I didn’t fall out with Hyundai over a blown motor or a catastrophic battery failure. It was a tyre.

More precisely: a tyre booking that a main dealer cancelled at the last minute, after sitting on it for almost two months, and then a set of corporate responses that made it very clear where I stand as a consumer in their world.

This isn’t a dramatic story. It’s boring, procedural, and exactly the sort of thing that happens to thousands of people who quietly shrug and move on. I’m writing it down because I’m not shrugging, and because other people should know what tools they have when something similar happens.

The set-up: a straightforward booking

  • 9 October – I booked my Hyundai into Hyundai Edinburgh East for:

    • tyre replacement (exact size and model provided), and
    • 4-wheel alignment to be carried out on 3 December.

    They took my tyre details and confirmed they could do the job.

  • 1 December – I completed their online self-check-in for the booking.

So far, nothing unusual: main dealer, safety-critical work, plenty of notice, clear date.

The last-minute cancellation

On 2 December:

  • Around 16:00 the dealer phoned to ask for the tyre details again. I confirmed them and specifically asked:

    “Should I still attend tomorrow?”

    The answer: yes.

  • Around 20 minutes later, they called again:

    • the tyre was apparently not available,
    • the booking for the next day was cancelled,
    • I should “look elsewhere” for tyres.

So a job booked since early October, reconfirmed at 16:00 on 2 December, was cancelled around 16:20 the day before – in peak December, when tyre and workshop availability is tight and I needed the car safe for Christmas travel.

That is the point where my relationship with Hyundai changed.

The dealer’s response: “outwith our control”

I emailed the General Manager of the Vertu Hyundai sites (East and West) with:

  • a precise timeline,
  • the impact on me (no safe, realistic option before Christmas), and
  • a set of sensible remedies: arrange fitting elsewhere and cover the difference, or provide a courtesy car, or, at the very least, reserve the tyre and give me the first available slot when it finally arrived.

The reply blamed:

  • their tyre supplier,
  • “special order” status, and
  • the lack of an ETA.

The phrase used was that this was “outwith our control”.

When I accepted that the tyre might only arrive in mid-December and asked them to:

  1. reserve it against my car, and
  2. give me a confirmed priority booking,

the answer was that they were “unable to reserve parts that are not currently in our stock” and would simply contact me when the tyre arrived.

At no point did they acknowledge that:

  • they’d had my booking and tyre details since October,
  • they only re-checked availability the afternoon before the booking, or
  • cancelling with 20 minutes’ notice after telling me to attend might fall short of any reasonable standard of care.

The subtext was clear:

“We’ve done nothing wrong. The supplier is the problem. That’s the end of it.”

Hyundai UK’s part in this

I escalated to Hyundai Motor UK.

My complaint was simple: this was about how the dealer handled a pre-booked, safety-critical job, not about who pays for the tyre.

The initial response from Hyundai UK completely reframed the issue as:

  • a question of warranty cover on tyres, and
  • an explanation that Hyundai’s warranty does not cover tyres because that sits with the tyre manufacturer.

I had never asked anyone to replace a tyre under the Hyundai vehicle warranty.

I wrote back, very explicitly, saying:

  • I understand tyres are not covered by the Hyundai warranty.
  • I have never asked Hyundai or the dealer to replace a tyre under warranty.
  • My complaint is about service standards and process, not about payment.

Hyundai replied politely, apologised for any confusion, and then essentially closed the door:

“As you currently have an open complaint with The Motor Ombudsman, we are unable to deal with this matter directly. All communication regarding the complaint must be handled between yourself and The Motor Ombudsman.”

Translated:

“We consider this someone else’s problem now.”

Where this leaves me

  • The dealer cancelled a tyre and alignment booking at the last minute, after nearly two months of notice.
  • They take no responsibility for the planning failure.
  • Hyundai UK is content to treat it as a supplier issue and now hides behind the Ombudsman process.

I’ve done what I can:

  • filed a structured complaint with The Motor Ombudsman,
  • documented the emails and the phone calls,
  • made Hyundai UK formally aware.

I’m not seeking money. I just want the record to show that this behaviour is not good enough.

What I have decided is this:

I will not buy another Hyundai.

Not out of anger. Simply because I now have a very clear data point about how the organisation behaves when something goes wrong and it isn’t convenient to take responsibility.

What rights does a consumer actually have in this situation?

Putting my own case aside, let’s talk about what UK consumers do and don’t have in their armoury when a dealer behaves like this.

1. The Consumer Rights Act 2015 – services

When you book work with a garage or dealer, you’re buying a service.

Under the Consumer Rights Act 2015, every service contract automatically includes a term that the trader must perform the service with reasonable care and skill.

That doesn’t just mean “turn the spanner correctly”. It covers:

  • taking and confirming bookings accurately,
  • ordering parts in good time,
  • communicating clearly if something changes.

If they fail to exercise reasonable care and skill, you’re entitled to:

  • have the service repeated, or
  • get a price reduction, or
  • claim losses that were reasonably foreseeable (extra costs because of their failure).

In my case, I’d argue that:

  • leaving it until 16:00 the day before to discover they didn’t have the tyre,
  • after having the booking and exact size since October,

is not reasonable care and skill.

2. The Motor Ombudsman – Service & Repair Code

Most franchised dealers (including Hyundai ones) are signed up to The Motor Ombudsman’s Service & Repair Code.

That Code expects them to:

  • plan parts availability when work is booked in advance,
  • contact you in good time if they can’t get the parts,
  • act fairly and transparently when things go wrong.

If they won’t engage sensibly, you can escalate to the Ombudsman, as I’ve done. The Ombudsman can:

  • make findings on whether they’ve met the Code,
  • recommend or require remedies (including goodwill),
  • and log the outcome against that business for future pattern-spotting.

It’s slow, and it’s not emotionally satisfying, but it is a formal route that doesn’t cost you a solicitor’s hourly rate.

3. Escalation steps that actually help

For anyone in a similar situation, the practical sequence looks like this:

  1. Write down the timeline. Dates, times, who called whom, what was said. Don’t rely on memory.

  2. Put your complaint in writing to the business.

    • Short, factual, chronological.
    • Explain the impact (lost time, extra costs, safety concerns).
    • State what you want them to do (repair, replacement, courtesy car, refund, apology, etc.).

  3. Give them a clear window to respond. 14 days is usually enough.

  4. If they stonewall or fob you off, escalate to:

    • The manufacturer (for a franchised dealer), and
    • The relevant Ombudsman / ADR scheme (Motor Ombudsman for garages, Financial Ombudsman for finance issues, etc.).

  5. Keep everything. Emails, screenshots, booking confirmations, invoices, notes of phone calls. The Ombudsman will care about evidence and dates.

  6. Decide whether it’s worth chasing financial loss. If you’ve had to pay more elsewhere because of their failure, you can claim the difference. Sometimes it’s worth it, sometimes your sanity is worth more than the money.

  7. If the loss is clear and they still refuse, small-claims court is an option. For straightforward, quantifiable losses (extra tyre cost, wasted diagnostic fees), small claims in England & Wales or the simple procedure in Scotland can be effective. You don’t need a lawyer, but you do need your paperwork straight.

How to protect yourself before it gets messy

A few habits change the balance of power more than people realise:

  1. Confirm everything in writing. After a phone call, send a short email:

    “Further to our call at 16:00 today, you confirmed that my booking for [date] will go ahead and that the required tyre is available.”

    If they later deny something, you have a timestamped record.

  2. Get names. When you speak to someone, write down their name and job title. It’s harder for a business to hand-wave when you can say “On 2 December at 16:00, X in Service told me…”

  3. Ask the right question early:

    “If this doesn’t go ahead as booked, what will you do to put me back in the position I should have been in?”

    It forces them to think in terms of responsibility, not just diary slots.

  4. Know when to stop arguing with the front line. Once you hit a clear “we’ve done nothing wrong / that’s just policy” wall, stop. Move to Ombudsman / manufacturer / regulator. Your energy is finite.

  5. Don’t be afraid to walk away from a brand. A car is not just a product; it’s a relationship with a network. If the network shows you it can’t be trusted when something small goes wrong, believe it.

Closing thoughts

What bothers me most about this whole episode is not the tyre itself. It’s the casualness around responsibility.

A main dealer took a safety-critical booking months in advance, failed to manage parts, cancelled at the last minute, and then took the view that this was just “one of those things” because a supplier didn’t deliver.

Hyundai UK had the opportunity to say, “We can’t fix the tyre situation, but this isn’t how we want our network to behave.” Instead, they answered a question I hadn’t asked and then stepped back behind the Ombudsman process.