Car dealer not taking reciept of car rejection/request for refund letter

SamiRafaPepe

Hello. This is my first post on this forum and I’m hoping for some advice please.

To cut a long story short my wife has been sold a dodgy car that we’ve since had checked out by a trusted garage. The car will cost more than its value to repair and the garage have advised that we ask for a refund or come to an agreement with the dealer. We have since taken advice from Trading Standards who have informed us that we have a case. We’ve obviously given them more details than I’ve written in this post!

On the advice of Trading Standards we have written to the dealer outlining our case and rejecting the vehicle after a visit to the dealer didn’t prove to be very productive. The letter was sent recorded delivery and this is the basis for this post.

On checking the tracking number it states that the recipient has gone away from the address and the letter has been returned to sender. I get the sense that this will be the case with any other letter that we send recorded. With how this process has gone so far I have little doubt that we will have to follow the whole small claims procedure through to completion and I am prepared to do so.

My question is how do I ensure that the business takes collection of the letter stating our position and deadlines to respond? I know full well that the business hasn’t “gone away”. There was nothing on the envelope to link the letter to ourselves so I expect that they reject any letters sent recorded delivery. I addressed the letter to the “Owner/Manager” and maybe this was a mistake? I don’t expect the business to refund us out of court based on my correspondence with them so far but I don’t know if I can move forward to court proceeding if they never take receipt of this first letter? I’m happy to go and hand deliver it but I won't necessarily have 'proof' that they have received it.

I will be contacting Trading Standards again on Monday but can anyone advise in the meantime? Many thanks.

tizerbelle

Go to two seperate post offices, send your letter regular first class from each post office but don't just stick it in the post box - go to the counter and ask for a certificate of posting - it's free. Keep this it is your !!!!!! that you have posted something. The assumption is that first class post will be delivered the next working day and as no one has to sign for it, no one can refuse it. You do it twice as the likelihood of neither letter arriving is negligible.

SamiRafaPepe

Hi Tizerbelle

Thank you for your reply. That sounds like a good idea and I wasn't aware that it was possible to get a certificate of posting so I will do that first thing tomorrow.

Thanks!:A

bris

You need to know who you are taking to court. If you take an individual to court and it's a ltd co then you will be wasting your time.

Have you checked to see if it is a ltd co or a sole trader/partnership, this should be your top priority.

robatwork

I once tried to hand a letter to a used car dealer in the Oxhey area. He actually refused to accept it.

I am sure there are some lovely car dealers out there, but I never met one. They must go on courses on "turning from the nicest person in the world to a complete tool in 48 hours". Oddly that 48 hours coincides with some money passing hands.

SamiRafaPepe

Bris-That is a very good point that I've begun to look into. If there's ultimately no realistic way of getting our money back then I may have to swallow my pride on this one. Currently feel very foolish as the whole purchase was against my better judgement... Got sucked in on this one!

Robatwork-if you ever find a decent car dealer let us all know

Thanks everyone for your replies. With these and the help we've had from trading standards so far we will at least have a better understanding of this process if we do have to escalate things.

dacouch

How did you pay for the car, was any of it via credit or a credit card?

arcon5

What is the cars age, mileague and model?
What are the problems?

Frankly, TS are far too quick in my opinion to tell people buying used cars they have this right and that and completely neglecting the fact used cars will naturally be subjected to wear and certain components fail at certain points in the cars life which is often down to wear and not faults.

For example, if you buy a mk4 fiesta with 100k+ miles on the clock, then don't think you necessarily have rights if say the coil pack packs in (pun intended )

hollydays

robatwork wrote: »

I once tried to hand a letter to a used car dealer in the Oxhey area. He actually refused to accept it.

I am sure there are some lovely car dealers out there, but I never met one. They must go on courses on "turning from the nicest person in the world to a complete tool in 48 hours". Oddly that 48 hours coincides with some money passing hands.

I think that if you just pushed it at their chest if they choose to drop it, it's considered to have been served on them. But I am not sure of the legal position there.

hollydays

If you want to post the dealers name or pm it to me I will try to look up some info on them.

robatwork

hollydays wrote: »

I think that if you just pushed it at their chest if they choose to drop it, it's considered to have been served on them. But I am not sure of the legal position there.

My letter wasn't actually a rejection of the car, just a list of things that were wrong with it (that the description said were right with it). So this wasn't a proper serving papers kinda letter.

When I want a letter served in the motor industry I will get the guys from Lizard Lick towing to do it. I watched that program, despite myself, aghast. Like watching a slow motion car crash...in some cases literally.