HPI are a bunch of d**ks.
About a year ago, I was selling a car I had bought new with cash. A potential buyer asked if I minded him doing an HPI check. Knowing there had never been any finance on the car, I said sure, no problem.
Two days later, the guy phones back to say the check had shown an outstanding lease agreement on the car. After a bit of convincing, I managed to persuade him it was a mistake and asked him to bear with me while I sorted it out. He gave me the details that he'd received and I called HPI.
To cut a long story short, they were completely unwilling to correct the mistake despite the fact I had received written confirmation from the lease company that they had never had any interest in the vehicle. At first they wouldn't even talk to me unless I paid for a subscription to receive the report about my own car. Then they refused to accept it was their mistake - saying the lease company would have to correct their records. But as the lease company's records didn't contain a mistake there was nothing they could correct.
Finally, I got the regional manager on the phone, told him I was recording the conversation, and got him to confirm that :
a: - he knew there was incorrect data regarding my vehicle in the database.
b: - he was not going to do anything to change it.
At that point, I had to get my solicitor to send them a cassette of the telephone conversation along with a letter threatening legal action. A couple of days later I got a letter from their head office saying the mistake had been caused by a keying error by one of their staff and that the records had now been updated. No appology or anything.
Luckily, the buyer had gone on holiday for two weeks while all this was going on and went ahead with the purchase when he got back. If it had been me I would have run for the hills.
Sorry to hi-jack the thread.
