Acubed.co.uk and Lmc Associates - Legimate?

jamieuk2

I am looking to buy a second hand car online and have come across Acubed.co.uk via autotrader.co.uk. The website looks legimate enough at first glance but I was unable to find any address or affiliation to any official body. I did a WHOIS search and found that the domain name doesn't have a postal address registered with it. In fact it has been witheld. It did provide a name so I searched for that name online and came across lmcassociates.co.uk - a company that sells motorbility vehicles. This site clearly uses the same template (the search function is the same) but again there are no contact details other than a phone number.

I searched for both companies on the companies house website and only Lmcassociates showed up.

Is there any way I can check the legitimacy of these companies, or is anyone able to confirm that they are reputable?

Many Thanks
J

jamieuk2

I have emailed the owner of the company airing my concerns. I will let you know of any reply.

rdwarr

From what you have told us they certainly don't appear reputable. No business should have a reason to hide its WHOIS details and that facility is strictly for private individuals anyway.
If they are dodgy then the owner is unlikely to admit this. I'd go elsewhere.

jamieuk2

Well it's been a couple of days and no email reply and no call back. As soon as I aired concerns it all seems to have gone quiet. As with many 'too good to be true' prices, it seems to be...well.. too good to be true.

jolly77

nuts...i did write a very long explanation into lmc and acubed which took me the best part of 40 mintues only to find it aint turned up

to cut a long story short my name is warren and I own ACubed, i can be contacted on 07779 118 378 so anyone can phone me and i'll be happy to answer questions. if my original post dont show up in due course i'll write it again.

warren

mikey-mike_2

Sorry Warren, they are a suspicious lot on here and I don’t think a mobile number is going to cut it.

I suspect they think a legitimate company would have a publicly available land line number and office address and maybe even membership of some trade organisations.

jolly77

mikey-mike wrote:

Sorry Warren, they are a suspicious lot on here and I don’t think a mobile number is going to cut it.

I suspect they think a legitimate company would have a publicly available land line number and office address and maybe even membership of some trade organisations.

Full address and landline phone numbers are available on our website for all the world to see, as for trade orgs it is something we have looked at but not done alot about, most of them seem to be pay us some money and you're in without much qualification but maybe this is me being cynical. I've listed my mobile number here so people can contact me without going to our website first, visitors are welcome to our site and both trade refferences and testimonials from customers are available for viewing. we are BCA credit account holders which required a personal credit check on the owner(me) and a trade refs from other vehicle re-marketing companies we have bought from. while are history and reputation may not be as comprehensive as reg vardy or lookers or renault UK bear in mind these companies are in a differnet league altogether. but please please please read the info on our site on how we work and make comments if things could be improved.

regards

warren

jolly77

one other thing, we never ever ask for deposits or money up front or cash only or bankers drafts. once we deliver a vehicle we take a personal cheque for payment and all our dealings are covered by the distance selling regulations giving customers 7 days once delivered to change their minds.

From a personal point of view i'm always worried in the back of my mind that somebody somewhere is going to try and steal a vehicle from us, bounce a cheque or do a runner with a vehicle, there is not a main dealer in the country that will allow you to drive a vehicle away without cleared funds in their hands but we do. we place a lot of trust in who we deal with that things will go smoothly. The customer dosn't pay a penny until the vehicle is outside their door with all the documents. This isn't a sob story but i'm just trying to point out that we're just a normal business trying to get on with making a living like everyone else even if we do work a bit different.

warren

philhuff

Hi Warren,

The first thing that could be improved is to update your Nominet information to show your details. It's a requirement of the domain registration to have those on display if you're a trader, and you clearly are. If it's registered to you personally, at home for example, you can easily update it to show the company details, so don't have any concerns about your own privacy issues there.

As for the rest, I obviously can't comment on the authenticity or legitimacy but, at the very least, you've got a good idea - I wish you luck with it.

piggeh

jolly77 - How do you inspect vehicles? Is it done by a third party? Who owns the vehicles which you're selling on?

jolly77

philhuff wrote:

Hi Warren,

The first thing that could be improved is to update your Nominet information to show your details. It's a requirement of the domain registration to have those on display if you're a trader, and you clearly are. If it's registered to you personally, at home for example, you can easily update it to show the company details, so don't have any concerns about your own privacy issues there.

As for the rest, I obviously can't comment on the authenticity or legitimacy but, at the very least, you've got a good idea - I wish you luck with it.

I didn't know that it was a requirement for address details being a trader, this i will put right. I think it has something to do with the fact that right at the start of setting up business the domain was registered, hence no business address because we didn't have one at the time. we do now so we can put this right.