Tusker Price Dispute

RT24

I ordered a car through my company's salary sacrifice scheme with Tusker in November 2024 and took delivery in December 2024. The price has significantly reduced since I took delivery (by approx. £124 per month) and I've calculated I will pay an additional £4,580 over my agreement term. I've reached out to Tusker but they're unwilling to liaise with the dealership to discuss my situation and state my only option is to pay for an early termination fee (TBC but I suspect it'll be a 6 month rental fee). Unsure what my consumer rights are in this situation if anyone can assist? I did report this to Tusker within 28 days of delivery if that makes a difference?

eskbanker

In general you don't have any consumer rights that would allow customers to benefit from price reductions available to later purchasers (the traditional response being to ask if you'd have been happy to pay a higher price if it had increased), but does your contract have any clauses covering what you have in mind?

Penguin_

Our scheme is the same, the price you pay is what the price is/was on delivery.

Aylesbury_Duck

RT24 said:

I ordered a car through my company's salary sacrifice scheme with Tusker in November 2024 and took delivery in December 2024. The price has significantly reduced since I took delivery (by approx. £124 per month) and I've calculated I will pay an additional £4,580 over my agreement term. I've reached out to Tusker but they're unwilling to liaise with the dealership to discuss my situation and state my only option is to pay for an early termination fee (TBC but I suspect it'll be a 6 month rental fee). Unsure what my consumer rights are in this situation if anyone can assist? I did report this to Tusker within 28 days of delivery if that makes a difference?

I think (although I may be wrong because I can't see your contract) that you don't have consumer rights, this is a B2B contract between Tusker and your employer.  You'd have to speak to your employer to see what your options are.  I suspect it's "one of those things" that you can't easily undo.  Prices on products move all the time, sometimes you win, sometimes you lose out, but you were happy with the deal you signed up at the time.  You may have to calculate the saving and set it against the termination fee and see if it's worth doing.

DullGreyGuy

RT24 said:

I ordered a car through my company's salary sacrifice scheme with Tusker in November 2024 and took delivery in December 2024. The price has significantly reduced since I took delivery (by approx. £124 per month) and I've calculated I will pay an additional £4,580 over my agreement term. I've reached out to Tusker but they're unwilling to liaise with the dealership to discuss my situation and state my only option is to pay for an early termination fee (TBC but I suspect it'll be a 6 month rental fee). Unsure what my consumer rights are in this situation if anyone can assist? I did report this to Tusker within 28 days of delivery if that makes a difference?

If the price had gone up by £248 per month would you be expecting to pay more?

Ordinarily with a salary sacrifice it's the employer that is the contracting party and as such there are no consumer rights because its a B2B contract. 

Alderbank

There isn't any consumer purchase involved here.

Your employer leases a car (from Tuskers in your case) as a B2B contract.

Your contract of employment is a package of benefits, your paycheque is the main one of course but you get other benefits also such as health and welfare schemes, employee discounts, shares schemes, etc. Your employer allows you to use that car they lease from Tuskers as one of your benefits, and in return you agree to your salary being reduced. The reduction is less than you would pay if you leased the car yourself, because you are not paying tax on the salary sacrifice money.
Because of the tax advantage, HMRC set strict rules on how the scheme must be administered.

If you are unhappy with the way the scheme is working for you, talk to your HR team, or perhaps your employer has a fleet manager who deals with these things?

Some employees will agree to offer that car to someone else on the payroll or add it to their fleet of company vehicles and allow you to take out a new contract.

RT24

Thank you for the feedback

A_Geordie

I have some experience with Tusker since my employer uses them and whilst I agree with everyone that the right to a price reduction doesn’t apply (unless this has been negotiated within the Tusker/employer contract), I will say that it’s not correct to say there are no consumer rights.

CRA excludes rights in relation to services under an employer/employee contract but the same doesn’t apply to goods. The B2B contract allows for the sublease of the vehicle to employees under salary sacrifice and in my opinion the employer giving the employee the right to use the car in return for an agreed deduction of their salary constitutes a supply of goods for the purposes of the CRA. So an employee would still have rights against the employer regarding satisfactory quality, accurate description, fit for purposes etc. 

pinkshoes

RT24 said:

I ordered a car through my company's salary sacrifice scheme with Tusker in November 2024 and took delivery in December 2024. The price has significantly reduced since I took delivery (by approx. £124 per month) and I've calculated I will pay an additional £4,580 over my agreement term. I've reached out to Tusker but they're unwilling to liaise with the dealership to discuss my situation and state my only option is to pay for an early termination fee (TBC but I suspect it'll be a 6 month rental fee). Unsure what my consumer rights are in this situation if anyone can assist? I did report this to Tusker within 28 days of delivery if that makes a difference?

In exactly the same way the contract does not allow them to charge you more if the price went up, they also do not have to make any changes if the price goes down.

You'll need to establish whether an early termination fee to end the contract and take it out again (if possible) is less than the extra £4580 it will cost you in additional fees.