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Money back guarantee - what’s the catch?
A lot of the online car sales companies offer a money back guarantee. Under this, you can return the car for a full refund during the first X days. For example, Cazoo allows 7 days, with a maximum of 250 miles. You can return for any reason. The car doesn’t need to be faulty.
But what’s the catch? Effectively, it seems like a week's free car hire?
To some extent, they are just making a virtue out of a necessity, given the DSR?
But what’s the catch? Effectively, it seems like a week's free car hire?
To some extent, they are just making a virtue out of a necessity, given the DSR?
No reliance should be placed on the above! Absolutely none, do you hear?
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Plenty of clothes shops do the same - let can return the clothes within X days. So you don't need to buy a suit for that wedding/job interview/funeral, just get one from M&S and treat it as 2 weeks free suit hire.
Similarly there's no need to buy an expensive camera to take on holiday - just order one online and send it back as soon as you get home.
In reality however very few people do this so M&S still succeed in selling suits and online companies do manage to sell cameras. I imagine most people buying cars online are also actually looking to buy rather than get a weeks free car hire too, so the business model is perfectly viable. And if you did try to take the mickey by "buying" and returning a different car every week for several months, I expect that you would be invited to take your business elsewhere soon enough.
This is because if you were to return the car under the cancellation period provided by the Consumer contracts regulations, Cazoo could legally reduce the refund if you had made excessive use of the vehicle and driving it 250 miles before cancelling would IMO, be excessive.
These regulations do allow consumers to use goods before returning under the right of cancellation provided that the use doesn't go beyond:
"what is necessary to establish the nature, characteristics and functioning of the goods if, in particular, it goes beyond the sort of handling that might reasonably be allowed in a shop."
In the case of a car, the shop would be a vehicle dealership and as these do normally allow prospective buyers to take a test drive so I don't think it would be unreasonable for a consumer to take a short drive to see if they like the car before returning it under the CCR's,
I wouldn't call that 'weasel words' - Just give the car a clean before returning it.
My neighbour went through a number of cars, I think it was nearly 6, with Cinch & Cazoo in a period of under a year. We did think he was trading from his drive lol.
He had a bad back and all the cars he tried gave him chronic back ache before the week was up. Funny enough, after his wife suggested a chiropractor and a few treatments he's found the car he can live with, from Cinch.
The only cost to him was a month's tax, some insurance and on one occasion a little for excess mileage.