The key to Elizabeth’s problem was a bit hard to find

JAMES and Elizabeth Glynn, of Cheshunt, bought a Mercedes from Waltham Cross Cars in Hertfordshire.

They love their car but after a while thought the battery in the key needed replaced. But when they went back to Waltham Cross it turned out the key was faulty and needed to be entirely replaced.

Car keys are complicated pieces of equipment these days. Digital technology has made car theft much rarer, but when a new key is matched to an existing car it can be a highly technical procedure.

Elizabeth was told it would take five to seven working days before the new key was ready. But that was on July 1, three months ago – and Elizabeth paid £204, with a further £89 to be paid on collection of the key.

The past 12 weeks have been filled with phone inquiries, visits to the showroom, promises made and promises broken.

Elizabeth was thoroughly tired of the whole saga and contacted Raw Deal.

We went to the top and spoke to Mercedes-Benz customer services.

They had a think about it, then got in touch to say: “We’d like to apologise to Mrs Glynn for the inconvenience caused in arranging a replacement key.

“We have now sourced Mrs Glynn two replacement keys, free of charge, and have offered her a goodwill gesture.

“An internal systems issue at MercedesBenz Cars Waltham Cross has meant the initial information provided was inaccurate. We have changed the process to prevent this happening again.”

They even gave Elizabeth a bunch of flowers as a further apology.

The key to this was obviously contacting Raw Deal.