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Autobuyer - avoid at all costs if selling a car
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matthewking26
Posts: 143 Forumite
I've just had a phone call from these guys and want to try and warn anyone of their antics.
I posted my car on fish4 cars on Saturday and had a phone call just now from 020 834 36659.
A very slick salesman told me he worked for a credit brokers and had dozens of buyers lined up to pay my asking price. They couldn't afford the full amount though (awww) but hooray for me, they would buy the car through their company.
It sounded so good, I could almost feel the money in my hands, and the car off my hands at last.
All i had to do was hand over "a one off fully refundable when the cars sold *ahem ahem £79.99 ahem ahem* registration fee".
:mad: ?????????????!!!!!!!!!!!!:mad:
Yep, that's right, I was supposed to hand over my bank details to someone who rang me out of the blue promising mystical car buyers out there were twitching to give me their money.
Me "Good luck trying to get money out of me"
Him "it's free".
Me "Well my definition of free is free, yours is £79.99.
Him "it works out completely free as it gets refunded once the car is sold.
Me "Why take it in the first place if it gets refunded anyway?"
Him....
Me.... "Does that mean if the car doesn't sell, you keep the £79.99?"
Him "That's not a problem. There's dozens of buyers wanting your type of car right now"
Me "Can you give me the names of some of these buyers.
Him "Sorry but data protection won't let me tell you"
Me "Which section of the data protection act?"
Him "I'm not well up on the act but it would be in breach of it"
Me "Well I know the data protection act in quite a lot of detail and I know you wouldn't be breaching it by passing that information onto me with the consent of those concerned."
Him "Is there anything I can do to prove this is a genuine offer. Maybe if you look at our website"
Me "Tell me who your data controller is at your company"
Him "I can't tell you that as it would be against data protection
Me "Actually you're in breach if you don't tell me, as the name and position of the data controller has to be made freely available to anyone who enquires"
Him "Well I think you should check your memory as you'll find your wrong but anyway thanks for your time."
Then he hung up.
Charming fellow but a bit out of his depth I think.
The moral:
if someone offers you something that sounds too good to be true, it probably is! And if someone promises you a lot of money for any reason if you just give him a little bit of money, keep them on the phone for a while so it costs them on their phone bill if nothing else.
And in case you're in any doubt do check out their website like they suggest, especially these bits:
http://www.autobuyer.co.uk/terms.aspx
9. We are not responsible for the condition of the vehicle advertised, a buyer's or seller's lack of good faith, price valuation, advertisement not getting the response the seller expects, any foreseeable loss or services suspended or interrupted as a result of circumstances beyond our reasonable control. (hmmm, sounds very secure that the car will sell!)
10. The number of buyer enquiries registered with us is given solely as a guide for you to assess current market demand. They will reflect vehicles of all types and all prices ranges currently requested by buyers registered on our database. We hold a database of buyer enquiries for all vehicles and not enquiries on specific vehicles. (so the "dozens of buyers" is in fact a "guide...to current market demand"
16. Autobuyer reserves the right to change and/or alter its terms and conditions from time to time without notification to the customer.
(now that sounds like the best get out clause of all time to me!)
And on
http://www.autobuyer.co.uk/faq.aspx
Do you have buyers for my car?
We have enquiries for various TYPES of vehicles and not buyers for particular cars belonging to particular persons. However because we aim to generate genuine buyer enquiries on our database, we are able to forward your details to potential buyers interested in your TYPE of vehicle.
(got that?)
Can you guarantee a sale?
We cannot force a buyer to purchase your car hence we cannot guarantee a sale. We do however guarantee to market the vehicle and circulate your vehicle information to potential buyers until it is sold.
(ding ding, alarm bells ringing anyone?)
Oh and does anyone want to buy a Laguna?:p
I posted my car on fish4 cars on Saturday and had a phone call just now from 020 834 36659.
A very slick salesman told me he worked for a credit brokers and had dozens of buyers lined up to pay my asking price. They couldn't afford the full amount though (awww) but hooray for me, they would buy the car through their company.
It sounded so good, I could almost feel the money in my hands, and the car off my hands at last.
All i had to do was hand over "a one off fully refundable when the cars sold *ahem ahem £79.99 ahem ahem* registration fee".
:mad: ?????????????!!!!!!!!!!!!:mad:
Yep, that's right, I was supposed to hand over my bank details to someone who rang me out of the blue promising mystical car buyers out there were twitching to give me their money.
Me "Good luck trying to get money out of me"
Him "it's free".
Me "Well my definition of free is free, yours is £79.99.
Him "it works out completely free as it gets refunded once the car is sold.
Me "Why take it in the first place if it gets refunded anyway?"
Him....
Me.... "Does that mean if the car doesn't sell, you keep the £79.99?"
Him "That's not a problem. There's dozens of buyers wanting your type of car right now"
Me "Can you give me the names of some of these buyers.
Him "Sorry but data protection won't let me tell you"
Me "Which section of the data protection act?"
Him "I'm not well up on the act but it would be in breach of it"
Me "Well I know the data protection act in quite a lot of detail and I know you wouldn't be breaching it by passing that information onto me with the consent of those concerned."
Him "Is there anything I can do to prove this is a genuine offer. Maybe if you look at our website"
Me "Tell me who your data controller is at your company"
Him "I can't tell you that as it would be against data protection
Me "Actually you're in breach if you don't tell me, as the name and position of the data controller has to be made freely available to anyone who enquires"
Him "Well I think you should check your memory as you'll find your wrong but anyway thanks for your time."
Then he hung up.
Charming fellow but a bit out of his depth I think.
The moral:
if someone offers you something that sounds too good to be true, it probably is! And if someone promises you a lot of money for any reason if you just give him a little bit of money, keep them on the phone for a while so it costs them on their phone bill if nothing else.
And in case you're in any doubt do check out their website like they suggest, especially these bits:
http://www.autobuyer.co.uk/terms.aspx
9. We are not responsible for the condition of the vehicle advertised, a buyer's or seller's lack of good faith, price valuation, advertisement not getting the response the seller expects, any foreseeable loss or services suspended or interrupted as a result of circumstances beyond our reasonable control. (hmmm, sounds very secure that the car will sell!)
10. The number of buyer enquiries registered with us is given solely as a guide for you to assess current market demand. They will reflect vehicles of all types and all prices ranges currently requested by buyers registered on our database. We hold a database of buyer enquiries for all vehicles and not enquiries on specific vehicles. (so the "dozens of buyers" is in fact a "guide...to current market demand"
16. Autobuyer reserves the right to change and/or alter its terms and conditions from time to time without notification to the customer.
(now that sounds like the best get out clause of all time to me!)
And on
http://www.autobuyer.co.uk/faq.aspx
Do you have buyers for my car?
We have enquiries for various TYPES of vehicles and not buyers for particular cars belonging to particular persons. However because we aim to generate genuine buyer enquiries on our database, we are able to forward your details to potential buyers interested in your TYPE of vehicle.
(got that?)
Can you guarantee a sale?
We cannot force a buyer to purchase your car hence we cannot guarantee a sale. We do however guarantee to market the vehicle and circulate your vehicle information to potential buyers until it is sold.
(ding ding, alarm bells ringing anyone?)
Oh and does anyone want to buy a Laguna?:p
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Comments
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Thanks for warning, I haven't heard of that company but have heard of these sorts of practices going one0
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They seem to lack communication as well at Autobuyer. A different chap rang at about 8pm last night with the same amazing deal, pay him £79.99 and he'd sell my car.
Him "Can I take your name sir"
Me "You should ask your colleague who rang me this morning then hung up on me
Him "Why did he hang up on you"
Me "I asked for the data controllers name"
Him "I'll just transfer you to a manager"
The manager gave me the name "Leo Kline" as the data controller and the address as the company address. Then he asked for my phone number.
Me "Well you rang me, you should know my number"
Him "I don't have it here. Could you give me your number?"
Me "Can't you ask your colleague for it. You rang me."
Him "I can't. He's in a different department"
Me "Well can't you talk to him?"
Then he hung up as well.
Bless them. They do try hard. I think next time they ring I'll challenge myself to see how long they'll stay on the phone before they hang up. It's all on their phone bill.0 -
This has been going on for years - back in the pre-ebay days, I could pretty much guarantee that every time I advertised a car in Loot, I would get a phone call from a company like this.
Speaking to mates of mine (including mates of mine in the trade) it seems that they're after two things:- Your money, obviously
- Your confirmed address details (usually these companies want to send you an "information pack", so they need your address. As one of their agents let slip once, they actually get/used to get paid a bonus per address. And of course that can be sold onto the usual data brokers and can be rather valuable, especially if you're not in the edited copy of the electoral roll.
- Bank details obviously help, although I'm kinda interested as to what your bank has to say if they're trying to take money from your account without a properly filled in direct debit mandate. Guess they were asking for debit card details.
0 -
I had a similar experience with another company - Motor Network. Avoid like the plague. However, I did have a little fun at their expense...
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=488274&highlight=motor+network0 -
A few years ago I was a mug that fell for this. In my defence I was only young (19) and pretty desperate to get my Car sold. I paid £79.99 to them as they had loads of buyers lined up for my Car. 6 weeks later I did sell the Car but not through them and in fact I hadn't received a single approach through them. I just wrote it off as a learning experience.
Needless to say that when I was selling another Car last year I had the same calls and I swiftly told them to stick their offer as I simply didn't believe a word they had to say.0 -
wow, 4 days and still no, post count:1 "Hey i dunno what's happened for you guys but when i paid my £79.99 i was inundated with phone calls for people wanting to buy my car, in fact i managed to sell it for more than the advertised price, I love this company they are not con artists at all"Bought, not Brought0
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If you want to buy a car would you
a - look in E&M, Autotrader, local paper and ebay etc
b - go to a dealer
c - call one of these companies?
Since IMHO hardly anyone would call one of these companies, why would you spend £80-£100 for them to "find a buyer" - where do they find them from???0 -
They don't, that's why it's a rip-off/scamBought, not Brought0
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I am not defending these companies because as I said earlier I was ripped off by the but in response to what nomoneytoday said, I think their argument is that people will come through them because they will offer finance to people that couldn't get it elsewhere. This is what made me go for it in the end because my young naive mind thought it sounded plausible as I know people who have paid inflated prices for a car just because the montly payment was affordable!
In reality though they proved themselves to be useless. The Car I was selling was only three years old with 9,000 on the clock and pretty well specced so there was no reason they would have struggled to sell it if they honestly had loads of people interested!
As the OP said, if they had that many buyers lined up and were sure they could sell it then why are they so insistent on getting the £80 up front!?0 -
I am not defending these companies because as I said earlier I was ripped off by the but in response to what nomoneytoday said, I think their argument is that people will come through them because they will offer finance to people that couldn't get it elsewhere. This is what made me go for it in the end because my young naive mind thought it sounded plausible as I know people who have paid inflated prices for a car just because the montly payment was affordable!
In reality though they proved themselves to be useless. The Car I was selling was only three years old with 9,000 on the clock and pretty well specced so there was no reason they would have struggled to sell it if they honestly had loads of people interested!
As the OP said, if they had that many buyers lined up and were sure they could sell it then why are they so insistent on getting the £80 up front!?
If these 'buyers' existed, and actually were interested in buying your car, because they had seen your advertisement, they would be calling you directly, not some 3rd party intermediary."You were only supposed to blow the bl**dy doors off!!"0
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