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Sunday morning story time... Last Tuesday I took a £250 deposit on a Mercedes CLC160 Auto, a nice little thing, asking price was £5889. The customer spent 30 minutes on the phone asking me a ton of questions, literally dozens of questions. He had been looking for a good one for 6 months (!) and wanted every assurance that it will be worth his while to travel 40 minutes for mine. He'd seen my short video + 50ish photos. He had read ALL my reviews. I said to him, come down, have a look, we'll have a coffee and you'll know if it's for you. He turned up, spent no less than an hour checking everything (locking wheel nut fits, right?) INCLUDING asking me to try and take the rear number plate off because on his last Merc the bolts had seized and he'd spent a fortune getting it replaced. Drove it, loved it, left a £250 cash deposit on the understanding that his mechanic mate will come with him on Saturday to collect and will have a good look at it and plug his scanner. "He's worked on CLCs for 30 years (!!!), knows them inside and out". The same day I increased my AT ad price to £6000 exactly to measure the difference in response like I often do on sold cars (it's around 20% more on the rounded figure btw). On Friday he texted to make sure that we had two keys with it (didn't ask the first time). Yes and No I said. We have them but one of them doesn't work. It's not the battery, it just doesn't work. He then proceeded with 5 more texts asking questions about could it be this, could it be that, but they are £300 to buy etc etc. He had to have a second key. Couldn't live without it. I called him to say I think we should leave it and asked him to text me his bank details so I can refund him the £250 deposit. He said OK and texted them + "I'll still consider the car and will call you on Sat evening if I still want it". Yesterday afternoon another chap called. "Will you take £5500". No but I will take £5900 if you leave me a deposit now. He did. Came this morning, took a 20 second look at it in the heavy rain, sat inside, started the engine, said it was all great, came in my office and transferred me the £5800 balance. I pointed out the faulty key, he couldn't possibly care less. All in the space of around 20 minutes. My mistake: Not asking the first "buyer" to leave my premises when he wanted me to remove the rear number plate.

Dear customer, I was surprised to be contacted by you regarding the new issue on the VW Polo after we rectified everything your specialist previously noted and at great cost to us which exceeded the limit of our warranty cover. This new issue was clearly not present at the point of sale (otherwise the specialist would've picked it up when he last worked on the vehicle) so may I suggest you get in touch directly with them as issues not present at the point of sale and not covered by extended warranty fall outside the realm of our responsibilities as a supplier of used vehicles. May I take this opportunity to thank you once again for your purchase and for your business. Best wishes. Selfy trader

Guys obviously getting rid of his shit, his other items for sale are bigger headaches.... Jeep Grand Cherokee and Fiat 500 X Cross.... he must have some perversion for high maintenance tat

I keep getting told renting is the future.

I have bought enough headaches this year thanks....

https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.co.uk%2Fulk%2Fitm%2F123384601388

Good luck mate, you seem to be trying to do the right thing by the car and customer and you’ve been unlucky and now the customer is trying to lead you by the nose. I think everyone on here wants to see you come out with a good result.

Oh maybe not then, will review my advice from all of you, many many thanks!

so to summarise you sold a car it went faulty a garage unknown to you threw lots of parts on at your expense its now gone faulty again within six months with possibly same fault supplying garage dont want to give witness statement to the fact their repairs fixed the original problem your customer now has a car where handbook says return to dealer if light on 'do not drive' and you are listening on an internet forum to tell customer to do one as i said earlier you need concrete proof this is a new problem unconnected to whats already fixed if you dont do this the customer can claim for independent investigations car hire loss of use road tax insurance storage stress etc trust me here you could easily get a claim for 5g but hey what do i know im an optimist whos been there got the t shirt he could win and if you lose and forget to ask for the car back the claimant gets to keep that too whether its worth 5 bob or 50 grand

I personally would not contact them anymore. You did more than enough by paying a specialist garage to remedy any faults and now more problems have come up. This is an 11 year old car sold for banger money really... whats to say you spend another few hundred quid on it and next month something else goes wrong ? If they contact you then tell them its not your responsibility anymore and if they want to pursue matters then put it in writing. Do not ring them and try to be reasonable as they will take that as you are paying ! My bet is they will not pursue.

What do you mean Oh dear? The consumer is past the 30 day right to reject. He MAY be entitled to a repair depending on what is broken. He is not entitled to a refund whatsoever. He hasn’t asked for a repair (yet) and if he does the OP will have to at least get it diagnosed. Could you explain how it’s even possible the consumer could successfully take the OP to court and win a refund based on what we know? I appreciate you have been to court Dave but we are advising someone on whether a consumer is entitled to a refund here. He isn’t.

Yeah phone them direct. Get it in writing what the fault is. That’s all the proof you need regarding statements etc.

within 6 months then read my posts again ive been to court by the way

I’d consider that issue fixed then. This is something else and not your problem. Even if it is the ecu again, he needs to go back to who fixed it. What nick says above is correct. Nothing to do with you whatsoever. Don’t let this idiot get you down, just tell him straight once and move on.

yes go look at the car or get a professional to listen to engine check oil check fault codes present and historical base whether you are willing to help once this is done if it goes to court the judge will see the car had lots of problems when purchased and these have returned judges cant differentiate between orange lights today and when purchased if you dont have evidence they arent related in their summing up if it goes to court you sold a lemon and knew it think about it if you go to court you need to win on evidence put yourself in shoes of customer ,would you be happy? this cars been nothing but trouble since purchased do yourself a favour do not buy another ask any garage what a piece of garbage they are

I think to use Arfur’s analogy you’ve given an inch and he’s taken a mile. You’ve done the job right I think mate.

You have nothing to worry about here mate, you seem to do the job properly and want to do the right thing by the car and customer and you’re looking for a bit of comfort and a good nights sleep and I think I can confidently say you’re in a strong position, you don’t have to refund him and Nik’s letter is all you need to say. You probably won’t hear from him again. Send the letter and get on with your life and forget it.

I expect the OP isn’t a mechanic like most of us and anyway, judging by how the punters behaved he’s not likely to accept the OP turning up to have an unqualified look? Besides, the OP has plenty going for him here, he doesn’t need to have a look he just needs to write a polite fuck off letter. The punter can continue feeling as bad as he likes.

Eyesight I have swapped 8 leg Immo Chips on Merc ECU's, but any more than 8 legs and I'm screwed even with reading glasses and illuminated magnifier I really don't know how guys solder those buggers with 16 legs on all 4 sides back on, getting 'em off the board is no prob, easy peasy, just re soldering without getting a crossed solder !! Plus Binary is a bit too Chinese for my liking, yeah I get it, but it takes me ages Besides I'm busy enough actually fixing the Cars and a bit of Selling, I don't need any more work. I don't like spending more than 4 - 6 hrs a day actually working on Cars, don't need to, more to life etc etc The Guy I use is good, return post service and very decent prices That's how I'm getting all my work, our local Garages send all late stuff my way, and I get to buy decent Stock from owners who say "Sod it I'll buy a new Car" !! Those Billys don't understand what they are getting into, with their 16, 17 7 18 platers, and I'm not going to tell them My E Class will be retailed next year at 2 years old, and I'll buy another Brand New one. My older S55 will still be going strong long after all these later ones are deceased

http://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201808219703022?atmobcid=soc3 Think I'd rather have this and some change left over to go on holiday!

wife says i should bid , we may get along great she says "apart from leaking at the rear "

Cracking result! Well played....

Boot on other foot comes to mind

just smells of carnage to me, you want to pay for something before you see it, no matter what they say on the phone private punters version of nice and ours are worlds apart.

Billy just turned up 11.30 Sunday,,,, well more Abdul than Billy,,, but will call him Billy,,,, walks round pitch for 10 mins then asks if we any 7 seaters, I say the Mazda 5 you have just been looking at is the ONLY 7 seater we have,, walks round pitch for 5 more minutes and says,,,,,, is Kia 7 seater, i say the ONLY 7 seater is Mazda.... walks round pitch again and says is BMW X3 7seater,,,,, i say ONLY 7seater is Mazda,,,, its going to be one of those Sundays....

That's absolutely fine. It's all about risk taking. If you are more risk prone you can do really well in this business. If a dealer sells a prestige car for 150K on a credit card they are so much braver than me, especially if they used stocking facility to buy that car in.

Free range kids on the pitch with oblivious parents,warranty reps who persist in trying to sell you theirs after you tell them you have been successfully doing your own for donkeys years,peepscarfes,council staff from the property,council tax or planning dept who have letters after their name.( I always ask them what and where and they never tell you),John Bercow,reality tv,greedy charities who knock on your door when they have millions on deposit and several staff earning 6 figures,financial anylists on telly commenting on multi billion takeovers that look 16 years old,age partnership rip off equity release tv ad,old women wearing football shirts,politicians who lose badly at elections and claim an outstanding result,parents who encourage their kids to attend some downmarket ‘uni’ and get into 20 grand debt to do some crap course and remain very proud.Charity runners or shufflers who you have to sponsor who then do no training and then claim success because they finish in 3 h 20m which turns out to be 48,746th place....I better stop...All very Victor Mildrew.

The shorts guy especially if he's the look at me type with collar turned up, pikeys, not all but most Eastern Europeans, Russians, middle Easterns, southerners, the Welsh, jocks, Middle Lane hoggers, people surprised when the red light they're waiting at turns green and takes them an age to set off, women who have to russle thru their bag then purse then many sections in the purse to find a card, same women takes an age paying for fuel then 5mins taking coat off, putting bag away getting into the car and actually driving off from pump..... Breath.... Politics, politicians, lefty loons, religious nuts , religion, silly rules and laws, anyone with no common sense and finally the Mrs once a month.

Especially these overweight older guys with Snow White legs wth tattoos.They think they look good.