Car returned to dealer but no refund

affordmylife

I bought a used car about four months ago and writhing two weeks it began cutting out whilst I was driving.  I returned it to the dealership and they “fixed it”.  It continued to have the same problem so I returned it to the dealership with a full refund agreed.  The dealer signed a letter to say he would pay within a week.  This was about a month ago now.  The amount in question is £7000.  I have sent him a letter asking him to pay in full by 23rd September which he has not done.  My car is back on his forecourt for sale.

could anyone please advise me what to do next.  Many thanks. 

Grumpy_chap

On the face of it, this is unfortunate that the car did not meet your expectations but good that the Dealer accepted the return and agreed the refund.

Is the Dealer a small independent / back street garage, or is it a franchise / one of the larger chains of Dealerships?
If the latter, this may be that there is a communication error between the front-of-house staff and the accounts dept.  I had that once with a car sold to a Dealer (which is a different circumstance, ofcourse, but the slow payment is similar). 

Is the contact you were dealing with responsive, or ignoring you?

Can you contact the accounts dept directly? - will probably have to wait until Monday.

When did you send the letter asking for payment by 23rd?  It takes time for businesses to process things and if the letter was only sent last weekend, they may not have had time to process anything since if you allow for post time and the bank holiday.

Is the Dealer near to you?

Probably, the next thing I'd do is to visit them in person and just ask for a status update.  The important thing here is you must keep absolutely polite and professional when you deal with them and no show any emotion, anger, or raised voices or anything that they may consider as you "creating a scene".

Ectophile

The next thing would be the small claims procedure, and take them to court.

But if it's a back street dealer, you may never see your money again.  The company that sold you the car will be wound up, and all the cars on the forecourt will be on sale by a different company.