The Motor Ombudsman’s online Knowledge Base, which has been designed to provide a portal for consumers to find answers to their questions in advance of raising a dispute, recorded 98,373 article views in the first half (H1) of 2020. This represents a 53% increase compared to the first six months of 2019, where 64,220 reads were recorded between January and June last year. From April to June 2020, there were a total of 46,713 article views across the seven categories on the popular Knowledge Base, which is also up on the figure seen for the same period in 2019 (39,054). The Coronavirus / COVID-19 section, which was introduced in April 2020 following the start of the lockdown period to help motorists answer some of their key questions regarding vehicle maintenance and ownership, has witnessed over 3,000 views across the 15 Q&As.
Swapping places with “Can I get a deposit refund?” (the most read article in quarter one), “Can I return my car within 14 days of buying it?” was the most popular article in quarter two (3,592 views), after being the second most viewed Q&A in the first three months of 2020 (you can also read our Garage Wire article on this subject here). The question and answer around what to do if a consumer deems a car to have been mis-sold, maintained this year’s position of number three, with 988 views in the three months just gone. Versus the first quarter of 2020, “What to do about a poor MOT?” climbed four places between April and June, highlighting possible increased concern around this issue. The second quarter equally saw five new entries for 2020 in terms of the most read articles, covering subjects, such as what action a customer could take if they think they have been sold a faulty car, what to do if a garage has not fixed a problem, and whether a business needs to provide a warranty following service and repair work.
Furthermore, in the second quarter, 9,743 user searches were registered, decreasing from 11,748 in the first three months of 2020, and representing a drop of 30% versus the second quarter of last year. This reflected the lower activity on The Motor Ombudsman website as a whole, before Coronavirus lockdown restrictions in the UK were eased. In the first six months of this year, there were 21,471 searches by users, down by nearly 20% compared to the same period in 2019 (25,993). The most frequently entered generic search terms entered into the Knowledge Base during quarter two were “faulty”, “warranty”, “refund” and “deposit”.
