Can a car dealership cancel my order

Grumpy_chap

macman said:

Was not the contract formed here when the dealer received the deposit? Receipt of the order form alone is not sufficient, but once payment was accepted then there has been an exchange (agreement to supply car in return for £x)?

No.

For all the prominence of the paperwork about "do not sign unless you wish to be legally bound", that follows the acceptance of the Ts&Cs.

The very first part of the Ts&Cs is Clause 1.1 "This Order... is subject to acceptance in writing by the Seller on the Order form overleaf..."

The form is clearly structured that the customer signs first "offer" and the garage sign second "acceptance".  The signature part for the dealer is clear "Sellers Acceptance - I hereby accept..."  There is no contract until there is both offer and acceptance.

I suppose in "normal" purchases, the customer would be at the Dealer, the Sales Rep fills out the form, someone probably checks it in the office, then the form is brought out for the Customer to sign, then the Sales Rep goes back into the office and the Dealer Principal signs to accept the order, then the deposit is taken.  All done in less than 5 minutes.

What I suspect here is there was some remoteness involved, so the form was sent by e-mail (unchecked), customer signs and sends the form back and pays the deposit online, then the form is taken through for the Dealer Principal who noticed the discrepancy and refused to sign but left the Sales Rep to sort it.  Done with the luxury of time.

Very bad form for MB to have done what they have done, and I am surprised they are not trying to work hard to come to an amicable agreement and preserve brand reputation, but they are doing what they are doing.

Teme9 said:

i had signed this:

Grumpy_chap

Teme9 said:

Car was 2019 March registered. Priced at 29.5K. Cars market value ranges from 30-34k but MB sales advisor said that they would sell the item at 35,550. 

Cars been taken off the website.

The thing is, if they had informed me from the get go then I wouldn’t have the disappointment but for a deposit to be sent, an order form to be signed on my end and then to be told sorry the VAT was forgotten so you either pay the full price or we refund you the deposit is really frustrating and disappointing. 

Well, the figures sort of align with VAT left out, £29.5k + VAT = £35.4k, but that is then outside the top-end of the market-value and I doubt you'd have been interested.  Do MB have other similar (in all respects) cars listed at >£35k?

2019 (2 years) is quite old for a car to be VAT-qualifying for full VAT rather than in the margin scheme, but this is a complex area.  It might be worth you asking on the Cutting Tax forum (link to this thread to avoid duplication) to understand that better if you have any interest - whatever the answer I doubt you'll get anything that changes the situation with MB.  A 2yo car could still be VAT-qualifying in any case.

It is interesting the car has been taken off the website - that would suggest it has been sold.  If it was unsold, it would be back on the website, just at the correct price.  You could even look on site such as Autotrader to see if it pops up.  Maybe it takes a little time for the update to process and will appear in a couple of days or so.  If not, then I suspect what really happened is you saw the car, were sent and returned the paperwork and in that time, another customer also returned the paperwork and that one was accepted before your paperwork landed.  Though, in that case, I would have though MB would be upfront and try to sell you an alternative vehicle.

Good luck finding a nice car, and I hope you will be happy with whatever you get in the end.

Teme9

Grumpy_chap said:

Teme9 said:

Car was 2019 March registered. Priced at 29.5K. Cars market value ranges from 30-34k but MB sales advisor said that they would sell the item at 35,550. 

Cars been taken off the website.

The thing is, if they had informed me from the get go then I wouldn’t have the disappointment but for a deposit to be sent, an order form to be signed on my end and then to be told sorry the VAT was forgotten so you either pay the full price or we refund you the deposit is really frustrating and disappointing. 

Well, the figures sort of align with VAT left out, £29.5k + VAT = £35.4k, but that is then outside the top-end of the market-value and I doubt you'd have been interested.  Do MB have other similar (in all respects) cars listed at >£35k?

2019 (2 years) is quite old for a car to be VAT-qualifying for full VAT rather than in the margin scheme, but this is a complex area.  It might be worth you asking on the Cutting Tax forum (link to this thread to avoid duplication) to understand that better if you have any interest - whatever the answer I doubt you'll get anything that changes the situation with MB.  A 2yo car could still be VAT-qualifying in any case.

It is interesting the car has been taken off the website - that would suggest it has been sold.  If it was unsold, it would be back on the website, just at the correct price.  You could even look on site such as Autotrader to see if it pops up.  Maybe it takes a little time for the update to process and will appear in a couple of days or so.  If not, then I suspect what really happened is you saw the car, were sent and returned the paperwork and in that time, another customer also returned the paperwork and that one was accepted before your paperwork landed.  Though, in that case, I would have though MB would be upfront and try to sell you an alternative vehicle.

Good luck finding a nice car, and I hope you will be happy with whatever you get in the end.

thank you, for a grumpy chap you really arent very grumpy

very helpful advice regardless

Teme9

Update:
Called them back, apparently i had paid deposit but by the time order form had been signed, pricing team repriced and would no longer respect the first price
I had no communication between price being changed and my order form being signed, was only informed after