Deposit to view second hand car - is this right?

bairn7 wrote: »

Having spoken to the sales person in the closest branch (still 100 miles away) they want a £200 'delivery charge' which will be deducted from the purchase price.


He also said I would be able to get a refund if I don't take the car for any reason but also at times made reference to refund if 'not as described' or not 'fit for purpose'. Apparently, me not wanting the car would mean it was not fit for my purpose!


We've left it at me asking him to send me something in writing explaining when and in what circumstances I could get the money back. Car can't be delivered until middle of next week so I'm going to call at the start of the week to get things sorted hopefully.


To me it sounds like it's going to be a deposit with a refund only if the car is rejected for not as described etc.

Hmm, I had this situation a few years back for a Ford Focus we wanted to view (a low mileage auto with sunroof so rare-ish). Ford main dealer said the car I was interested in was at a different branch and asked £100 to bring it over to the local branch. I was assured over the phone that this would be refunded if we chose not to buy - and of course deducted from price if we bought.
I gave them my credit card no, they charged my card immediately and we went to view 2 days later.
Having seen this rather sad, knocked about car which had very worn tyres and a cheap aftermarket sunroof fitted (I admit I had assumed it was a factory-fitted when I saw the ad) we decided that this car wasn't for us, and I asked for my deposit to be refunded as the car wasn't what I had expected. The salesman refused as it was as he had described it, not his fault that I didn't know what I wanted. He was very brusque and unpleasant.

I asked my husband to get back into our car, and I followed the salesman back into the showroom - which was pretty busy on this Saturday morning. I had to get quite assertive, and loudly ask to see the sales manager (and use the words shoddy practice in a loud voice) before it was agreed that my deposit would be refunded. It took a week (and 2 phone calls) for that transaction to go through.

Obviously I've never been back to that dealership again, and I've vowed never to pay a deposit to view again.

I realise this might not be the case here but there is a common scam where someone hacks a main dealership auto trader account and switches the contact details. They then put an advert on for a popular slightly cheap car. When you contact them they ask for a deposit to bring the car to you.

I thought it was a scam and when I googled the wording from the email it was a recognised scam. I notified the dealer that had been hacked, auto trader and the person whose advert they copied. I didn’t get a response from any of them.

I then blocked the scammer's emails.