How to get deposit back from car dealer?

Klouise12

I went to look at a car, I needed to go back to Audi where my current car is on pcp to get a final settlement figure so during this conversation the dealer said he would get me to sign the order form and fill out the rest once we know a final settlement figure with Audi so I could part exchange the car with the new car. He said he would have to take £500 holding deposit to keep the car of sale. At no point did he say this was non refundable.. it was 6pm at night they were about to close so he got me to sign the order form at no point did he go through any ts&cs with me or direct me to where it said the deposit was non refundable. The deal wasn’t completely finalised as like I said I needed a settlement figure so we could adjust the paperwork with how much I would owe them to get me out of the pcp with Audi. Anyway long story short I decided I didn’t want to go ahead as I’ve still got 3 months left pcp on my Audi and I would have to pay out £900 to get my out of the finance and I just didn’t want to pay that just before Christmas. I’m expecting a baby any day now and the stress of trying to get paperwork ready and Christmas round the corner I couldn’t cope with it so I’ve cancelled the order and now he is saying he might have to withhold my deposit as he says it’s in the Ts&cs but he’s not ever stated that he told me it was a holding deposit for the car nothing else. Anyone else come accross this? And what advice you can give for me to go back to with your hopefully get my £500 back? What’s frustrating more is we originally said £250 deposit and he talked us into £500!! 

Any advice much appreciated

DUTR

I don't have a solution, and no I have not experienced this, it does leave some questions in your opening post.
Why did you go to look for a car so late in the day, could it not have waited until another time?
You agreed a vehicle, hence when the deposit would be required to secure the sale. (AFAIK) the deposit isn't usually refundable.
I don't think it's fair to everyone else that if you are about to give birth, you are rushing up and down looking at cars, Christmas is the same time every year.
He hasn't said yet that you are not getting your deposit back.

Sandtree

Why did you think a deposit would be refundable? Deposits almost always arent refundable according to the T&Cs otherwise there would be absolutely no point ever taking one.... I could say I’ll buy every car in their shop and then say a week later I’d change my mind.

As a buyer its your responsibility to read what you are signing, there are only certain industries where the consumer is thought too stupid to be able to understand what they are buying and therefore an obligation moves to the seller to explain things to the customer. Car buying isnt one of those industries.

On a more positive note, just because something is stated as non-refundable doesnt mean it legally is fully unrefundable. You want to breach the contract you signed and not proceed with the sale, as such the merchant would be able to claim their financial losses as a result of your breach of contract however as they are already holding some of your monies they should refund the deposit less their reasonable losses/costs.

Ultimately you need to persist with them and you most likely will get most of the deposit back with some pushing and possibly all of it if they take sympathy on you.

Klouise12

Sandtree said:

Why did you think a deposit would be refundable? Deposits almost always arent refundable according to the T&Cs otherwise there would be absolutely no point ever taking one.... I could say I’ll buy every car in their shop and then say a week later I’d change my mind.

As a buyer its your responsibility to read what you are signing, there are only certain industries where the consumer is thought too stupid to be able to understand what they are buying and therefore an obligation moves to the seller to explain things to the customer. Car buying isnt one of those industries.

On a more positive note, just because something is stated as non-refundable doesnt mean it legally is fully unrefundable. You want to breach the contract you signed and not proceed with the sale, as such the merchant would be able to claim their financial losses as a result of your breach of contract however as they are already holding some of your monies they should refund the deposit less their reasonable losses/costs.

Ultimately you need to persist with them and you most likely will get most of the deposit back with some pushing and possibly all of it if they take sympathy on you.

Thankyou, I have looked and sort of read about how they only should keep the money that they may have lost during admin fees etc. So hopefully they realise we know that when they call us back. T he e guy did say he spoke to the owner and he has said no as it’s in the TS&cs and we are waiting for the sales advisor to now speak to his manager to see what he can do what I don’t understand is if there owner says no how can he go under him and speak to someone else to hopefully give us it back? It doesn’t make sense. The sales advisor on the phone said he has over 800 emails to o through with customers wanting the same car so in the respec to don’t see how they’ll be losing money with us cancelling the order

AdrianC

You walked into to a dealer. You looked at shiny new cars. You sat down and talked numbers with a salesman. You signed to get a new car...
...then you went home and did your sums, found out that it would cost you £900 to cancel your current PCP with three months to go, thought "Sod that", and got a bad dose of buyer's remorse.

The timings relative to the end of your PCP, your pregnancy due date, and Xmas could hardly have come as a surprise to you... The pregnancy is the one that's given you least notice, after all. Yet you unilaterally decided to try and change car NOW... Nobody forced you to walk into that dealership. With that in mind, don't you think the comments about being forced to pull out because of the timing being stressful are a tad disingenuous?

You say he "might" have to retain the deposit, because it's in the Ts & Cs... You have a copy of those Ts & Cs, right? What do they actually say?

parking_question_chap

Klouise12 said:

The sales advisor on the phone said he has over 800 emails to o through with customers wanting the same car so in the respec to don’t see how they’ll be losing money with us cancelling the order

You have answered your own question here. He could potentially have sold the vehicle to another customer if you did not reserve it. The £500 is compensating him for the fact it might have been sold to somebody else by now.

Word to the wise. Its best to get your sums in order before putting down money next time.

Klouise12 said:

What’s frustrating more is we originally said £250 deposit and he talked us into £500!! 

Any advice much appreciated

Perhaps he sensed you were a bit flakey and felt the need to protect himself against the deal falling through.

Herzlos

What was actually in the T&C's that you signed?

Goudy

Just ask for the deposit back, but point out your current PCP deal ends in 3 months and you are obviously due to give birth soon, after which you'll be back in the market for another car/deal, perhaps one more suitable for your growing family.

If they are still hesitant, politely point out they will almost certainly miss out on that business for the sake of £500, which with a bit of effort you could more than likely make back on the next deal by negotiating a better trade in on your current car with another brand/dealership or selling it to a car buying service.

You might want to do this face to face in the dealership as they can easily fob you off on the phone or ingore emails.
Make it plain it's in their best interest to return the deposit to retain you as a customer.
You might have to be persistent and return a few times, but keep calm, you don't need to throw a wobbler in the showroom, your persistent presence should be enough, but you could throw in a few Braxton Hicks for effect!

Dr_Crypto

Or ask them to roll the £900 into your new PCP deal. Shouldn’t be a massive increase in monthly repayments. 

Penelopa.Pitstop

Very bad advice. Do not roll in any amounts into new PCP. With 3 months to go, it's probably possible to do VT for free.

Anyway, don't ever sign anything without reading T&C and don't get caught by dealers asking for holding deposit. It's known tactic, to get the client sign order form. You're not sure, don't sign anything.

Herzlos

Dr_Crypto said:

Or ask them to roll the £900 into your new PCP deal. Shouldn’t be a massive increase in monthly repayments. 

It's much cheaper to just forfeit the deposit than roll the £900 into a new deal.