Remember the guy who made an elaborate rap and music video that condemned Jeep as a lemon and overall crappy vehicle?
Well now Teg Sethi is back.
But this time, he’s been offered $61,000 to end the disagreement with the car company, and has turned it down, saying he wants to raise awareness for consumer protection instead. In case you missed it, here’s his key message:
FIAT Chrysler Automobiles wanted to settle a long-running dispute over claims Sethi’s car is faulty, despite not admitting to all the claims Sethi made about his 2013 Grand Cherokee.
FCA Australia released a statement on the issue, saying, “While it is not FCA’s normal practice to discuss details on individual customer cases, given the publicity and public interest on this particular one, we will make an exception.
“FCA has gone to the utmost lengths to resolve Mr. Sethi’s issues. Despite there being no major issues with his vehicle FCA made a generous offer of goodwill to Mr. Sethi.
“As a result Mr. Sethi was presented with a standard legal contract which includes a non-disparagement clause. Mr. Sethi chose to decline our offer.
“FCA believes this is not an unreasonable request to make and is not asking anything of Mr. Sethi that FCA would not abide by ourselves.
“Mr. Sethi is now in possession of his vehicle as well as an independent inspection report on his vehicle.”
News Limited reports Sethi said while he needed the money, he felt he had an obligation to use the incident to help other car owners.
“Every bone in my body wants to take that money,” he said. “It would help my family so much. But I can’t do it.”
Sethi has said he plans to continue to use his case, and his amusing impressions of wannabe rappers everywhere, to call for stronger laws that protect the consumer, adding that he’d been encouraged by a new report from QLD parliament’s legal affairs and community safety committee that is pushing to ramp up protections built into Australian Consumer Law.
A recent Australian Competition and Consumer Commission investigation into FCA has seen lawyer and former Ford in-house counsel Peter George appointed to sort through two years’ worth of unresolved complaints. In his first comments on his progress, George yesterday said “it might be that the process can be sped up”.
That will be welcome news to some owners, who say they have basically been told to expect their disputes handled in the year 2017. Under the deal FCA cut with the ACCC, it is meant to have improved its ongoing handling of complaints.
