Car dealer pulling a fast 1

skelly31

Hi all,


recently bought a vehicle from a dealer through Autotrader.
Came with a 1 year engine and gearbox warranty.
last week had a problem with fuel pump. Rang the dealer to witch i was told the company had gone out of business the day after i bought it and they put the phone down. Have tried numerous times to contact to no avail.
Now they are still operating under new name same people same address, same guy.


Paid by card.


Where do i stand, just cost £300 to repair fault.

skelly31

Hi,


paid on natwest debit card. vehicle was purchased on april 29th.
company name paid to showed up different on bank statement to stamp on the receipt and likewise now they are a different company name again.


want to get them properly rather than going up there and having a tear up.


Still trading on autotrader

skelly31

was a visa debit so should still be covered i take it ????

MataNui

With a debit you can try a chargeback. If they are typical idiotic scum who do this sort of stuff then they will probably be using the same bank account for the new company name. If so your chargeback should work.

DoaM

Chargeback won't work. For one thing there's a 120 days limit (as I recall). Secondly chargeback doesn't cover things like faults - only if goods weren't supplied or were supplied faulty at the outset.

KeithP

Today is 108 days from the sale.

bris

It's always the same rogue companies that do this in every trade. Start up offering long warranties then when the claims come in they simply fold and make new companies.


Ltd company laws are complex and proving they actually do this deliberately is very rarely investigated so it's a way of life for these rogues.

DoaM

KeithP wrote: »

Today is 108 days from the sale.

Doh. Since when has a month had 40 days! (Which was what I was thinking - 3 months = 120 days).

So chargeback may still be a possibility.

SuperHan

MataNui wrote: »

. If they are typical idiotic scum who do this sort of stuff then they will probably be using the same bank account for the new company name. If so your chargeback should work.

Worth a try (subject to other comments made about charge backs), but it is highly unlikely with the AML procedures banks go through that it'll be the same bank account. The new company is a separate legal entity, and it's like me changing the name on my bank account to your name so you could use it instead. They will likely have needed to open up a new account for the new company.

unholyangel

skelly31 wrote: »

Hi,


paid on natwest debit card. vehicle was purchased on april 29th.
company name paid to showed up different on bank statement to stamp on the receipt and likewise now they are a different company name again.


want to get them properly rather than going up there and having a tear up.


Still trading on autotrader

You said its a different name, but what about the entity?

For example:
if they were a limited company then they will be registered on companies house and they are the legal entity so one limited company cannot usually be held liable for debts of another ltd company or person.

But if it was joe bloggs trading as xyz motors then the person is liable and a change of name doesn't change that.

In certain circumstances, you can also convince a judge to allow a director to be held personally liable - although there does have to be a very good reason as obviously there would be no point to limited companies if courts could willy nilly decide to ignore the legal protections it offers.

Try a chargeback (first with the bank and if its declined, refer it to the financial ombudsman until you exhaust their complaints/review process) but while waiting for the outcome, look into the above so you can act accordingly if the chargeback fails.