Car dealer deposit.

Curver

Hi, all. We recently saw a car we liked and arranged a test drive. All was well with the car, we were trading a car and the rest on finance.
We reached a point where finance was proposed and a figure was generated. This was a Sunday, so we wouldn't find out what the score was until Monday. I paid a 'holding deposit' of £99.
When I received the call the monthly cost had risen by £26 and I was no longer happy with the deal. So I rang the salesman and cancelled the deal. I was told that I would receive the deposit back via a phone call.
Tuesday, no call so I called. Spoke to another guy and got told the same.
Rang again on Wednesday and was told by a lady that they only dealt with deposits in a Friday.
So. Here we are. Have phoned the salesman twice, catching him the second time, to be told accounts will call me to confirm card details and issue the deposit back to my account.
All seems long winded at best. Been three years since I last bought a car, and in the 35 years I have been buying bikes and cars, i have never had this kind of trouble. Is this normal now?

MinuteNoodles

Oh its certainly different than it was. Usually they try to get you to pay a fee typically around £99-£250 which is allegedly for HPI checking, insurance against the car being stolen and pre-delivery inspections. Quicks tried that on me on my previous car, I refused to pay it pointing out that it was their responsibility to make sure the car they were selling wasn't stolen and they had the right to sell it, that if it turned out to be stolen in the future they'd have to give me a full refund and that if there were any faults with the vehicle when I bought it that they didn't sort because they said they wouldn't be doing a PDI they'd be repairing them under SOGA.

When I bought my current car last year at TC Harrisons though they did none of that, just took my money and wished me bon voyage. They did say they'd normally try to sell me a service package but given I lived 100 miles away it wouldn't have been of any use.

tacpot12

It is normal to have more trouble than you have had so far.

Given the situation with Covid-19 it is not unreasonable for business to have staff working part-time at the moment, so not being able to process your refund until Friday is sort of ok, providing that it does get processed. If you haven't had confirmation that it has been paid, call in on Monday and walk up and down the showroom shouting about how you were promised your money back and they haven't paid it! Insist they call Mrs. Miggins in to make the payment - they could have paid you on Friday but didn't ensure that you were paid so anything it costs them to get Mrs. Miggins back in is their fault. 

Thrugelmir

Many people are still furloughed. Accounts staff working part time wouldn't be a surprise. Though when they in,  their probably exceptionally busy. 

jjdc

Ring your bank. Name and shame them so others googling them will find them on here. I bet if someone else wanted to buy a car there and then there would be someone around who could take a £99 deposit, using furlough as an excuse is bolox.

macman

Is your 'holding deposit' actually refundable? What do the terms say?

bris

macman said:

Is your 'holding deposit' actually refundable? What do the terms say?

In this case it makes no difference what the terms say. They didn't honor the proposed finance deal.
 They cant generate a figure, take a deposit then change it at will.

macman

They didn't take a deposit against the finance, they took a deposit against the car. The OP clearly states that, because it was a Sunday, the finance deal could not be finalised until Monday, so neither party had committed to that, and the finance co. could not be bound by any proposal given on Sunday.
The failure of acceptable finance has nothing to do with the vehicle purchase.