MITSUBISHI dealership gone into liquidation, taken our money with them!

gems2381

I'm really desperate for help here, we've been buying a car from an official Mitsubishi dealership (Rochdale) and had given them a large part payment on the car. On wednesday night we discovered that the dealership had gone bust, Mitsubishi head office have been useless they were supposed to be calling my boyfriend before 5.30pm wednesday evening that call never came!
He did however receive a phonecall on thursday from the Chief Executive of Mitsubishi UK but only after we'd commented on the situation on their facebook page https://www.facebook.com/#!/MitsubishiUK?sk=wall (my post is a fair way down the wall now, username Gemma Littley)

Mitsubishi only seem to be concerned with how it looks against them on the facebook page, before the comments were posted they were doing nothing to help us they couldn't even be bothered returning calls as promised.

Does anyone have any advice? We're not the only ones in this situation the garage forecourt was full of cars with 'sold' signs on them and all of these were taken away on thursday and nobody seems to know how to help us.

wealdroam

Have you paid any of the money using a credit card?

If so, read about Section 75 refunds.

Might be a good idea to read MSE's Administration Guide too.

gems2381

Unfortunately we didn't use a credit card for the payments, stupid of us I know!

rumblefish

That's a terrible situation to be in. It's not very helpful but you have my sympathy.

wealdroam

Maybe you used a debit card?

Both Visa and Mastercard have a chargeback scheme.
There is some information on those at the bottom of the section 75 article I linked to earlier.

visidigi

You need to be constructive on this - I see there are facebook comments from others in your family name - if you start getting peoples backs up then you will only suffer. I know its not a nice situation to be in, I know its frustratings, but the more constructive you can be the less stress it will actually cause.

An £8,000 all cash deposit is a catastrophic mistake here - dealers I have dealt with recently usually flat out refuse cash - did you pay ANYTHING on credit card? even £1? If you did the whole amount would be covered.

You've become an unsecured creditor in the current situation - if the banks have frozen the accounts there is nothing Mitsubishi is obliged to do here - there are things they can do, but they are not obliged to.

I would start to ensure you have all the paperwork for your deposits present and all the history of your discussions and dealings are documented.

Even if Mitsubishi lied when you called, that doesn't actually change your circumstance, like the others affected, you would have been palmed off with excuses from the dealer like others.

Its not nice, but you are going to have to be patient - you are going to need tokeep in contact with the liquidators and you need to notify and work with them on getting your money back.

Good luck, and PLEASE next time use a credit card, even if its just £1.

roddydogs

The reason most people dont use CC for a car is that the Dealer usually wants 2% to do so.

peachyprice

OP, have you been in touch with the administrators?

Their job is to get in as much money as possible, in these circumstances they may well be happy for you to complete the sale, it's one less car they'll have to sell and they'll probably make more completing the sale to you than flogging it at auction as a job lot.

gems2381

My sister has already been told about that comment, and however crudely she put it she is right!

Peachyprice- they're not in administration they've gone into liquidation which is different but yes we are in touch with them not that it's doing us any good at the minute!

texranger

we had a similar thing happen to use several years ago with a renault dealership, we ordered a brand new car and paid i think it was £3000 deposit and was told it would be approix. 2 weeks for them to receive the car and then they would contact us.
2 weeks passed and no car, so we visited the garage and was told their was a delay but we wont be waiting long. we had noticed on this visit the showroom etc. looked very sparce for a main dealership and commented on this and was told that they were haviong the place decorated the following day, so they were clearing the showroom.
the following day we got a phonecall from renault to say that the company that run the dealership had gone into receivership, so the dealerships were closed down, but renault had our paperwork and they had been in cointact with the receiver and the finance company involved in our purchase and have had the finance cancelled which we would get a letter to this effect (we did within 2 days) and the deposit we paid was secure, but the car order we placed was not completed with renault, so no car was ordered from them, soi we would haveto go to one of their other dealerships and place the order again, but without a deposit (they gave us a list of local dealers and a reference number to give to the dealer) which they also sent us a letter with these details on.
long story short, we visited another dealer and got a better deal on the same car

visidigi

roddydogs wrote: »

The reason most people dont use CC for a car is that the Dealer usually wants 2% to do so.

You only need to put £1 on to be covered for the whole amount, I havent yet had ANY company who charges a fee for CC on an in person purchase charge me the fee, as I am only putting £1 on it.

Its the best rule out there an more people really need to exploit the protection it offers.