Verbal agreement

emilgud

Hi folks,

New to these forums, but here it goes.

Bought a car from a trader in Gloucester in the 19th of this month. We decide to pay The car on a MINT credit card, so that we could get the cash back. As we are getting ready to leave the sales manager comes to us and says he forgot to charge us the 2.5% credit card fee. He decides to be helpful and says that I can pay the 100 pounds on my debit card. Return the following weekend as the car needed service, refund the credit card and I would pay the full amount on debit card minus the 100 pounds.

OK some of you know where this is heading. We arrive on the 25th, car serviced no problems. Meet up with the sales manager, he gets ready to work the machine, when a college of his explains that since the transaction has already occurred on the credit card he can not refund it nor the 100 pounds. Sales manager apologies and say's there is nothing he can do about it.

My question is this. Since he promised a refund of the credit charge once we pay by debit in full on the following weekend. His he not obligated to refund us the 100 pounds.

Would love to hear your comments. I will be calling him later today.

Emil

Squiffy

Sadly, a verbal agreement is only worth the paper it is printed on.

Your best bet is to kick up a fuss at the garage. They CAN reverse card transactions - to say they can't is an outright lie. I wouldn't be so confrontational of course, but you should be assertive on this point.

I would document your complaint in writing, ensuring that the overall manager of the dealership is made aware of this.

If you get no joy, your only other option would be a small claims court action. It would then come down to your word against theirs. This isn't totally impossible, but obviously there is a good chance you would lose your £30ish court fee.

tru

Would this trader happen to have his biz on Bristol Road?

nh

So you agreed to pay by credit card but then when they said you had to pay a 2.5% fee, you said no, I'll pay by debit card instead? But you'd already paid by credit card? If they didn't tell you before the transaction that it would cost you £100 extra to pay by credit card then I think you have a strong case.

As previous posters have said it is your word against his and although a verbal agreement is binding, the fact is that he has your money and is not willing to pay it back, and you would have to go through the courts to enforce the agreement.

I would go back there and not take no for an answer, and then if that doesn't get you anywhere, say you will go to the local paper, or (if you want to lie, I wouldn't but then if it's just a little one...) say your brother/cousin/sister-in-law) works for the local paper.

They should refund your money quite quickly - just don't give up, they will give it back just to get rid of you in the end. Know your facts ie. that they promised to refund the money and they CAN refund it through the credit card system (how do they think other companies give refunds?) and just keep repeating those facts.

emilgud

*Update*

Had a chat with the sales manager. He acknowledge his mistake and was not willing to refund the 100 pounds as it is payable to the credit card company.

But we came to compromise, work will be carried out on the car which I value to be in the 100 pound area. Not the optimal result. But I would like to maintain a good relationship with the dealership if any other issues come up.

Thanks for your advice
Emil

Reaper

Squiffy wrote:

Sadly, a verbal agreement is only worth the paper it is printed on.

Curiously a verbal agreement is just a binding as a written one, although in practice this is only of use if there is no argument about what was said. Witnesses are handy.

Glad you are sorted though.