Reservation fee

Marco1964

I am in the market for a used car and, when a possibly suitable car is found, the dealership will offer the option to pay a reservation fee so that the car is taken off sale until you have seen it.
The problems I have had getting the fees back!
One dealer who took £250 and has promised to refund, still haven't paid me.
Another dealer is refusing to pay back the fee at all as they say that they had to arrange for the car to be transferred from one site to another.
This was not explained at the time payment was taken and there is nothing in the agreement to state this is the case. Despite the rude salesman saying "it's in the terms and conditions."
Are all car dealers cowboys?

Stateofart

Usually they tell you if it's refundable at the time.  I went to see a Volvo from a franchise.  It was £100 to secure the car, but when I arrived the condition was way worse in the flesh so we back healed it.  The salesman was nice but a bit shocked, but really it wasn't up to scratch and the prep department needed to have a good and long look at themselves.  The £100 took ages coming back mostly due to the fact it went to Volve head office and it was seemingly rare for people to back out the sale.

Arunmor

I just wouldn't even bother going to look at it if they tried this.  I would travel to the other branch (assuming not miles and miles away) to have look if I was really interested.

The trouble is folk don't tend to do much research and treat buying cars as a day out which obviously narks dealers and costs them money if they ship it in and potential buyers really aren't very serious.

But Stateoftheart's comment is also very valid, dealers need to cover all basis or they just annoy serious buyers.

Okell

Depends on what terms you paid the fee.  They'll say if it's refundable or not.

But surely the point of a reservation fee (as opposed to a deposit) would be defeated if it were refundable?

By taking the car off the market to give you the chance to look at it, the dealer is forgoing the opportunity of actually selling the car to someone else during that time.  If you turn up, kick the tyres and decide you don't like it, you've wasted the dealer's time and he has missed those other opportunities to sell it.  It's not necessarily a deposit that you get back if you decide not to buy it.  It's a commitment to show you are serious about the car.

If you are in the market to buy a car, make sure you understand the T&Cs of any "reservation fee" before you pay it.  I'd expect it to be non-refundable unless it's absolutely clear that it is refundable

Herzlos

File a Letter Before Action about starting small claims court proceedings for the deposits back. Note though that if the 2nd dealer did transfer the car to local stock for you to see, they can legitimately take that cost out of the deposit.

Then in future don't bother with a deposit; just go and see the car. Only pay the deposit if you're confident that you'll be buying it.

Okell

Herzlos said:

File a Letter Before Action about starting small claims court proceedings for the deposits back...

He hasn't paid a deposit though.  He's described it himself as a "reservation fee".  He paid it so the dealer would take it off the market until he could look at it.  The dealer gave him what he paid for, so why should it be refunded?

Yes it will come back to the T&Cs of the reservation fee, but I'd always assume a "reservation fee" (as opposed to a deposit)  was non-refundable - assuming that the dealer did actually take the car off the market until the OP had seen it.

luci

I've been looking for a car recently. There was one on Autotrader and a local dealership which offered a fully refundable £99 reservation fee.