Dvla being awkward about VED refund

cypher007

Bought a car from a dealer who used my card details to tax it for me. Next day I returned the car for a refund as had a clutch was going bad.

Contacted the dvla who said I would have to write in to get a refund. I’m like whaaaa? So I emailed them instead and was told I would need to become an owner of the vehicle before they could refund me.

I explained the situation again and they said I would need to pay £25 to get a copy of the owner slip and register then hey could refund me the £30 ved.

Is this a wind up?

1) why in this day and age are they asking people to write in?
2) they took my money without needing me to be registered keeper.
3) I can’t see the dealer wanting the car to have another owner mark against it.
4) they’ve now sold it from what I can tell.
5) should I just contact my bank and reverse the charge?
6) this is why this country fails.

DUTR

cypher007 wrote: »

Bought a car from a dealer who used my card details to tax it for me. Next day I returned the car for a refund as had a clutch was going bad.

Contacted the dvla who said I would have to write in to get a refund. I’m like whaaaa? So I emailed them instead and was told I would need to become an owner of the vehicle before they could refund me.

I explained the situation again and they said I would need to pay £25 to get a copy of the owner slip and register then hey could refund me the £30 ved.

Is this a wind up?

1) why in this day and age are they asking people to write in?
2) they took my money without needing me to be registered keeper.
3) I can’t see the dealer wanting the car to have another owner mark against it.
4) they’ve now sold it from what I can tell.
5) should I just contact my bank and reverse the charge?
6) this is why this country fails.

1- Because talk is sometimes cheap
2-payment can be from anybody
3-Not your problem to worry about
4-With the dodgy clutch?
5-You can contact the bank, but I doubt they will reverse the charge. (check the T&Cs)
6- I disagree

Scrapit

You think the country fails cos you can't get a refund? That's more of personal fail rather than a whole country not cutting the mustard.

MovingForwards

I had the same issue, purchased a car and it broke down twice driving home, it was recovered to the dealer and I rung the DVLA to ask them how to do it, was told same as OP that they put the V5 into my name and then destroy it after issuing the refund; apparently it would have been better for me if I taxed the car via direct debit as I could have cancelled the DD and incurred no further money / involvement.

The tax was £30 for the year, v5 £25, I haven't bothered trying to get my percentage of £5 back.

AdrianC

Remember, VED is per-keeper.

Either the dealer DID tax it in the OP's name, together with the keeper change (so the new V5C is on the way - they're quick these days), or the tax was going to be refunded to the previous keeper anyway as soon as the OP became keeper.

cypher007

They’re still playing up. Will try the complaint route. Then I might just pay the £25 to get the £28-30 back. It will mean the dealer will be !!!!ed as it will end up 3 owners instead of 2.

EdGasketTheSecond

Its a shame not more is at stake so you could issue a small claim against them to get your tax back. Overly burocratic system now makes changing cars a right pain.

AdrianC

No, it doesn't. It's a doddle.

Sell car? Get VED refund automagically.
Buy car? You know you need to tax it. Takes a minute online with V5C/2.

cypher007

AdrianC wrote: »

No, it doesn't. It's a doddle.

Sell car? Get VED refund automagically.
Buy car? You know you need to tax it. Takes a minute online with V5C/2.

Yes but what if you then find a fault with the car and return it before they’ve sent the v5 off? The dvla get to keep your money. I was told as much by them when I spoke to them on the phone. You need to tax the car before driving it, even though you aren’t the owner yet, then if you never become the owner they can’t refund the payment.

How can they not have a record of the payment and just refund it? They can see I don’t own the vehicle.

foxy-stoat

cypher007 wrote: »

Yes but what if you then find a fault with the car and return it before they’ve sent the v5 off? The dvla get to keep your money. I was told as much by them when I spoke to them on the phone. You need to tax the car before driving it, even though you aren’t the owner yet, then if you never become the owner they can’t refund the payment.

How can they not have a record of the payment and just refund it? They can see I don’t own the vehicle.

You have the new keepers slip don't you? Send that into the DVLA (with your name and address on it) and you will get the appropriate refund.

cypher007

No unfortunately I returned all paper work with the car. The dealer could do it but has left me to sort the dvla out, says it’s my problem. The fact I wasted 2 days and £30 on diesel essentially on a car that they may or may not have realised had a fault on the clutch, you’d think they would have sorted the ved refund for me.

I’m going to word a strong complaint to the dvla see who’s cage I can rattle.

Might also leave a balanced but not glowing review of the dealer.