WARNING! Online bidding rip off at BCA British Car Auctions

Danni-R

Its not illegal. It *is* illegal on ebay but in a commercial setting a seller may also bid on their goods.

The only time its illegal is if they dont delcare it. But then that means you have to read all the small print.

Law goes back to the 60s I believe.

boomish

I can't believe the number of people knocking this thread, I am off to an auction tomm and am very grateful for the warning , it's good to be reminded of these things wether you think they exist or not, lets face it there are lots of dodgy deals going on when buying a car and it's invaluable info to be able to spot something or just beware of scams. Well done poster for taking the time out and posting..

Stew125

I would also like to warn people of the BCA online con! BCA online service called - Live Online, or LOL for short do not provide accurate descriptions of their auctioned vehicles. Having bought many vehicles’ online, we the bidders(or mugs where BCA is concerned) are completely reliant upon an accurate description of the product you are bidding on. You are protected by the Trade Descriptions Act, Distant Selling Regulations, and section 75 of the Sale of Goods Act (if you purchase via your credit card and are not a business). But do BCA care about the law? NO!

BCA will NOT tell you if the product is defective, smoking, rattles, etc.And they do not describe the vehicle as having dents, cracks in windows, oreven the sight of any warning lights such as the engine management light beingon. So when you buy a vehicle via the LOL (Live Online) service, be warned youwill NOT know if anything is wrong with the vehicle until you pick it up.

As happened to me - I was sold a fully working vehicle (according to BCA) -I could not have access to the vehicle until I gained a release slip. No release slip until it had been signed off. No sign off until I had the keys, Nokeys until I paid for it! I paid for it alright!!! In more ways than one! WhenI was finally provided access to the vehicle, it would not start! Engine management light on! Windscreen smashed! Window open due to motor damaged! Anda hole in the roof! Yes that's right A HOLE IN THE ROOF!!! This was a vehicle costing several thousand pounds. After refusing to take delivery of the vehicleI was told by Trading Standards, some 2 months later, BCA had breached certainselling regulations. Great I thought! Not so! Yes I could get some money back,but taking 6 – 9 months. Having a few grand sat dead for 6 – 9 months is notgood for business. So I thought stuff it I’ll stand the loss and I received it‘under protest’. To top it all off BCA Measham delivered a vehicle without an engine management unit. A mere £1000 to replace! And a completely useless lump of metal with wheels without it. Someone has had it away whilst the vehicle wasstood!

BCA has a duty of care to provide the purchaser with any information which they have from the seller which may indicate any faults. However, many sellers (Lombard in this case) do not tell you of the defects and ‘possibly’ ‘deliberately’deceive the potential purchaser to sell a shed! However, BCA probably, youwould expect, have seen many sellers try this and you would expect BCA to havetheir purchase customers’ best interests at heart. You would expect this if you are a decent person but as I have learnt BCA will sell you the shed and takeyour money and say goodbye. BCA will also say ‘it is down to the seller to provide an accurate description of the vehicle’ and ‘we cannot be held responsible for a defect on the vehicle being found after the auction’. Yes I agree if you attend the auction in person. But when you are at the other end of an internet connection BCA ‘YOU BECOME LIABLE’. Now lets give BCA a chance.Some sellers (Lombard) in this case may hide something. A seller may not say –the head gasket has gone; transmission is faulty; driveshaft is grinding. And how would BCA know? They won’t! However, when the fault is obvious ‘smashed windscreen’ engine management light on, HOLE IN THE ROOF, etc. Come on BCA.

Now many of you will say – ‘that’s what you get if you buy from an auction’and I would agree from an auction where you attend. I have attended an auctionand bought a shed and took the loss. That is the luck of an auction. This DOES NOT apply to online auctions. What the people at BCA have to get used to is ‘it is not 1982’ there are laws against selling rubbish across the internet, and just because you are a massive company you cannot carry on the way it was!Update and improve or you WILL be left behind.

My advice to anyone wanting to purchase a vehicle online is –

1. View the vehicle first.

2. If it’s too far don’t buy it, but if you must – Call the sellers and ask them lots and lots of questions and record the conversation.

3. Screen print the description of the vehicle.

4. If you do purchase a vehicle, insist on seeing it before handing overany money.

5. If they do not let you see it first, don’t buy it. If you still want to risk it - Pay via your credit card (min £100). If you are a business it must be a business credit card.

6. Be very careful!



I have to say BCA Brighouse have been good! No issues,always courteous, products - some good, some poor. So all BCA auctions are not the same. But BCA Measham has been disgraceful. BE VERY CAREFUL, and DO NOT TRUST BCA Commercial Measham. If you still want to buy from BCA Measham, or any online auction (although many are better) follow the above.

StaffsSW

1connect wrote: »

????? are they really ripping us off ?????

I was at BCA yesterday, and I was SHOCKED and OUTRAGED at what I believe was happening...

Do you read the Daily Mail by any chance?

martindh

BCA Bridgwater run it up against the wall all the time even when you are in the hall bidding. Twice recently I've started bidding on a car, then when I've turned away the [same] auctioneer has restarted the bidding process! Selling there is no better either, my first car I entered they changed [up] the entry fee and on the second car they lost the V5 and tried to claim I never handed it in-only when they had detailed information from the V5 in the catalogue was this disproved.

martindh

Well, I recently bought a car online through their 'buy now' service, but what a mistake:(. I took up their £99 + vat delivery service anywhere in the uk mainland, which promises delivery 'within 72 hours'. Well, 5 days later and lots of phone calls and my purchase was firstly 'on a transporter to you as we speak' then next day it's 'at Newcastle awaiting transportation to you on Monday the 4th' (9 days on) but now I'm told "it has n't even left the branch because it's not economically viable to get it to Plymouth"! I'm told (hopefully) it might be here next Friday, two weeks after purchase. They take your money with sky high commission, buying online and credit card charges, then don't give a monkeys. And don't even get me started on their condition and mechanical reports; two of the last four online purchases I've had to make an almighty fuss over misrepresentations to get money back, including one car at Peterborough with an A1 mechanical report that could not move one inch and another at Brighouse with a gouge along the entire length of a door that was not mentioned in the condition report! But back to the buy now non arrival, many phone calls and e mails later, still no car, no refund, but lots of lies, wonder if Mainheim auctions are any better......:mad:

soolin

martindh, why on earth do you keep posting how bad these poeple are- but continue to use them?

Just walk away, buy elsewehere

AlanCee

I am a small car dealer, and intended to buy some cars at BCA Blackbushe, over a 2 day period the cars I had saved to bid on have risen by around 12%

On asking why the young lady I spoke to put me on hold for a few minutes then told that the spec of the car had been updated, I pointed out that the published spec was exactly the same, she put me on hold again for a longer period of time, and came back with a different answer, this time the Cap Guide had gone up for this particular car between December & January or 2 days this week.

Here is the original price:
Price Miles Size CAP
- New: £ 12,857
Ret £ 6,175
- - - - Cln £ 4,425
- - - - Avg £ 4,025
- - - - Blw £ 3,625
Lot Detail Blackbushe, 10 January 2014

And here is the new price:
New: £ 14,852 New: £ 13,797
Ret £ 6,895 Ret £ 5,845
- - - - Cln £ 4,975
- - - - Avg £ 4,550
- - - - Blw £ 4,075

An increase of £525

Cap price today 09/01/2014

Average dealer retail £5,975 - £6,525
Private sale price £5,275 - £5,650
Trade in clean £4,000 - £4,275
Trade in average £3,650 - £3,900
Trade in below £3,300 - £3,525

This happened on the cars by the BMW Group but not with cars from other dealers that I was watching.

Not illegal but not very ethical, but it is BCA and now they are owned By Vulture Capitalist, things will only get worse, as they strip the firm in preparation to dumping it, I wonder if they will try to float?

BCA have recently purchased webuyanycar.com

I will monitor this situation over the coming weeks and post the results.

USED_CAR_SELLER

guys i cant believe everyone having a go at the guy who brought this up. let me tell you my story.

i bid on a car at the above auction, my bid was upto £9650 i was online and got a feeling they were riding it up using shills, when the shill bid got to 9700 then i backed off and left the scene, points to remember are the car was announced as ON SALE at £9500. so who ever bid 9700 should have taken the car.

week later i see the same care again, i go though my screen prints its the same car! got on the phone to the sales team and question this matter with them they advise that they cannot do nothing and will not give an explanation. i write the head office and they refer me back to the local office to investigate then the guy on the phone confirmed that they followed vendors instruction and bid on their behalf my jaws dropped i was like thats openly saying we were shill bidding but when i said are you sure you are allowed to this he says its on our terms and conditions see section for Conditions of entry and sale and under 5 -THE CONDUCT OF THE AUCTION-

Whether or not there is a reserve price the seller may:-
* withdraw a vehicle at any time before the hammer falls;
*bid for a vehicle himself or alternatively appoint not more than one other person to bid for it on his behalf.

i was shocked to see this and hear this too i asked them why they do such things and not use the reserve function available to them the response was - to create a more lively environment- really how many of us are being ripped off paying more than market to buy and make no money at all and then the worse part it come back with a car you paid too much or made to pay too much by manipulation and you are stuck with it and have to shift it off to someone to get out of it. i am sick to the back teeth of this and there is no protection for traders . i refered this to the trading stardards who said the company could fined for every single car they get accused of this as they openly put it on their T&C thus accepting that this is being done. its £5000 per car so i really hope they get that massive shot soon but in the mean time guys read up on the T&C and see it yourself. by the way i have full evidence of them doing this , but if you were ever a caught up on something like this their T&C copy will nail them for breaching the European fair trading rules. :j:j:j:j:j:j:j

RMS2

This is quite normal for auctions. I went to a car auction in Brentford about 30 years ago, back when they were 'proper' auctions held in the evening, full of dodgy geezers.


If you weren't a regular, you stood out, now matter what sort of get up you put on. The regulars all had their standard attire, including clipboards and mobile phones strung over their shoulder that were the size of three house bricks.


I wasn't exactly wet behind the ears, but a little slower on the uptake back then. It took me a while to realise what was happening and it was happening on a car I was bidding for, so I immediately pulled out. To which the auctioneer turned to me and said, I sure if you give it just one more bid you'll get it.


To which I said, no thanks, you just bought it, you keep it. As has been said, the auctioneer will take bids off the wall all the time. There's a clip from something like Homes under the Hammer, about two ladies bidding at auction and all the other buyers dropped out, but they were so busy gassing to themselves, that the auctioneer was openly pointing his arm to the left wall (they were on the right) and knocking the bids up, it was so blatant people were giggling to themselves.


They must have paid about £20K over what they should have done.