£500 deposit on car dealership ordered after I cancelled - Am I entitled to a refund?

radiocaf

Hey guys,

(tl;dr version at the bottom)
So I've been after a bigger car and found a great deal online from a dealer 130 miles away from my house. The car I currently own still has a massive amount of finance on it and the dealer said they could do me a deal that would pay off the finance entirely and I'd even save money on the new car. I was kind of pressured into placing a deposit down that day as it was all done in a sort of "we can do it, but we need commitment" sort of way. Don't get me wrong, I had decided that the car was what I wanted, but was still open to browsing options before committing.

Long story short, I put £500 deposit down using my Halifax Credit Card and was told that the dealer had ordered the car and that it would turn up "estimated" a week and a half later. A week and a half went by and I called up the dealer (who had promised to call me but didn't) and I was told that they hadn't actually ordered a car, but were going to browse their stock because they wanted to get my car quickly to avoid losing money. I understood this, a factory order would take about 8 weeks and my car would've lost money in those two months.

What followed was another week and a half of "we can't get you the colour you want, but we can get this colour", and at one point I agreed to an alternative colour, but was quickly phoned back by the manager who said "don't worry, we've got you the colour you want, we just need to do a swap with another dealer, but I'll get in touch with you after the weekend with an update."

The weekend came and went, it was Monday, and all day had passed with no call, so I ended up calling them before I knew my sales rep was due to go home. I was told that the swap with the other dealer fell through, they had pulled out of the deal, and that we were back to square one, trying to find what stock they could. Again I was offered multiple colours, this went on for about a week, maybe more, but I ultimately decided that I couldn't be bothered with the mess around and that I would cancel and come back when I am in a better position to buy a car (and that also could mean different stock levels available.)

I rang up the dealer first chance I got, which was the following morning, and requested a cancellation and refund, and I was expecting a bit of a fight to be honest, but to my surprise, my salesman instantly said he would get the refund processed for me.

A few hours later, he rang back and said that his manager saw the cancellation and got in touch with the car manufacturer's head office who took the exact car I ordered off of a completely other dealership and registered it to me, and it was right on my doorstep, only 13 miles away.

I still wanted to go ahead with the cancellation, so I just said "No thank you, I would rather have the refund, but I appreciate the effort" and was again told "Okay then, I'll get that sorted for you" and was even sent well wishes like it would be the last time we spoke. It wasn't.

Another phone call, close to their closing time, my salesman again, stating he had his proverbial bottom booted by his manager because they have put my deposit money on the car they ordered and a refund wasn't possible at this stage.

tl;dr: Car dealership couldn't source a car for me, kept me hanging for three weeks, I cancelled with them and was told they would process the refund, they then suddenly sourced and ordered a car after being told I wanted to cancel which they now say invalidated my right to a refund because they spent the money.

Now, my question is about my refund, some key facts are:
- The salesman was quick to offer a refund, I didn't even mention it, just said I wanted to cancel in the call requesting a cancellation, it was him who said he would cancel it and process a refund for me.
- The manager ordered the car after I had instructed them to cancel the order, so up until just after my cancellation request, there was no car they could source for my order.
- Everything has been done over the phone, except for one email where I sent a list of everything my current car has on it (optional extras.) We have never met face to face.
- I have never seen, received or even signed a single piece of paperwork. This includes a deposit receipt, vehicle order form and any other paperwork one would expect with a new car order.
- When placing the deposit, my cancellation rights were never mentioned, it was never said if my deposit was refundable or not, at the time I was putting a deposit on an exact model and colour of a car, which they couldn't source for three weeks until after I requested to cancel. When taking the deposit, my salesman didn't say it was non-refundable, but nor did he state that it was, but I assume it was as he was quick to offer a refund when I requested a cancellation.

I do wonder if I am covered by the Consumer Contracts Regulations or Distance Selling Regulations in any way. I have started a Section 75 claim with my credit card company, but I fear this will fall flat on it's face due to me having absolutely no evidence outside a few call logs on my phone (not all of them, I switched phones mid-order), and my credit card statement.

Sorry about the long post, I want to make sure you guys have all the details so I can get informed answers from you. Thank you in advance.

jonesMUFCforever

Malcnascar wrote: »

This is a long post and I may well have missed some of the key issues.

Have you signed a vehicle order form?
This appears to be a verbal contract, at distance.
What was the agreement regarding when the car would be available to you, it appears the dealer may have failed to fulfil their side of the contract as to when the vehicle would be available.

If you have not signed a vehicle order, do not sign one now.

If you are buying at a distance or off-premises, then you are entitled to your full deposit back, regardless of your reasons. I expect that you may have difficulty, ask the dealer to provide you with a copy of the vehicle order that you signed, he cant can he?. Then demand your deposit back under the distance selling cooling off rules.

A contract need not be in writing to be legal.
The fact that the dealer has not ordered the car for the OP would suggest to me that they have broken the terms of the contract.

So I would give them one and a half weeks to come up with car as ordered or ask for your money back for breach of contract.

radiocaf

Malcnascar wrote: »

This is a long post and I may well have missed some of the key issues.

Have you signed a vehicle order form?
This appears to be a verbal contract, at distance.
What was the agreement regarding when the car would be available to you, it appears the dealer may have failed to fulfil their side of the contract as to when the vehicle would be available.

If you have not signed a vehicle order, do not sign one now.

If you are buying at a distance or off-premises, then you are entitled to your full deposit back, regardless of your reasons. I expect that you may have difficulty, ask the dealer to provide you with a copy of the vehicle order that you signed, he cant can he?. Then demand your deposit back under the distance selling cooling off rules.

Thank you for taking the time to read it, I tried to shorten it but it still came out at a great length, but I wanted to be as detailed as possible.

I have not signed anything, I haven't seen a single piece of paperwork, I was told that paperwork would be emailed across once they secured me a vehicle, which they never did.

During the phone calls where I made the order, I specified that I wanted the car to be the top spec model, as it comes (with no optional extras), and with the top diesel engine, which was 120BHP. They told me I had to have it in white. They failed to secure this exact model, engine and colour until after I told them I wished to cancel. They offered me many alternatives over the three weeks, one of which I even accepted, which was silver, only to be called back and told not to worry about the silver one, they found me a white one, and so we were back on the white model.
I was also told that the deposit was to secure the car, and one was never secured until after I cancelled.

As for time frame, they specified a week and a half, but stressed that this would be estimated, but assured me that a car was ordered. When they said a week and a half, they made me believe that it would be a factory order, which I thought was odd as usually there's a massive waiting list. It was at the end of this week and a half that they admitted to never having ordering one and looking through group stock. The rest of the three weeks was back and forth offering me alternatives that weren't quite what I wanted.

jonesMUFCforever wrote: »

A contract need not be in writing to be legal.
The fact that the dealer has not ordered the car for the OP would suggest to me that they have broken the terms of the contract.

So I would give them one and a half weeks to come up with car as ordered or ask for your money back for breach of contract.

I gave them three weeks before cancelling, I cancelled yesterday, I ordered on the 23rd of August.

bris

Part of the problem is you accepting alternatives so in effect you are continuing the contract.


Deposits shouldn't be put down without a guarantee that it is refundable, if not they can take their losses from it or even hold you to the original contract.


You could have held them in breach if you stuck to your original spec and gave them a time is of the essence letter, without it you will need to see what a court says but it looks to me that they have spent time and money trying to source you a car.

radiocaf

bris wrote: »

Part of the problem is you accepting alternatives so in effect you are continuing the contract.


Deposits shouldn't be put down without a guarantee that it is refundable, if not they can take their losses from it or even hold you to the original contract.


You could have held them in breach if you stuck to your original spec and gave them a time is of the essence letter, without it you will need to see what a court says but it looks to me that they have spent time and money trying to source you a car.

I can only assume the deposit was refundable because of how quick the salesman was to say he would get the refund processed. I don't know if these details help but I made it known that I was reluctant to accept an alternative, like it took three phone calls and some pictures via iMessage to even allow me to consider it. Also might be worthy of note is their website lists each individual car specification as a completely separate listing, and they ask for the listing number when you first call, so I put my deposit on a specific listing, which stated "New Car Deal".

I personally believe that there was a breach of contract on their part, as I sent them a deposit to secure a car and they never secured a single car until after I cancelled, even with me accepting an alternative, there was still no secured car at any point between the order being made and the order being cancelled.

They were so happy and willing to refund, until this manager stepped in after seeing I had cancelled and went to the Head Office and told them they need a car to avoid a cancellation, this is when the manufacturer forced another dealer group to hand over the car in question. The salesman told me this himself. Surely their willingness to refund counts for something?

DevCoder

Distance Selling Regulations no longer apply in UK law, they were done away with in 2014.

Consumer Contracts Regulations replaced the DSR.

radiocaf

krisdorey wrote: »

Distance Selling Regulations no longer apply in UK law, they were done away with in 2014.

Consumer Contracts Regulations replaced the DSR.

You are correct, and it is this legislation that gives me hope, mainly the following point:
- [The trader must provide:] details of any right to cancel - the trader also needs to provide, or make available, a standard cancellation form to make cancelling easy (although you aren’t under any obligation to use it)

They did not do this, either verbally or in written form. There is also no cancellation information on the dealer's website, and I have scoured it several times. Rather than paste a few paragraphs, I'll also add this: It states the seller must deliver the information required in a durable form, such as on paper or by email. I should also have received a confirmation of the contract at the point of confirmation. Failure to do this extends my rights to cancel up to a year.

There is also a bit headed "Your right to cancel" and "Your right to a refund". Rather than paste the whole of it, and because I can't post the link, google "Consumer Contracts Regulations", and there should be a result near the top of the list from Which. When on the page, click "Cancelling Goods and Services" on the left hand side.

Also have a look under exemptions, nothing listed there that pertains to my situation.

Of course I could have some of my understandings incorrect, you guys are the experts, I'd like to think I'm well in the knowledge of all this but there's probably loads I don't understand or know yet.