(Beware!) selling a car, but just getting hassle

toasterman · 7 January 2010 at 6:31PM

A friend of mine is helping her mother (widowed) sell a car, and so far is getting nothing but hassle.
It's a car of quite high value (over £7,000...it's high to me).

So far, her mother has been hassled by an "agent" who said he had someone wanting to buy this car, came out to see it (her mother met him in a public place, and took a friend), and then called her repeatedly with an incredibly convoluted system which sounds pretty illegal to me.
Allegedly it works by this "buyer" (I don't think exists) transferring the money to her mother's bank account, then she sends the "agent" his fee (he openly admitted this was to avoid paying tax!)
Before any of this happens, she has to pay an amount (I think it was about £100) to hold the buyer or something, which she gets back after the sale is completed.
After some sensible thought, she told the "agent" she wasn't interested, only to be verbally abused over the phone. I'm thankful she didn't invite him round to her house.

My friend then decided she'd advertise the car on Autotrader with her own mobile number, in an attempt to help her mother sell it.
So far, she's had someone who phoned from a company, said he had a buyer for the car, then asked to put her on hold. He put her on hold before she could answer, so she hung up.

Then a couple of days ago, she had four missed calls from very similar numbers, within a period of about two hours. All London-based (nowhere near her), and all left messages.
One of which was clearly a call centre from the noise in the background, one said simply "Hi this is Dave calling about the car - can you call me back on <number>".
I thought these sounded suspicious so Googled some of the numbers, to find they are all belonging to a company called National Car Data, who claim that if you pay them a nominal fee (about £90), they will advertise your car until sold, seek out buyers, etc. They claim to have a load of buyers ready for your particular vehicle (and *every* vehicle), and it's all a huge waste of time. The online reviews of this company speak for themselves.

So this was firstly to say - if you're selling a car - watch out for these scammers.
And secondly - does anyone know a good way to sell a higher value car?
Neither me nor my friend has ever sold a car worth more than £1000, and we used eBay, Trade-It or Autotrader, with reasonable success.
Her mother considered selling to a garage, but they're "valuing" the car (only around 10,000 miles, and pristine condition) at about £3,000 less than what it's worth.

motorguy · 7 January 2010 at 6:35PM

toasterman wrote: »

A friend of mine is helping her mother (widowed) sell a car, and so far is getting nothing but hassle.
It's a car of quite high value (over £7,000...it's high to me).

So far, her mother has been hassled by an "agent" who said he had someone wanting to buy this car, came out to see it (her mother met him in a public place, and took a friend), and then called her repeatedly with an incredibly convoluted system which sounds pretty illegal to me.
Allegedly it works by this "buyer" (I don't think exists) transferring the money to her mother's bank account, then she sends the "agent" his fee (he openly admitted this was to avoid paying tax!)
Before any of this happens, she has to pay an amount (I think it was about £100) to hold the buyer or something, which she gets back after the sale is completed.
After some sensible thought, she told the "agent" she wasn't interested, only to be verbally abused over the phone. I'm thankful she didn't invite him round to her house.

My friend then decided she'd advertise the car on Autotrader with her own mobile number, in an attempt to help her mother sell it.
So far, she's had someone who phoned from a company, said he had a buyer for the car, then asked to put her on hold. He put her on hold before she could answer, so she hung up.

Then a couple of days ago, she had four missed calls from very similar numbers, within a period of about two hours. All London-based (nowhere near her), and all left messages.
One of which was clearly a call centre from the noise in the background, one said simply "Hi this is Dave calling about the car - can you call me back on <number>".
I thought these sounded suspicious so Googled some of the numbers, to find they are all belonging to a company called National Car Data, who claim that if you pay them a nominal fee (about £90), they will advertise your car until sold, seek out buyers, etc. They claim to have a load of buyers ready for your particular vehicle (and *every* vehicle), and it's all a huge waste of time. The online reviews of this company speak for themselves.

So this was firstly to say - if you're selling a car - watch out for these scammers.
And secondly - does anyone know a good way to sell a higher value car?
Neither me nor my friend has ever sold a car worth more than £1000, and we used eBay, Trade-It or Autotrader, with reasonable success.
Her mother considered selling to a garage, but they're "valuing" the car (only around 10,000 miles, and pristine condition) at about £3,000 less than what it's worth.

I'd say if a garage are offering £4K for it, then its probably worth £5K - £6K private, but thats an aside.

Very little you can do really other than perservere. I also use pistonheads.com (free) and gumtree (free).

aqueoushumour01 · 7 January 2010 at 6:40PM

I guess there's always that risk when you put your details on a website scammers will come calling. One service you can use on autotrader and pistonheads (the latter is a good site to sell cars btw) disguises your number.

If you sell to a garage for cash they will go very low to earn a nice premium. I'm sure the value has been researched, but there is a possibility that it's overpriced if there hasn't been any 'genuine' interest. Here's a source for the parkers px valuation for free http://www.vauxhall.co.uk/vaux/pages/global/valueMyCar/valueMyCarPopup.jsp

Anihilator · 7 January 2010 at 6:42PM

What kind of car is it? Age, model, spec etc etc,

iceze · 7 January 2010 at 7:17PM

Maybe if the price was lowered slightly. Not saying that the car should be given away but a slightly lower than average price may attract more serious buyer.

justcat · 7 January 2010 at 7:33PM

Trade it is free too and you can disguise your number

gsmmad · 8 January 2010 at 4:27AM

these are normal and happen all the time. the most annoying is when they say they have a buyer 100% will buy the car. Just give us 100 and he will come buy the car!