Credit Card Deposit 1 Used Car Dealer 0

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Soldato
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A thread to remind people to always buy their stuff on credit card, or at least put a token deposit down in order to protect themselves against dodgy used car dealers.

I bought my wife a second hand car at the end of January that developed a fault with the central locking about a month ago, leaving it insecure. The dealer had it back for a couple of days to try and fix it but it was immediately obvious he'd either done nothing or hadn't tested his work afterwards as the car still wouldn't lock.

For his next try he wanted to keep the car for a week for what would be a "definite fix". Since this was unacceptable for my wife who has to get to work as well as carry our children around in safety, I asked for a refund as I'm entitled to. The Consumer Rights Act 2015 gives a dealer ONE attempt to fix a car before you can request a refund within 6 months of purchase.

Even though it would have cost him little financially to take the car back, he decided that breaking the law was better for his pocket and refused a refund. Fortunately I had paid a deposit on my credit card, leaving the credit card company jointly liable. A week ago they decided I had a valid claim. Today I have dropped off the faulty car and will get my money back, minus fair wear and tear costs amounting to about 8% of the purchase price.

There seem to be regular posts about people getting hassle from car dealers. Buyers have VERY strong rights now when it comes to buying a used car, so make sure you know them and always pay your deposit on a credit card.
 
Good result.

Who is directly paying you your refund. Will it all come from the credit card company or have they put a stop/hold on the amount in his account.
 
mattyg said:
Good result.

Who is directly paying you your refund. Will it all come from the credit card company or have they put a stop/hold on the amount in his account.
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It's a bit galling but the dealer has refunded me less than 40% of the purchase price as he told the credit card company he'd only give back "trade price". The credit card company will make up the difference for me. I hope they manage to claim it back from his bank, but I suspect the dealer will get away with it and not suffer a financial penalty.

I tried not to make it personal; the most important thing is that I got my money back and have bought an alternative car for my wife.
 
It'll still grate though that he's kinda won. He'll get to sell the car again and if he's made 60% now he'll sell it for the same price (all things being equal) and get to make another 60%.

If the CC company don't get the difference off him he's onto a winner.
 
Tbh whilst it's good that we have in built protection from the many, many dodgy people out there it does seem you may have been a bit unreasonable yourself, at least from the way you've written about the situation above

I appreciate it is very annoying with a fault like this and factually hey have to have an attempt to repair, but I would personally give a couple of attempts when they are recognising the issue and at least (on the face of it) trying.

He may think so too, hence being a bit awkward about it. Ultimately the money will be reclaimed from him (via the bank, who will want their money back) as long as the company remains in business.
 
rodenal said:
Tbh whilst it's good that we have in built protection from the many, many dodgy people out there it does seem you may have been a bit unreasonable yourself, at least from the way you've written about the situation above

I appreciate it is very annoying with a fault like this and factually hey have to have an attempt to repair, but I would personally give a couple of attempts when they are recognising the issue and at least (on the face of it) trying.

He may think so too, hence being a bit awkward about it. Ultimately the money will be reclaimed from him (via the bank, who will want their money back) as long as the company remains in business.
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I don't think it's reasonable for the dealer to want the car back for a week to fix a central locking fault. I would only do that if he was offering a free courtesy car.
 
A fair point, though we don't know that nothing was offered.

I'm not really trying to say there was anything technically wrong with the OP's actions, but sometimes there does need to be a little bit of come and go and the above reads a little bit like car had a minor fault, trader told he had one shot only and then the car was rejected, which could give people the wrong idea about how to approach a similar situation.

Perhaps the OP actually did try to be reasonable or request the car be taken for a shorter time/ something else provided and the dealer was awkward or tried to wash their hands of it (hardly unheard of).
 
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The dealer didn't offer a courtesy car, nor did he offer me a chance to exchange the car for another in his stock. I offered him the car in question back minus fair wear and tear value, knowing that he'd have it straight back on his forecourt at the same price we paid for it. Some people are funny when it comes to money and in these cases paying on a credit card limits your exposure to the small-minded businessman.

As it happens the car had other electrical niggles that wouldn't fall under the "reasonable wear and tear for its age" category, so it seemed prudent to seek a refund anyway.
 
Sounds a little like Buyers Remorse on the purchased vehicle as well.. Given "other faults" are suddenly being thrown about and never initially mentioned...

Call me a cynic though.
 
Richie said:
Sounds a little like Buyers Remorse on the purchased vehicle as well.. Given "other faults" are suddenly being thrown about and never initially mentioned...

Call me a cynic though.
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This was my thoughts. And a 8 percent loss in 4 months is quite a lot?
 
I love this place, the usual advice in threads is exercise your legal rights.

Someone does so and now it's well you seem to have been a bit of a winker and just didn't want the car anymore.
 
tom_e said:
I love this place, the usual advice in threads is exercise your legal rights.

Someone does so and now it's well you seem to have been a bit of a winker and just didn't want the car anymore.
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I posted knowing full well that there'd be people looking to deify the dealer and criminalise my actions.
 
OP perfectly entitled to do what he did. Bought a product, its faulty, they had a chance to fix it... claimed they did but didnt. Refund please... end of story.

If it was a TV no one would argue... this is a car but its from a dealer so its the same situation now they changed the law.

I had similar with the ST220 i got recently. The car had "flown through the MOT" but ended up having a siezed rear caliper, shot bearings on the rear and had a front snapped spring! ( at the bottom so not immediately noticable ).

The rest of the car was in excellent condition and the price i got it for was cheap considering others in the 50mile radius so i just had the work done and kept the car.

Dealer was pretty much like "oh.. well mot said it was fine... just grease the calipers... bearing always do that- wear n tear mate" etc etc so i just left it, he clearly was not going to offer any help in any way. Just kept saying it was sold with a 30 day engine warranty. Seems dealers are still ignorant of the law. I decided to keep the car as the problems were not silly expensive to sort and nothing dramatic, and its a fairly rare car so not hundreds of others to choose from. The engine ran smoothly with no errors, clutch perfect ( with recipets to show it had only been done 20K miles ago ) and apart from a few trim niggles the bodywork and suspension in great condition.

After purchase price and money i spent on it i am happy its now worth what i spent, as like i say otherwise its a minter. In fact if i sold it now i would probably make a small profit.
 
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Richie said:
Sounds a little like Buyers Remorse on the purchased vehicle as well.. Given "other faults" are suddenly being thrown about and never initially mentioned...

Call me a cynic though.
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So how many "other faults" would you class as grounds for refund? If you buy a used car then (depending on budget) a few minor niggles may be expected/acceptable. But if there are lots of minor issues, and then more serious faults start appearing, then it's hardly surprising that you might be a bit suspicious of the vehicle and want to get rid before it starts to turn into a money pit.
 
tom_e said:
I love this place, the usual advice in threads is exercise your legal rights.

Someone does so and now it's well you seem to have been a bit of a winker and just didn't want the car anymore.
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I was thinking exactly this.
 
Gonna drag this back up.

We've just put a £1000 deposit on a used car from a main dealer. we were going to put another £6k down making the total deposit £7k. They had offered us £7k for our car but decided to keep it.

Well the damn thing broke down on the way home needed a £3.5k repair bill. So spurious part fitted to get going so runs now but its NOT fixed.

We've told the dealer we are now P/X car in. But finance etc is all set up with a £7k deposit. If we P/X the car then we are effectively putting an £8k deposit down. They have said they would refund the £1000 already paid on CC.

Anyone know if that then removes our CC protection.
 
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