contract is not over yet, because the whole process takes a long time and if you want to increase your claim amount at a later date you will have to do something called 'amend particulars of claim' but first you'll need permission from the courts to do this, so it's best to get everything right from the begining as making amendments later is not straight forward. You cannot change the amount of your claim on the day of the hearing.

 

When you have done this, you will be asked to pay £30 with your debit/credit card to process your claim.  Don't worry, if you win the case,The dealer will have to give you your money back.

 

All of this process usually takes a long time.  I first raised my claim in June 2007 but I didn't get a date for my hearing until December.

 

The courts will then send a letter to let you know your claim has been sent to the dealer.  They then have 28 days to defend themselves or to apply for some more time to defend themselves.  
 

If they don't reply to this defending themselves, you can apply for a judgement by default, which means you automatically win.

 

The first few letters you get usually come for the Northampton County court which is where Money claim online is based but don't worry, you don't have to attend to the hearing in Northampton as it usually gets transferred to your local court at a later date.  This happens automatically.

 

If they defend themselves, they court will ask you if you want to proceed with your claim and will ask you to fill in a form. After you have done this, a hearing date will be set and the court will tell you what the date is.

 

Now, you need to get all your evidence and your documents together to present your case in court.  Bring absolutely everything you have on this, any emails you have sent and didn't get reply to, any replies you reveived, any letters, recorded delivery receipts, all bills you are claiming for, a copy of the terms and conditions (and the current ones to show they've changed them), evidence of any phonecalls you have made to them, (you'll get that in your itemised billing from your phone line supplier).  Get all of that information together, number all the pages, and create an index to the diferent pages so you can do something like:

 

page 1- request for cashback for June invoice 27/06/07

page 2 - response from the dealer to my letter for 27/06

page 3 - email sent to the dealer asking for clarifications

 

This way, during the hearing when you are presenting your case, you can tell the judge, please look in page numer 2 to see this or that document.

 

When you have all your documents together, you have to make two copies, and send one to the courts and another one to the dealer no later than 14 days before the hearing.  This is important as if you don't do it, the dealer can use this against you in court and the judge will also read it and judges usually make up their minds on a case even before you arrive just by looking and your documents so this is important.  You can write a statement and add it to your documentation explaining everything in detail and refering to all the laws the dealer is breaching and all the cases they have previously lost. This is helpful as the money claim online form doesn't allow you to write much and in the event that you were sick the day of your hearing and you couldn't make it, the judge would have your full version of the events.

 

The day of the hearing, try to get there with plenty of time and bring with you all the documentation you sent the courts and the dealer. Dress smartly (a suit is best) and be polite with both the judge and the dealer's representative. Bear in mind that the dealer's representative is likely to be an employee, who is just following instructions and none of this is his fault, so have sympathy, he's just trying to make a living. The correct way to address a district Judge is: 'Sir or Madam'.

  

The judge will then make a decision, if you win the claim the dealer will receive a letter from the courts ordering them to pay you within 28 days. 

If after 28 days the don't pay, you can apply for a CCJ and the courts will send them a bailif to get the money for you. This costs £55 but the dealer would have to refund this to you.