Mojo121

I get your frustrations with the replies but your reply isn't going to help - not exactly "How to win friends and influence people"! Anyway, I guess alot of the responses are because there's a very similar discussion going on in another thread right now. As for my take, we don't use AT, so I'm not much help as we pay £0. We're eBay, Gumtree, Facebook, Cargurus and this great big lump of land called a forecourt.

Cheers In future I’m doing the same. If they tell me to do one i’ll threaten with court. Why not eh? Most would pay up.

I had a 60+ year old twat in today. Came with his daughter who was lovely who wanted a car for her son. Bare in mind I've spent half an hour getting the snow off the best I could, and the pipes are frozen so I can't jet wash it. He's a bit funny from the off then says "so, can we take it out for a drive?" "Yeah, sure" "What do we do about the tax?" "We have trade plates" "Yeah, but it won't have tax" "That's why I'll put trade plates in" "But the tax won't be valid" "... there are these plates, they are the tax, they mean that the car can be on the road for demo purposes, they are also connected to our insurance. You will be legal" "Oh, yeah, I knew that" "Well, I don't think you did... you asked three times" "I was only winding you up" "Right. Why?" "I did know about them. I know all about trade plates IM EX MOTOR TRADE WAS IN IT FOR 26 YEARS" (Now I know we have a Grade-A wanker) Me: "Yeah, I knew you were ex motor trade" Him: "How did you know that? (I knew he wouldn't resist asking why, because he's the typical attention seeking narcissistic know it all car sales wanker - you know the sort.) Me: "Everyone else here's normal" As I walked away to get the plates I sensed that I had dropped the perfect insult, self deprecating and insulting to him and nothing he could say back. I even heard an "Oh" as they realised what I meant. This clearly damaged his ego. After the test drive he then told me I could've made a better job of the door shuts and under the bonnet. I was seriously considering telling him to fuck off... the equivalent of you've missed a spot mate... yeah, cheers. Instead I just looked at his daughter, made a face, she looked back sympathetically and I ignored the rest of his questions. He also tried to tell me a wheel bearing was on the way out. He daughter said "it's fine, it's spot on, don't bother checking it". He rubbed his hands together and said "right, what will you knock off then?" Nothing. Nowt. Full price. Paid. Piss off. I would have done the daughter a discount to be fair, but it was mum's and by association that twats money. Off he drove, in his rusty 52 plate Saxo. Draped in his knock off burberry scarf. Did well off them two Renault dealerships you had didn't you mate?

Traded in a car they claimed was fine, I asked them about any faults etc, test drove the car. Came in on the day of purchase with contaminated coolant and a very leaky head (in the usual place a pug gets a leak). As they left I said "were you aware of the huge oil leak" to one of them, he claimed he wasn't. I sat in the office after my colleague went home and decided it wasn't right, especially since the deal we had done was near on a swap. So i rang them and told them that I understand that most see car dealers as fair game and that its seen as acceptable but I had viewed them as decent people and had prepped their car to the nines (including doing MOT advisories as it was for an elderly lady), I was interupted on the phone to "we'll go home and talk about this as we really didn't know and it's not right". They did call back and offer to pay for the repair. I got a quote the next day and only asked for half the cost, I took some responsibility for not checking it but they insisted on the full amount. Ultimately, I think, they felt guilty because we did genuinely get on we and they saw we're a small business... and the cost I gave them for the repair was likely alot lower.

I second this. We let ourselves get treated like dirt sometimes, just because of the reputation of the trade. Recently I got done over with a px, long story, but I called them back and got the repair costs off them. Their behaviour was unacceptable in my eyes and if they refused I would have threatened with small claims courts. I recommend everyone else does the same.

I dread to think but... Auto lights and that snowflake light some cars get when it's cold?

You might be lucky it is the ‘in’ colour right now!

We’re a small independent and with no auctions to attend and little chance of a walk on im about to pop out to get some eggs & bacon! Anyone else staying in bed today?

I bet you will shift that - pretty sharpish!

There's no independent third party, who would pay for them? Anyone can attempt to get a refund. It's between you and your customer to resolve things. If they feel the resolution you offer is unfair they take you to court. With regard to protocol, for example: If you bought a TV from the local independent TV shop and a week later it gets a white line down the screen so you take it back to the shop do you think they'd plug it in and see for themselves? Get the car back and have a look. Let the customer demonstrate the faults if need be.

+1 I'd be saying see you in court.

Does she like candles and Kim Kardashian?

Obviously you need more facts but I don't think, in the case of further action, that noting the bumper and bonnet has been repaired/ resprayed would get you out of hot water. Argument being a respray on a bumper and bonnet is not the same as indicating the vehicle has been in a collision. If it's not crash damaged then considering the length of use and the fact the rubbing wasn't present at the time of sale they could do one! Chat about that If it were me it'd be a case of get it back and get the opinion of our repairer.

£140 more?! How many cars are you advertising? Glad I'm not with them. Greedy bastards. Their bubble will burst.

I've seen you say this before. For me they're worth something, not the be all and end all, but when you're scratching your head trying to make the phone ring a few good reviews can't hurt.

Nice photos but the adverts seem a little sparse in terms of description, yours is not my market though, so this might be the norm. The only other thing I'd focus on if I were you would be to get a ton of reviews of your Autotrader page... surely being internet only reviews are a must?

Bought a car friday, sold it to a walk-in an hour later at a healthy profit without a price board or valet... no buzz. Felt cheated that the stock was gone

Spot on to be honest mate. It's rudeness through and through. The more they go unchecked the more they feel it acceptable to carry on. When someone is 15 minutes late I call them to ask them how they are getting on. If they're on their way I say "oh, it's just we said 2pm, that's all". If I can't wait around I will reschedule them not my plans. If they say they're no longer coming, which is rare because most won't answer, I will tell them the same as you; that it would have been courteous to have let me know. The one's that get stroppy just feel like because they're a 'customer' they need some red carpet. My view is that I'm a trader, I own these goods and I define my service levels and parameters of who I deal with. I may not want to sell MY car to them. I'm not Argos or John Lewis' customer relations department. My manager isn't going to slap my wrist for picking them up on their defects. Respect both ways. I've found the more we're on the ball with customers the less frustration I feel and the more they value the fact you're a professional outfit. Not all of them mind, some are just pillocks

Hi Grant. I'd suggest being online only demands the most desirable, well presented, well advertised stock and maybe a little something to diversify yourself... Transparency Cars, who's commented above, seems to have the right idea. Want to link us to your stock?

Don't think you're wrong - seems spot on! OCS - Instead of PCP look up Business Lease Purchase. Same sort of thing. Lease with an option to buy at the end. Trade Vet's idea seems better financially though.

eBay. Fully described, with suggestions of what the fault might be and anything else that's wrong with it. You might make a little money.

We get a maximum of one complaint like this a month, we generally just sort it, we get unreasonable customers sometimes though and that's a different story. After 14 days the warranty company deal with most issues, which either gets the problem fixed or contributes the lion's share of the cost.

I'm genuinely wondering how many people have actively noticed this, trade vet? I had no idea but my contact with main dealers is very very limited. I'm going to take a guess that a lot of these tactics are new and definitely suspect. Probably a pretty good article for the magazine to be honest.

Everyone needs clean stock ha! Anyway, in for a penny. Anything tidy between £500 and £5000 for me please.

First thing is to give them a call (it's been a week and you may have had other interest in the car?). Other than that I'd see it through. I mean, you're not letting it go until you have £43k in your bank and you're not doing any additional work until that's paid for either. It maybe a small deposit but they have shown commitment. In terms of invoices it maybe worth a quick chat with Lawgistics to get the right document for a Trade Sale.