Sold car privately, buyer wants refund

Dr_Crypto

Ask for the mechanic's details so he can tell you next week's lottery numbers. 

macman

So they knocked you down by £250. The ad is fine. 

neilmcl

missile said:

I can understand why your parents might be concerned may turn up on their doorstep. It might have been better if you had given seller your address and phone number.

The car belongs to his mum. I wouldn't want to buy a car from a person who is not the registered keeper and at a different address.

treeroy

And now I've just had a text message from the woman. Not sure if they're trying some good cop/bad cop crap, getting the angry husband to argue with my dad while the nice young wife sweet talks me? Parents said they thought it was genuine but reading this message it feels more like a scam!

Hi <name>. My husband is very upset re the car. It was supposed to be a present for me because today we have our first year marriage anniversary and I'm at home, crying, I'm upset, stressed. My husband is very mad that we have to change the clutch. Can you please talk to your dad to send us at least £300? It will calm down my husband a bit and to change the clutch will be more than £500 wich is huge amount for us. We have just couple of hundreds pounds in our account and our anniversary it's ruined. My husband spoke with a solicitor and he told him that it's illegal to sell a car that it's not according with the description and they both believe it's not safe for me to drive it until we replace the clutch and because your father didn't let him drive it around he thinks that you knew about this problem so can you please, as a good will, send us some money back to cover the replacement of the clutch? Please <name>, you seemed all very lovely and honest family and maybe you can understand us...

neilmcl

treeroy said:

And now I've just had a text message from the woman. Not sure if they're trying some good cop/bad cop crap, getting the angry husband to argue with my dad while the nice young wife sweet talks me? Parents said they thought it was genuine but reading this message it feels more like a scam!

Hi <name>. My husband is very upset re the car. It was supposed to be a present for me because today we have our first year marriage anniversary and I'm at home, crying, I'm upset, stressed. My husband is very mad that we have to change the clutch. Can you please talk to your dad to send us at least £300? It will calm down my husband a bit and to change the clutch will be more than £500 wich is huge amount for us. We have just couple of hundreds pounds in our account and our anniversary it's ruined. My husband spoke with a solicitor and he told him that it's illegal to sell a car that it's not according with the description and they both believe it's not safe for me to drive it until we replace the clutch and because your father didn't let him drive it around he thinks that you knew about this problem so can you please, as a good will, send us some money back to cover the replacement of the clutch? Please <name>, you seemed all very lovely and honest family and maybe you can understand us...

I'm sure he did. Definite scam, the car does meets with it's description so there's nothing to worry about. If they didn't test drive the car sufficiently enough then that's down to them. If they wanted a guarantee then they should've purchased the car from dealer where the price would've been much higher.

You should reply and state the car was sold as seen and the description was a fair representation. They had every opportunity to test drive the car and if they weren't sure about the condition get advice prior to the sale. You consider this closed and any further contact with either yourself or your parents will be considered harassment and acted upon appropriately under the law.

facade

On a clio, a clutch that bites about 3/4" from the top of the pedal is normal.

On a "normal" car this indicates that the clutch is pretty much worn out.

Possibly, as he bought it without a test drive, he is now frightened by where the pedal is (so was I when I drove one, it took all my Driving God level skill to crawl uphill in a traffic light queue )

No doubt a lot of garages and Chains will happily confirm that the clutch is worn out and fit you a new one- I don't know what they do when the new one is exactly the same though.

Grumpy_chap

treeroy said:

Can you please talk to your dad to send us at least £300?
to change the clutch will be more than £500 wich is huge amount for us. We have just couple of hundreds pounds in our account.
My husband spoke with a solicitor and he told him that it's illegal to sell a car that it's not according with the description and they both believe it's not safe for me to drive it until we replace the clutch 

Definitely a scam, the solicitor would have told them they have barely any rights on buying privately.
If they only have £200 in the bank, how do they propose to pay for the solicitor?
If the clutch has gone, they won't be able to drive the car anyway.  Though, of course, the mechanic only said the clutch would go in the next week.  Keep saying that, one day the mechanic will be correct.
Do not give them anything - they are just scammers.

Ebe_Scrooge

neilmcl said:

treeroy said:

And now I've just had a text message from the woman. Not sure if they're trying some good cop/bad cop crap, getting the angry husband to argue with my dad while the nice young wife sweet talks me? Parents said they thought it was genuine but reading this message it feels more like a scam!

Hi <name>. My husband is very upset re the car. It was supposed to be a present for me because today we have our first year marriage anniversary and I'm at home, crying, I'm upset, stressed. My husband is very mad that we have to change the clutch. Can you please talk to your dad to send us at least £300? It will calm down my husband a bit and to change the clutch will be more than £500 wich is huge amount for us. We have just couple of hundreds pounds in our account and our anniversary it's ruined. My husband spoke with a solicitor and he told him that it's illegal to sell a car that it's not according with the description and they both believe it's not safe for me to drive it until we replace the clutch and because your father didn't let him drive it around he thinks that you knew about this problem so can you please, as a good will, send us some money back to cover the replacement of the clutch? Please <name>, you seemed all very lovely and honest family and maybe you can understand us...

I'm sure he did. Definite scam, the car does meets with it's description so there's nothing to worry about. If they didn't test drive the car sufficiently enough then that's down to them. If they wanted a guarantee then they should've purchased the car from dealer where the price would've been much higher.

You should reply and state the car was sold as seen and the description was a fair representation. They had every opportunity to test drive the car and if they weren't sure about the condition get advice prior to the sale. You consider this closed and any further contact with either yourself or your parents will be considered harassment and acted upon appropriately under the law.

^^^^ This, in a nutshell.  This whole thing screams SCAM very loudly.  Reply to them as NeilMCL suggests, politely but firmly pointing out that the car was sold in good faith and that they had ample opportunity to test drive the car and have it inspected prior to purchase if they wished.  And DO make it clear that any further contact will be reported as harassment - make sure you keep any texts, emails, whatever, just in case you need to show the police.  But I would be very surprised if it came to that to be honest, these people are just chancers trying it on - they should hopefully get the message that you're serious about reporting them if needs be.

Scrapit

Anniversary,  not your problem. 200 quid in the bank, again not your problem and how do they expect to run, tax and insure it? Its unsafe, not really true. So the facts are they want 300 quid off of a car they have already bought, presumably in person with a test drive and they have already haggled some money off. Not a chance, tell them to jog on.

Greatgimp

missile said:

It might have been better if you had given seller your address and phone number.

Owner's address is on the log book anyway.