Dodgy Car Dealer! (Need advice)

ahall3519

Last week I went to look at a car, I thought it seemed nice and told the guy at the garage I might head back over in the next few days to test drive it. Two days later the guy rang saying someone else was interested in the car, but if I paid him a £200 deposit over the phone, he would hold it for me until I came over to test drive it and if i didn't want the car he would refund the money back! (Btw he not only told me that he told two other people I know that the deposit was refundable)....so I then paid the deposit over the phone and that was the end of it until monday. The guy must of rang my house 3 times that morning and then he had the nerve to phone my parents house to ask what time that day I was coming over...when I managed to speak to him, to say I would be over later on the afternoon, he proceeded to prattle on how he's washed the car and serviced it and how it was already to drive away that day! Even though I had yet to even say I wanted to buy the car!!! Next my grandad rang on my behalf to try and get the price down rather than drive the 25 miles for nothing, the guy wouldn't budge off the asking price so he told him to forget it- the guy then said he'd take £4500 + £200 deposit and that I should put the balance on a credit card if I can't afford the rest! (Surely advising customers to take on debt to buy a product is wrong!?), we then told him we were no longer interested. I then checked my bank account and the deposit money had not gone out....later that evening the guy then again rang my house asking why we had not come over and how he'd been hanging round at work waiting for us to come over (when we'd told him on the phone earlier that day we were no longer interested!), around 10mins later after prattling on to my boyfriend who told him again that we were not interested, he hung up.

Thinking he'd finally got the message, the next day I checked my bank account to find that the money had come out! Furious my grandad who rang on my behalf asked about getting this deposit back as we were not interested in the car (since he would not budge on the price and from the harrasment we'd been getting through lots of phone calls), he then told us "no chance in hell are you getting the deposit back".

So off I went to my parents house to tell them, only when I got there my dad was talking on the phone to none over than the guy, he'd come off talking to my grandad and rang my dad to speak to me (like he didn't believe my grandad was acting on my behalf), so after listening to him prattle on to my dad about how he could of sold the car to someone else, but decided to hold out for me instead (even though again i'd never said i wanted to buy the car and simply test drive it), I grabbed the phone off him and spoke to him, saying how the only reason my dad, etc had been talking to him now was that he made me feel very uncomfortable and that I never said I wanted the car, he then said down the phone how he would now take the £200 deposit and the £4500 without any extra and that I should think about it and let him know the next day and before I could even reply he hung up! I am fuming!

I just want to know people's opinions on this! I have been to citizens advice but have to wait until 15th April before I can be seen, so i'm thinking of going to see a solicitor, this guy should not be allowed to get away with this!:mad::mad:

Hammyman

Sorry but you gave him your bank/card details for the deposit. You never went to test drive it.

You're pretty much 100% to blame for your stupidity. This may not go down well with the board but quite frankly thats exactly what it is.

Before going to a solicitor which will cost you money I suggest you go to the dealers and demand it back.

wba31

try ringing consumer direct - 08454 04 05 06

Strider590

Aggressive sales technique, desperate seller.

Can you reduce the text size please? Much easier to read half a page of text, than to scroll down through 5 of the barstewards

vaio

Rarely do I feel sorry for a car dealer…..

maninthestreet

Lesson learned - never put a deposit down on a car unless you actually intend on buying it and a price has been agreed IN WRITING.

Incyder

Lesson is, never give your bank account details to anyone.

Whats to stop him giving your details to a dodgy mate and helping themselves to more money from your account in the future.

go and report it to the police as fraud/theft. It may make him pay it back.

get your bank to cancel the card and give u a new one.

Tucker

To succesfully resolve this via a solicitor I suspect you would been to prove that he said he would refund the deposit if you decided not to buy the car.

Given that you have no written proof of this, I would say it's difficult but you say you have to other people who he confirmed the terms of the deposit with? You would need them to provide you with a statement to that effect.

However, he's likely to argue that he's incurred other expenses since i.e. waiting late for you etc. Regardless of whether it's true or not, it sounds like it will cost you far more to recover it.

By all means pursue him and make life difficult as it sounds like a little ploy of his to either pressure sell or swipe a deposit from someone, but I suspect you'll be putting it down to experience.

Don't part with your cash so readily in future. Alarm bells should have been ringing the minute he asked for cash to hold the car. If he had another genuine buyer, he'd have done his very best to sell it them, rather than contacting someone who showed a bit of interest.