Company wants me to pay card charge after I bought item

CKhalvashi

bigadaj wrote: »

Report to trading standards, very poor service, if they fail to mention a charge at the time of sale then they have to cover it.

Having just dealt with Arnold Clark on a faulty car part, nothing would surprise me.

'Sold as seen', followed by 'it's not our problem, we just ordered it from Jaguar' when I mentioned having ordered it on the phone, as the result of my fleet manager telling me what it was!

2.5% is about right for a card charge, however if they can't prove to you there and then, that you've agreed to it in writing, it may be worth reporting the car as stolen if they won't give you the keys.

CK

spacey2012

Your first mistake was trusting them and the second paying for a car that is left on their premises .
They have you over a right barrel and obviously have you down as a mug.
If you did not pay a deposit in cash I would seriously think about asking the credit card company for a chargeback explaining they are refusing to hand over the vehicle unless you now pay more than they have already taken.
Give them the log book back and walk away.

Obviously a insight in to the type of people you are dealing with.

Dimey

My view is that the sale is closed.

Not only can they not come back to you for more money, they also can't charge you a fee that they didn't tell you about beforehand.

Just collect the car in the morning and don't mention it unless they do.

If they do, then tell them, sorry but the sale is closed and you don't want to hear any more about it. Just get the keys and go.

If they absolutely insist and you feel sorry for them then only agree to a goodwill swapping the payment method from credit card to debit card. Don't take any fob off. They can credit and re-charge.

But you would be mad to do anything other than telling them you've already bought the car and they can't charge you any extra.

Dimey

spacey2012 wrote: »

Your first mistake was trusting them and the second paying for a car that is left on their premises .
They have you over a right barrel and obviously have you down as a mug.
If you did not pay a deposit in cash I would seriously think about asking the credit card company for a chargeback explaining they are refusing to hand over the vehicle unless you now pay more than they have already taken.
Give them the log book back and walk away.

Obviously a insight in to the type of people you are dealing with.

The garage are not actually refusing to hand over the vehicle unless OP pays more money.

OP is just worried that might happen.

It is highly unlikely to happen. When OP dismisses their idea out of hand tomorrow they'll back off, realising he's not such a soft touch as they thought.

dalesrider

So its now Wed.....

No updates from the OP as to what happened then.

matttye

CKhalvashi wrote: »

Having just dealt with Arnold Clark on a faulty car part, nothing would surprise me.

'Sold as seen', followed by 'it's not our problem, we just ordered it from Jaguar' when I mentioned having ordered it on the phone, as the result of my fleet manager telling me what it was!

2.5% is about right for a card charge, however if they can't prove to you there and then, that you've agreed to it in writing, it may be worth reporting the car as stolen if they won't give you the keys.

CK

I can already hear the police saying 'its a civil dispute' like they usually do for such things.

For once they may be right; it would be impossible to prove dishonesty if the car dealer thinks they have a legal right to hold onto the car because the buyer hasn't yet fully paid.

Believing you have a lawful excuse to take the item is a defence to theft.

Hominu

I can hear the car dealer going "Fine, OK. You have completed payment for the vehicle. You now own the vehicle. However, you left the vehicle on our property, for that we charge £85 storage costs. To be paid by cash, cheque or debit card.".

Saying that, whenever I've bought a second hand car, I've always managed to get the dealer to pay for at least 6 months of tax and a full tank of fuel before I've paid the full balance.

Voyager2002

chattychappy wrote: »

Agree with the above, but I would check any paperwork that you signed (eg T+Cs) to see if in fact you did agree to pay this charge.

You can be fairly sure that the paperwork includes the letters 'E & O E'. These stand for "errors and omissions excepted" and mean that the company is not bound by anything that it says or forgets to say by mistake. So even though the sales person forgot to mention the credit card charge, the company is not legally obliged to waive the charge in question.

The common sense solution would be for the company to reverse the credit card payment and take payment by debit card instead. If they refuse to do so (or simply waive the fee) then I would suggest withdrawing from the purchase: as others have suggested, return the log-book and contact your credit card company for a charge-back on the grounds that the vendor refuses to hand over the item purchased.

melanie-dorian

Although 3% is certainly not excessive as a credit card cost I expect they'd have written in your contract or have a prominent sign in the office that says you are expected to pay it. In this case I believe they are entitled to charge you.

chattychappy

Voyager2002 wrote: »

You can be fairly sure that the paperwork includes the letters 'E & O E'. These stand for "errors and omissions excepted" and mean that the company is not bound by anything that it says or forgets to say by mistake.

Yep, it often appears in paperwork, especially catalogues/price lists, though not in the contract itself. I've used it myself. But it is an example of defensive drafting - rarely enforceable in anything of significance once a contract has been agreed, principally because terms of a contract must be certain at the time of agreement. They wouldn't be if one party is still holding open the possibility of clarification. It prevents a customer holding you to what you've printed - but if you haven't dealt with them (ie the errors/omissions) by the time you enter an agreement then you're probably stuck with them.

Voyager2002 wrote: »

So even though the sales person forgot to mention the credit card charge, the company is not legally obliged to waive the charge in question.

That's a different issue - the E&OE thing applies to the document on which it appears, not to what salesmen say. But I agree - if the 3% was in the T+Cs and the salesman forgot to mention it then the OP is on the hook.

More tricky if the salesman said (at the point of sale) "this is all you pay, yep CC is fine" or some such. The T+Cs might also have a "whole agreement" clause or some other mechanism that attempts to exclude representations made by sales people. But such exclusion clauses are not always enforceable (unfair terms law/regs) and in addition the law recognises the concept of an "overriding verbal assurance" where certain T+Cs might not apply if somebody made an agreement based on what they were told verbally.

If the 3% is not in the T+Cs but on some other kind of notice, then the dealer would struggle to show that the customer is bound by the notice. If there is a "whole agreement" clause in the contract, then it would be almost impossible.