When is a refundable deposit not refundable?

Coachman

Sorry. Didn't realise. I'll stay on mobile from now on.

BoGoF

Coachman wrote: »

Question: could they have kept the deposit when they didn't show us the terms and conditions?

Did you sign anything when you paid the £200? If so, were the t and c's maybe on the paperwork and you didn't read them?

steampowered

Coachman wrote: »

a misunderstanding and have agreed to use that £200 to move it down to Hull. So Im waiting to test drive it and declare it unsuitable.

One would think a sensible business would just refund your money, rather than wasting money moving the car to Hull, only to have to make a refund when you decide against the vehicle anyway.

Oh well.

Coachman

No. Nothing signed and just a simple receipt. No box to to k to say we agreed to the t&c.a and no copy of t&c.a shown to us.
When you put the link on with your first reply, that was the first we'd seen of them.

Coachman

Steampowered,
Exactly.
From my point of view, if it's the only way to get my money back, then so be it.
From their point of view, I suppose they'll try all they can to hang onto the deposit, which througout their website is described as refundable.
We'll see.

unholyangel

Coachman wrote: »

Thanks for your replies.
I couldn't find terms and conditions on their website and certainly wasn't given sight of them at their showroom. The salesman told us it was refundable and no there was no commitment to buy. Had we known about this we certainly would not have agreed to it.
However, I've phoned them and they say they cancelled the move. So I'm going in to try and get it sorted. Thanks.

You can only be bound by terms you had the opportunity to become acquainted with before being bound by the contract.

However, if no T&Cs, then you'd be reliant on it being accepted that you were told it was refundable. If you couldn't prove that then it would get a whole lot more complicated as it would have to be ascertained whether there was an agreement formed (ie no cross purposes), if so then what that agreement was for, whether you were in breach of that agreement and lastly, what reasonable damages arose from that breach.