Some advice please regarding dealerships and deposits

Dinalli

Im looking for some advice and maybe some experiences you may have had that have been similar.

On march 1st put down a deposit of £410 on a mercedes at a well know mercedes dealership in leeds.

This was against a car that was to be delivered that week anyway into the dealership stock.

At the time the details of the deal they gave me sounded okay. However with it being a sunday they couldnt give me the full terms and conditions of the finance deal so i would need to sign the finance agreement later.

On the tuesday they sent me the documents of the finance through, after carefully reading the T&Cs i wasnt particularly happy on what i would be signing up to.

To cut a long story short, they upshot of that was that to get my deposit back i would need to put a request in writing to get it back which i did and posted recored delivery the following week.

I have now had trading standards involved 3 times with them, without much luck each time we have had a story of why it may not have arrived when they said it would. Its now 7 weeks since they took my deposit.

Having spoke to Trading standards about this, it is against the law for them to keep the deposit as i have not signed the finance agreement and thus not leagally bound to any contract.

I have to say ive been very disapointed in how this has been dealt with by what should be a repulatable dealer, and also how it seems they have little regard for trading standards.

So have you been in a similar situation, what did you do ?

I think my options are the following

Continue to go the Trading standards route, despite the lack of success so far.

Take it a step further and go the small claims route ( i have no idea of how this works or how much it should cost).

Thanks for your time

harveybobbles

Why don't you want to go ahead with the car?
I keep deposits if someone changes their mind just "cos" or i'll transfer the deposit onto another car I have in stock.

I know some main dealers will ask for a hefty deposit on a car that they have to get transported to their delership this is to cover their costs etc.

If you haven't signed a finance doc then they should give you the deposit back, maybe less a few quid for costs?

jack_spratt_2

Just an idea have you thought of contacting Mercedes direct at there head office and complain about the behavior of one of there dealers .
You did not say if it was a new car or used car if it is used they could not expect you to buy unseen ??
One last point many Home Insurance policies have legal cover on there policies !! have a look at this and see if it covers free legal advice or cover to recover through the courts for the outstanding amount

Dinalli

harveybobbles wrote: »

If you haven't signed a finance doc then they should give you the deposit back, maybe less a few quid for costs?

Yup i would have been happy with that, but its now been over 7 weeks.

I would have even been willing to do a deal on maybe an older model on a deal that would have suited my needs.