Approved used purchase, misleading salesperson.

jimjames

AKMG said:

cw8825 said:

lets guess £50 would it still be worth it?

Yes, it would be, although I don't like flying blind (Not knowing what they would class as a reasonable admin fee, because they never set that in any of the documents I received).

What is my best route to initiate a cancellation? Contact the dealer's customer service? Or the insurer's?

I'd start with insurer and take it from there. Can always ask what the fee is before you go ahead 

AKMG

born_again said:

TBH, then the best policy is to simply say no I do not want it. 

They always try to sell optional extra's to which if you do not want them, simply say no. Even if they offer for free.

Yes, I should have done that, and I am fully aware that I was both stupid and naive, and also happy to learn from this for future purchases (Not just cars, but anything that includes interacting with salespeople).

AKMG

jimjames said:

I'd start with insurer and take it from there. Can always ask what the fee is before you go ahead 

I will double check, but from what I remember, the insurer's cancellation policy is pretty standard, policy already started so I expect an admin fee to be deducted.

The part that's not clear to me is whether the dealer will deduct their own admin fee from whatever amount refunded from the insurer (As they are likely to be the one receiving the refund then passing it to me).

Thank you for your help, sounds like I now have a plan, I will go through the policy and contact the insurer first.

WellKnownSid

Having bought cars recently - this is an insurance product, FCA rules are pretty strict.  You would have been given a load of documentation which would have spelt out the options: what the product was, what the product was for, how much it was costing you, what the payout rates were, why you said you needed it and what the alternatives were.  And you would have signed said document had you agreed.

Were you given all of this?

AKMG

WellKnownSid said:

Having bought cars recently - this is an insurance product, FCA rules are pretty strict.  You would have been given a load of documentation which would have spelt out the options: what the product was, what the product was for, how much it was costing you, what the payout rates were, why you said you needed it and what the alternatives were.  And you would have signed said document had you agreed.

Were you given all of this?

I have received some documents, and I have just spent a couple of hours going through everything the dealer uploaded to my portal, these are my findings:

Insurer’s Policy:

Clear wording: If you cancel within 30 days of receiving your policy documents, and have not made a claim, you will receive a refund for any premiums paid. If you cancel any time after the first 30 days and have not made a claim, a refund of any unused portion of the premium you’ve paid will be refunded to you, based on a pro-rata basis from the date notification of cancellation is received by the administrator.

Pretty standard I believe, although I failed to locate any commission figures paid to the dealer, or a fixed admin fee which I expect to be deducted as the policy has started.

The dealer’s documents however, a completely different story.

On the both order forms (For the vehicle and the additional insurance), the following is printed:

This document contains the terms of a contract and includes the Terms & Conditions attached. Sign it only if you wish to be legally bound by them.

Now the only document with this title 'Terms & Conditions' contains no information whatsoever regarding cancellation of any insurance products, only addressing cancellation of vehicle sale orders.

There is however a document titled ‘Initial Disclosure’ which contains only 2 pages without any headers or footers (This document I have not signed, or, I was prompted to sign but they chose not to upload the signed version), it is a scanned copy where you can not search for specific terms, the contents of the second page lead me to believe there is indeed missing paragraphs/pages.

This is not dishonesty, this is fraud.

None of the documents I have access to - which are uploaded to my account on the dealer’s portal - show any time stamps showing when they were uploaded, so I took a screenshot showing the contents as I’m sure they will quickly upload the correct documents when I start raising the issue.

I also downloaded all the documents, but again, the Initial Disclosure document has no timestamp or details of the creator of the document.

I do not work in the legal/financial sector, am I wrong to suspect that this is not just dishonesty, that it’s plain fraud? Or am I being dramatic?

My current plan for tomorrow:

1- Contact the insurers to get accurate figure as to how much will be deducted (Although I suspect they might refrain from telling me the actual value of the premium).

2- Contact the salesperson via email, attaching the pathetic Initial Disclosure document, following up on my intention to cancel the insurance and asking him to provide further details regarding the terms and conditions, or alternatively: Contact the dealer’s complaints department via email, highlighting the issue and leaving both the salesperson and their managers to chase me rather me chasing them. (They are a small ‘family’ business, but there is an email address for complaints).

Any advice regarding preferred scenario for step 2 is appreciated.

What a Circus...............

WellKnownSid

What resolution are you looking for?

Surely the sensible thing to do is to contact the insurance company and cancel within 30 days as it tells you to do - thereby getting your premium back in full.  You can then enjoy your car (just keep those alloys away from high kerbs!)

The insurers will have no issue telling you the actual value of the premium - it'll be what's on your invoice.

This is a lesson in reading a contract before you sign it and agree to be bound by its terms...

AKMG

WellKnownSid said:

What resolution are you looking for?

Surely the sensible thing to do is to contact the insurance company and cancel within 30 days as it tells you to do - thereby getting your premium back in full.  You can then enjoy your car (just keep those alloys away from high kerbs!)

The insurers will have no issue telling you the actual value of the premium - it'll be what's on your invoice.

This is a lesson in reading a contract before you sign it and agree to be bound by its terms...

Cancelling the insurance is my preferred resolution, I am unsure whether it will be a straightforward refund however, the insurer doesn't have my payment details, they were paid via the dealership - This is why I'm interested in knowing what the dealer's own policy regarding passing insurance premium refunds is.

The car is brilliant and I am enjoying it, I've also accepted that I made a mistake as soon as I realised what I got myself into.

I have dealt with people with broken moral compass before, but this is the first time I got stung, simply because I didn't think anyone would lie to put food on the table, but that's another lesson for me to learn.

GrumpyDil

Seriously, contact the insurance company and see what they say before you start worrying about complex scenarios. 

AKMG

GrumpyDil said:

Seriously, contact the insurance company and see what they say before you start worrying about complex scenarios. 

Which I was intending to do today, but work had other plans.

As I said, this is the first time I have had to deal with this, I'm not just trying to rectify my mistake, but also learn from it. Reading the small print and preparing for different scenarios is how I learn, I will apologise if that irritated you, but you could’ve just ignored my post if it has.

jimjames

AKMG said:

GrumpyDil said:

Seriously, contact the insurance company and see what they say before you start worrying about complex scenarios. 

Which I was intending to do today, but work had other plans.

Although that's exactly what I'd said several posts back but you then came up with another plan with 2 steps. If you just contact the insurers they'll tell you if there is a reason they can't cancel the policy, doing anything else is just delaying things. If they don't have your bank details then they'll need to get them to pay you back. 

BTW I don't see any evidence of fraud. Messy admin maybe and perhaps exaggeration of the risks of needing cover but that's pretty standard with any sales process - no-one would buy insurance if they were told the risk was minimal and they'd be better to put the money in savings account instead.