Sharp practice or just a mistake?

confused,moi?

Hi All,

Saw a used car advertised on an approved dealership's website last week priced at £6,495. The dealership is over an hour's drive from home but it seemed a good deal so I test drove the vehicle on Friday. Back in the showroom, the salesperson showed me on his computer that the price of the car was £6,945 (£500 difference!). I was perplexed as I'd researched all the prices really carefully and I had a written list with all the relevant details pertaining to this vehicle and other similar vehicles.

The salesperson suggested I'd probably transposed the figures by mistake which is not impossible. However, as I proof-read for a living, it niggled me so I checked the website again this morning and the price is clearly stated as £6,495. So there was a mistake but it wasn't mine.

Mercdriver

Look on the website for E & O excepted. It means Errors and Omissions excepted. In the end, any kind of retailer is not obligated to sell to you at all, so is not obliged by law to sell you at the lower price.

Joe_Horner

Genuine mistakes are acceptable, systematic ones aren't.

That means if this was the only "mistake" in their web pricing its likely to be ok but if there are multiple such "mistakes" on the basis that once people get there some will just pay the extra then it's a trading standards issue.

The problem is that you only know of the one example - which, of course, should be promptly corrected now that they're aware.

chrisw

If you look on eBay or autotrader it seems to be a very common practice.

The car is advertised at say £4995 and yet there is clearly a sticker on the car in the photo at say £5495.

I presumed it was so that they could say it already had £500 off and therefore reduce haggle room. If they then sell it at the lower price, no rules have been broken.

mattyprice4004

Same digits, different order - likely just a mistake. It happens

mattyprice4004

chrisw wrote: »

If you look on eBay or autotrader it seems to be a very common practice.

The car is advertised at say £4995 and yet there is clearly a sticker on the car in the photo at say £5495.

I presumed it was so that they could say it already had £500 off and therefore reduce haggle room. If they then sell it at the lower price, no rules have been broken.

Usually that's just because the car has been sat a while, so they're happy to take a hit on the price to shift it.
Nothing more

forgotmyname

I think the higher price is there for the people that stroll in off the street who didnt search the internet. They will be pleased when the seller knocks a few hundred off and drive away happy.

Those that did their homework and found the car online at a lower price already know the screen price is wrong.

I worked in printshops and spotted errors whilst making plates or whilst setting up a print job, that was after going through 1 or 2 proof readers.

marlot

confused,moi? wrote: »

Hi All,

Saw a used car advertised on an approved dealership's website last week priced at £6,495. The dealership is over an hour's drive from home but it seemed a good deal so I test drove the vehicle on Friday. Back in the showroom, the salesperson showed me on his computer that the price of the car was £6,945 (£500 difference!). I was perplexed as I'd researched all the prices really carefully and I had a written list with all the relevant details pertaining to this vehicle and other similar vehicles.

The salesperson suggested I'd probably transposed the figures by mistake which is not impossible. However, as I proof-read for a living, it niggled me so I checked the website again this morning and the price is clearly stated as £6,495. So there was a mistake but it wasn't mine.

I bought a Honda from an authorised dealer a couple of weeks ago. I took a printout of the advert with me - just as well I did, as it had a different price on the windscreen and on the salesman's system.


He quickly moved to the advertised price, and I then negotiated from there.


I think its a way of appearing competitive for people using autotrader etc - but makes new cars look better value for punters who walk in "Oh look, you can buy a new one for just £3k more".

foxy-stoat

Show them the advert and offer £250 less than that, if you still want the car.

Takmon

confused,moi? wrote: »

Hi All,

Saw a used car advertised on an approved dealership's website last week priced at £6,495. The dealership is over an hour's drive from home but it seemed a good deal so I test drove the vehicle on Friday. Back in the showroom, the salesperson showed me on his computer that the price of the car was £6,945 (£500 difference!). I was perplexed as I'd researched all the prices really carefully and I had a written list with all the relevant details pertaining to this vehicle and other similar vehicles.

The salesperson suggested I'd probably transposed the figures by mistake which is not impossible. However, as I proof-read for a living, it niggled me so I checked the website again this morning and the price is clearly stated as £6,495. So there was a mistake but it wasn't mine.

I would have gone to the website on my phone and showed him the price it was advertised online at then used that to start negotiations.

If you don't have a smartphone you could have asked him to go to the site on one of their computers to check the price on the online advert.

flashg67

Happened twice to me recently - found differences of £250 on 2 cars at different dealers (this is on c. £4k cars) My guess is they use it to get under a search price point on, say Auto trader. Annoying but as I never got to the negotiating stage, difficult to say whether I'd have ended up arguing or not.Puts me off though.
The OP could have looked on the dealer website whilst there though? I did it with a dealer on my last new car - they didn't appear to know they had the car I was after in stock at the price I said.