Please urgent help with 'illegal' car sold by garage

mad_rich

rigsby1967 wrote: »

Thats changed now Vaio.
She's going back tomorrow with the piece of metal, they are looking over it (don't know why) then daughter will watch them transfer the money into her account. Daughter said the tow bloke is coming in with her to make sure.

If she paid them in cash, they can refund her in cash. No cash, no deal.

Phone in the morning and get them to confirm they have the cash available before she makes the journey.

Cash in her hand in real money, correctly counted, before she parts with the keys and V5.

And make sure she counts her fingers after she's shaken hands with the owner.

mad_rich

rigsby1967 wrote: »

its going to be bank account refund. Daughter won't let me go with her in case i kick of and apparently the tow bloke will stay with her.

Why? She paid cash.

If it's to be a bank account transfer, she must get a mini statement from the bank to confirm it's gone in, even if that means walking to the nearest cashpoint. Or confirm with her bank's telephone banking/ mobile banking. (Set this up tonight to make sure it works).

And get a receipt.

KTF

I agree that the bank transfer is a bit wiffy but at the same time most dealers dont like bags of cash lying around for obvious reasons.

Either way, they do the transfer, then she confirms it by whatever means, then she hands over the keys and the paperwork.

Joe_Horner

I can understand settling in this way if she gets (most of) her money back without too much aggro.

Unfortunately, VOSA won't be able to do anything directly about the MOT seeing as they can't force it to turn up to a re-inspection and I doubt that the dealer will agree to take it!

But PLEASE, for the sake of all the future customers, before the car goes back take a note of the MOT number, the car, the dealer and the testing station. Then give VOSA a call yourself (no offence but I get the feeling your daughter probably won't do it or will manage to get it wrong!) to explain the situation (including the faults that have been identified).

They really do try to keep on top of dodgy garages but have fairly limited resources, so they always appreciate intel that helps them target possible rule breaking. If they know there may be a problem, that garage is far more likely to end up on their mystery shopper and / or spot retest list than if it's just left to chance. With any luck that'll be enough to bring future (and completely unrelated to you) grief down on them

Incidentally, I'm a bit puzzled by that dealer. Big flash website but the address shows as a semi-detached house in an apparently residential street and the photos on the site appear to have been taken in what looks like the car park of a closed-down building at the end of the road (the sat-nav in one of the photos gives it away )

Granted, Google Street View isn't always up to date, but it'd be interesting to know how legit they really are!

rigsby1967

i have no idea why not the cash, i think they can't be bothered as they said they'd have to go to the bank to get it, but yes she has a phone internet banking so will check before she leaves.
These messages are coming to me when she phones me with an update as she's in MK with the car and im at home.

comeandgo

Has the garage said anything about her old car she gave them as part exchange? Can she get it back? I would be very wary about bank transfers - especially after the way this garage have carried on. Will they know her bank numbers? Will they be able to reverse it?

rigsby1967

The garage is at the end of this residential road next to a council dump (where you can take houshold rubish/white goods ect thats probably why it's not coming up on google maps, it's right down the end of Frenches Avenue.
Yes the part exchanged car is thier and they said no way is she getting it back as they paid her money for it..

mad_rich

rigsby1967 wrote: »

The garage is at the end of this residential road next to a council dump (where you can take houshold rubish/white goods ect thats probably why it's not coming up on google maps, it's right down the end of Frenches Avenue.
Yes the part exchanged car is thier and they said no way is she getting it back as they paid her money for it..

Whoah, hang on.

Did they take the car as a part-ex or did they buy it?

It sounds like she gave them her old car and £2k, and they're proposing to refund her £1750 and keep her old car.

If that's she case, she's been done out of the price of her old car as well as the £250 (and her out of pocket expenses).

KTF

They need to make the situation 'right' and return it to how it was before (or as close to). Them keeping her part-ex car does not achieve this.

Someone other than the tow truck guy needs to go down with her as this could take a while to sort out and it isnt his problem.

She needs to walk out of there with

a) 2k (ideally cash)
b) Her old car back (or the part-ex value in cash that they paid for it).
c) The cost of the tow refunded.

Unless a + b + c happens then I would file with the small claims court as they wont have a leg to stand on and they know it.

rigsby1967

Just contacted daughter.
In her words, she gave them £2000 for the 'illegal' car,
Daughter then gave her car to them but they gave her £150 for her car (I thought it was £80 she got for her car).