Used car refund?

Nodding_Donkey

That happened to a mate of mine, after sending a Mazda dealer an LBA he finally got a refund and the next week the car was on the forecourt again. Trading Standards were very interested

arcon5

TS are useless frankly. They may sound interested on the phone but all your complaint will do is go filed until the dealers flagged up due to multiple complaints - then they may investigate the dealer, but certainly don't overly concern themselves with resolving individual cases.

Ignore contact from TS and you will soon learn they have no teeth.

Anybody selling dodgy cars will know this.

PaulMc81

They'd be useful to have involved though should the matter end up going to court (which I hope it doesn't).. as a step in the whole process i.e.
-> Initial request for refund & reason.
-> Refusal by trader
-> Formal letter of rejection and request for refund.
-> Tranding Standards (Consumerline here in N. Ireland) involvement
-> Then legal action as final measure for resolution..

Nodding_Donkey

It's always worth complaining to TS though so they can build up a list.Who knows, your complaint might be the one that makes the list long enough for them to start investigating

arcon5

Nodding_Donkey wrote: »

It's always worth complaining to TS though so they can build up a list.Who knows, your complaint might be the one that makes the list long enough for them to start investigating

That I agree with. Treat TS as an aside, rather than a step in the legal process

PaulMc81

As you have both said - TS were useless. They didn't even take the traders name and advised me to write to him, then go through small claims court but no guarantee we'll get money back.

Unfortunately at this point I'm just having to take what the trader says at face value i.e. that he genuinely does not have the funds at the minute - although he says he will give us our money back when he has. Would there be any merit in asking him to put this in writing?

Very difficult to trust what he says now though especially with his 'special oil' quick-fix.

I'm going to send a letter via recorded delivery and give him 7 days to give us our money back then I'll start making making the application to small claims court.

Fear I'll be waving goodbye to my money, very expensive lesson to learn.

PaulMc81

Bit of an update to this;

In the end I took the car back as this 'trader' had the car(and had it advertised for sale), had our money & was giving a (what I believe to be) false promise of a refund.

I seriously considered small claims court proceedings but decided against it because couldn't take the risk of this conman selling the car we'd rejected, still not giving us our refund and then telling a judge he didn't have the funds.

If a CCJ was granted against him, I'm speculating here but he probably would have been ordered to pay a minimum monthly sum until the refund debt was settled.

I could not risk this happening, so I mentioned to the 'trader' to draw a line under it and give me £500 towards the expensive repairs the vehicle needs and that I would take it back.

The 'trader' agreed to this and rather than the £500 requested, he offered to give me £300 along with the vehicle but again stated he wouldn't have the money 'for a couple of weeks'. This was 2 weeks ago. When I contacted him, he sent me a txt saying the cheque was in the post (!)

A week passes, no cheque arrives.. so I sent him another message asking about it only to be told cheque was not posted as he doesn't have the funds in his account to clear it - surprise surprise!

Currently have arrangements made to have car repaired properly (no special oil in sight). With refurbished engine work being carried out at mates rates, at least I'll have a decent car out of the whole saga eventually - no thanks to the so called trader we bought it off, and at a price considerably higher than we'd originally paid.

Buyer beware rings very true..

Nodding_Donkey

So you let him mug you off.

this is why car dealers do this,

Because people like you let them get away with it.

Well done.

PaulMc81

No, not well done. Very unfair comment.

What was the alternative? In my current situation I did not feel like I had one.

I would have been without a car, 3k out of pocket whilst putting myself and my wife through the hassle and expense of court proceedings with no guarantee of success.

Unfortunately, there are no better laws there to protect 'people like me' - this is why car dealers do this.

harveybobbles

Demanded £3000 "or else". He will have a credit card or other banking facilities to get the money.

Shouldnt really be in business if he cant even honour a £300 chq!