We want happy Customers! Putting you first is at the heart of our company’s culture and the key to our reputation and success. We aim to give you a trouble free and great level of service and whilst we’ll always do our very best to achieve this, we know that sometimes things go wrong. If this happens, we want to do everything that we can to put this right and to prevent it happening again. That’s why we take every complaint very seriously and will deal with any issue quickly, effectively and in a positive manner. 

Please let us know as soon as possible, so that can get straight on to it. The quickest way to do this is by    

Calling: 01628 899727 

Emailing: customerhappiness@drive-electric.co.uk         

Or you can drop us a line at: Fleetdrive Management Limited trading as DriveElectric, Unit 1 Harleyford Marina, Henley Road, Marlow, Buckinghamshire SL7 2DX

We want happy Customers so we’ll do our very best to try and resolve the issue by the end of the next working day. If we can’t, we’ll send you a formal acknowledgement within 3 working days and we’ll start looking in to the problem for you.  We may need to ask you some questions to help our investigation and we’d ask that you respond to us promptly. If your dissatisfaction is about a third party, for example it’s about your vehicle or finance provider, we’ll need to forward it to them. If it’s about our service, you’ll get a written response from our team within 8 weeks of your initial contact with us, with information about their investigation and their decision as to whether they are upholding or rejecting your complaint. This is called a ‘Final Response Letter’. If you’re still not happy, or if you’ve not received a Final Response Letter within 8 weeks, you may be able to ask the Financial Ombudsman Service or the BVRLA to review your complaint. The exception to this is for complaints about Discretionary Commission Arrangements and we’d ask you to read the separate section in the long version below

We’re authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and we adhere to their complaint handling rules. Whilst their rules apply to consumers, it’s our policy to treat all complainants the same.  

Dissatisfaction with your vehicle, finance provider or other third party 

If you’re not happy with your vehicle, your finance provider or another third party, this should be taken up with them directly. We’ll either let you have information about how to reach them or we’ll forward your complaint to them on your behalf. We’ll let you know by sending you what’s known as a ‘Forward Letter’. 

Dissatisfaction with us   

We record our complaints on a Complaints Register and we’ll always try to establish the root cause so that we can make any necessary changes to prevent this happening again. We want happy Customers, so we’ll do our very best to try and resolve the issue by the end of the next working day.  

If we can make you happy within 3 days 

If we can make you happy by resolving the issue within 3 working days, we’ll contact you in the same way as you’ve contacted us or by another way if that suits you better. We’ll also send you, usually by email or in the post if that’s what you’d prefer, what’s known as a ‘Summary Resolution Communication’. This will contain information about how we’ve resolved your complaint to your satisfaction and will let you know that if you change your mind about the resolution that you may be able to refer the complaint back to us for further consideration or alternatively, if you’re a consumer, refer the complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service and provide you with their details. 

If we need a little longer than 3 days  

If we think we’ll need a little longer than 3 days, we’ll pass the information about your complaint to our Customer Happiness team and they’ll write to you within 5 days of receipt of your complaint to formally acknowledge this and provide you with a copy of our Complaints Handling Procedure. They’ll let you know who is looking into your complaint and as part of their investigation they may ask you for some more information. You can be assured that all evidence is reviewed carefully, fairly and with an open mind!

If the investigation takes longer than 4 weeks to complete, our Customer Happiness team will contact you to let you know how their investigation is progressing and they’ll try to give you an idea of when this will be completed. They’ll let you have their findings within 8 weeks and this will either be an ‘Offer Letter’ or a ‘Final Response Letter’ depending on the circumstances of your complaint. 

Final Response 

When our Customer Happiness team have finished their investigation, they’ll write to you with their findings.  They’ll give you as much information as they can from the investigation to support their decision and whilst they won’t always agree with a complaint, by being transparent, you’ll be able to see how and why they’ve reached their decision. They’ll also let you know what you can do if you don’t agree with their decision. This is also explained below.  

Offer Letter 

If following the investigation our Customer Happiness team agree with your complaint and think that we need to offer you some redress, they’ll send you an ‘Offer Letter’. This will give you information from their investigation and if they’re offering monetary redress, it’ll explain how they’ve calculated this. If this makes you happy, you’ll need to accept the offer and you’ll then receive a ‘Final Response Letter’ as confirmation. 

We’ll consider a complaint to be closed once the ‘Final response Letter’ has been issued.  

If you’re not happy with our decision  

If you’re not happy with our response, you may be able to ask the Financial Ombudsman Service to look into your complaint. You must do this within 6 months of the date of our ‘Final Response Letter’. You can find out more and check if you’re an eligible complainant by looking on their website www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk  or calling 0800 023 4567. If you want to make a complaint to them you should download the complaint form from their website and email it to complaint.info@financial-ombudsman.org.uk or post to The Financial Ombudsman Service, Exchange Tower, Harbour Exchange Square, London, E14 9SR. 

Alternatively, as we’re a member of the British Vehicle Rental and Leasing Association (BVRLA), who are approved by Government as a Consumer ADR body under the Alternative Dispute Resolution for Consumer Disputes (Competent Authorities and Information) Regulations 2015, you can refer the matter to them.  They offer a prompt and free Conciliation Service for members and details of this can be found on their website at: www.bvrla.co.uk/advice/guidance/using-bvrlas-conciliation-service. You can get in touch with them by either emailing complaint@bvrla.co.uk or writing to British Vehicle Rental and Leasing Association, River Lodge, Badminton Court, Amersham, HP7 0DD 

Discretionary Commission Arrangements

In January 2021 the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) banned discretionary commission arrangements on vehicle finance purchase agreements such as Hire Purchase, Lease Purchase and Personal Contract Purchase. Under the discretionary commission arrangement, motor dealers and brokers, like ourselves, were able to increase interest rates to earn commission which in turn impacted the cost to customers for their finance agreements. Due to an increase in complaints from customers who claimed that they were mis-sold and not aware of the existence of commission, on 11 January 2024,  the FCA announced that it was undertaking a review of historic motor finance commission arrangements. They had expected to announce their findings in September 2024 but due to it taking longer than they had expected to receive the data required, this has been extended and they plan to set out their next steps in May 2025. As a consequence of this, the FCA have announced an extension to the usual 8 weeks’ that we have to issue a Final Response to a complaint if it is about discretionary commission arrangements or about commission we have received from other finance and/or ancillary products until 4 December 2025. If you have made a complaint, rest assured that during this time we will be carrying out an investigation and if appropriate, we will make an assessment and let you know our decision with a Final Response letter. The period of time for you to refer the matter to the Financial Ombudsman Service from receipt of our Final Response for these complaints has been extended to the later of 29 July 2026 or 15 months. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact us.

Finally 

We always look to improve the level of service that we provide you with and a complaint may highlight an area that we can do better. Whilst no-one likes to receive complaints, we’ll always thank you for bringing something to our attention as your happiness is what makes us happy. 

V1 11/11/2025