UNDERcharged by dealer

wba31

Steve-182 wrote: »

Bought a car from a local dealer and when it came to paying I'd paid by a combination of cheque and card. On the card amount they inputted the incorrect number and have UNDERcharged me by £1000.

My question is should they work out they have made an error (and they will) what is my position regarding this ? Is it a question of them having to write it off seeing as we shook hands, and driven off - seeing as I didn't notice it either at the time and wasn't responsible for the amount they put in the machine ?

Or am I legally liable still for the balance ?

Add into this the fact that upon driving home I noticed the windscreen had a chip in it, so I'm going to have to sort that out. Or can I use the £1000 shortfall as a barganing tool to get them to cover the windscreen cost ??

Advice welcome.

Personally I would return and offer the £1000 still owing, because I had I bought a part or something from the place, and they overcharged me, but i only noticed when checked receipts, I would return with the receipts and explain the receipts, and most business's worth their salt would rectify the problem. I have no idea on the law side, but if you wanted my personal opinion, i would pay the money, especially as you went into the transaction intending to hand over that money anyway

redcard

Lum wrote: »

So whatever happened to "Please check your change as mistakes cannot be rectified once you have left the building"?

A similar thing happened to my mum buying an xmas tree from B&Q, they charged her 99p, not £99 and when they phoned her up asking for the money she told them to get stuffed and pointed out the existence of that sign. Last she ever heard from them.

What if they had charged her £99 instead of 99p. Pretty sure you would insist they rectified that mistake.

Mankysteve

dzug1 wrote: »

I don't think there's the slightest doubt, legally, that he owes it.

There's a greater argument (because ethics are subjective) that ethically he doesn't.

If your a commie then your ethics would mean the garage owes him £6000(bit of simplification I know)

legaly he signed a contract for 7k.

The B&Q example is different because at the till when the till operator asked for the 99p as payment for the tree that's the price they agreed to and she paid i.e the contract formed then. In this case they ask for 7k he signed a contract agreeing to the &k but then he paid 6k though a error which does happen and the law allows for people to make innocent mistakes.

Gene_Hunt_2

Lum wrote: »

So whatever happened to "Please check your change as mistakes cannot be rectified once you have left the building"?

A similar thing happened to my mum buying an xmas tree from B&Q, they charged her 99p, not £99 and when they phoned her up asking for the money she told them to get stuffed and pointed out the existence of that sign. Last she ever heard from them.

How did B&Q get her name and number?

richardvc

My opinion may come as a bit brusque but in the time it took you to write this thread you could have phoned up the dealer and paid the outstanding money.

Do the decent thing and uphold your side of the deal.

Use the payment as leverage to get the screen sorted etc etc and see how much goodwill you will get in return !

Steve-182

I'd just like to say that I have HAPPILY paid the dealer the balance, since they called me after noticing their error. They were kind and curteous SINCE IT WAS THEIR ERROR IN THE FIRST PLACE and I had no problem paying it due to a mistake, my whole point was I was interested in whether LEGALLY that was the correct thing.

Seriously some people who write here "why did you post this on a forum?" or some such, REALLY need to get a grip. There are MANY MANY posts on here on lots of topics. Thats what a forum is for. Just because YOU don't think its a valid thread..... DON'T REPLY TO IT. Ignore it and move on with your life.

My thanks to those who posted with constructive opinions.

Lum

Gene_Hunt wrote: »

How did B&Q get her name and number?

From the credit card company, apparently.

Gene_Hunt_2

Lum wrote: »

From the credit card company, apparently.

Nice of them to sage guard customers details.

I hope she cancelled it.

Lum

Gene_Hunt wrote: »

Nice of them to sage guard customers details.

I hope she cancelled it.

It may well have been that the credit card company called on behalf of B&Q. I can't remember the exact details. I know it was someone in a call centre and they told her "well done" when she said she wasn't paying the difference.

Hotspur

Steve-182,

No doubt on this in law IMHO

Contract agreed by both parties to sell/buy a car at £x,000. The dealer has (probably) made an error in collecting £1,000 less than agreed which the OP noticed and accepts.

So, OP owes £1,000.

What would I do? Probably, put the £1000 in a building society account and wait and see if the dealer spots their error. If they do pay the money without question. If you are very lucky they won't spot the error. Also if you knew of the error and refused to pay then you may have been considered to commit a fraud (theft).

Is it ethical? Probably not. In the end you have done the right thing.