TMO Knowledge Base – Q3 update

The Motor Ombudsman’s online Knowledge Base has now witnessed over 100,000 article views across all articles on the information resource since it launched at the beginning of 2019. The third quarter of the year was responsible for nearly 38,000 of these, and the most popular article between 1st July and 30th September was “Can I get a deposit refund?” in the New and Used Car Sales category. It generated over 2,500 views (a significant increase compared to 1,539 seen in the second quarter).

 

Also in the New and Used Car Sales section, “Can I return my car within 14 days of buying it?” made a new entry for the first time in the top 10 most read pieces of information (989 views), and in turn, was the second most consulted article during the past three months. In third place, with 917 views, was the Service and Repair question and answer about a garage not fixing the problem with the customer’s vehicle, previously in second position in the last quarter.

 

Rising five places in the top 10 most popular articles compared to the second quarter, was the question around the next steps that a consumer can take if they deem that a business has caused damage to their property or car whilst in their possession. Other questions, which were frequently consulted during the past three months, were on the topics of mis-selling, a business not being able to identify an intermittent fault (another new entry compared to the second quarter), and how to reject a vehicle.

 

Furthermore, in the third quarter of this year, a sixth category was added to the Knowledge Base on the subject of electric vehicles, to reflect the growth in demand for these types of cars in the UK. The 10 existing questions touch on areas such as new car purchases, MOTs and servicing requirements.

 

When looking at the volume of queries raised on the Knowledge Base using the search bar, there were nearly 11,000 for the July to September period. The most frequently used generic words were “warranty”, “recall”, “fault” and “refund”.

 

Number of article views and searches by quarter (2019)

 

The top 10 most viewed articles on the Knowledge Base in Quarter 3 (01 July to 30 September 2019)

 

The top 10 most viewed articles on the Knowledge Base in Quarter 2 (01 April to 30 June 2019)

 

The top 10 most viewed articles on the Knowledge Base in Quarter 1 (01 January to 31 March 2019)