A DAD has slammed a garage after his brand new van broke down FIVE times in seven months – but they blamed him for the problems.
Donald Hunter, 35, forked out £36k in cash to get his MAN van in perfect working order but has been plagued with problems.
The dad, from Berwick, Northumberland, has been forced to travel hours to garages in attempts to fix the problem – leaving his shop closed.
Donald, who runs his own mobility business, has been forced to wait for hours and fork out his own money to travel back and forth to the garage.
The vehicle is understood to keep cutting out after dropping to low levels of AdBlue, which helps to remove toxic substances from the cars exhaust gases.
He bought the MAN van from Steadplan in August last year, and initially was pleased with his purchase.
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But Donald claims that the garage has been blaming him, and saying that there is nothing they can do about the issue.
He told The Sun: “I am a bit vain so I paid for some extra bits and bobs on my car, and when I first got it there were no issues. It was perfect.
“The issue started coming when I had to put the AdBlue in it, you just top it up so I thought it wouldn’t be an issue.
“But the van itself kept breaking down, and I got multiple engineers out. On one occasion I was in their garage until 5am with my son.
“The van wouldn’t start and it was left there for a week, which really put me in a difficult decision with my line of work.
“When I’m not at the shop or driving around working I’m losing money. And it’s frustrating because I bought the new van to make sure it worked properly.
“That process has just repeated five times, and they keep trying to blame it on me but this van is clearly faulty.
“The different people I speak to keep saying different things, I’ve had to fork out for my travel to and from the garage. They only recently told me I could get a courtesy car.
“All they keep saying basically is that it’s my fault, but if it’s happening constantly with the same issue I don’t think it is.
“I have had to be gone for hours to take it to the garage, which means my shop is closed and I am the only one working there so it means that my business isn’t trading.
“It’s the biggest nightmare that I have brought myself, if any of my customers have an issue I am desperate to fix it. But they just don’t care.
“What I would like is to return it and get my money back, not even the full amount or for them to replace it with one that works.
“I bought the biggest problem in my business, and I just need them to sort it out for me now. It’s ridiculous.”
A spokesman for MAN said: “We have been speaking with Mr Hunter concerning an issue with his vehicle and how we can rectify this in a manner which is suitable for him.
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“On a number of occasions we have offered assistance via our dealer network and a solution mapping a way forward.
“We are working with Mr Hunter and his vehicle and in doing so, looking for a solution to rectify this issue.”
