trade vet

The plot thickens,a third party business was involved in the transaction.This is interesting,is the partners business a Ltd co.

Hi Selfi. This bloke has probably done this before with other transactions.He is probably some college lecturer type or civil servant.Tell him you are skint anyway and can’t afford to help.Have I missed something,you are a doorstep trader with a card machine ?

Remember Comet,white goods sold for cost price or less except it was compulsory for customers to take out the add ons.I think it was new consumer law that killed them.

I hope you have logged the incident and put a heatgun training programme in place.

They can’t cancel your account for no good reason.They won’t,or you could probably do them for loss of profit,missed opportunities,hurt feelings etc etc

Hi Mistermuttley When the auction cocks up as in this case,they should owe you a cheap car ( or quick knock).Auction contract law states when the hammer comes down you have bought the merchandise.They are in breach of contract and treated you as a soft touch.Offering you a free on line buyers fee is not good enough.In the past,I have been involved on several occasions where the auction has made a mistake and were pleased to resolve the matter by owing me a favour which they have honoured.This goes on all the time.I recall the last time it happened to me,an auctioneer brought down the hammer then said ‘ provisional’,I called to him there and then in front of the rostrum and told him that I had bought the car.I think he said ‘we will sort it out later’ and that is what happened. I think you should get back onto them and let us know how you get on. Regarding your profit margins,if you can get by on low margins that is OK.This business is full of people who always take big money out of deals when the reality is completely different.

I would like to see the t&c’s and disclaimers on dent and scratch protection.How much extra per month was it for these add ons.I hope you told them to stick it .....I am meeting a guy tomorrow to discuss my idea for administering ‘ customer care packages’ for under l£10 p/w.Add ons do help but they have to appear good value to the punters.

Hi Selfi You are getting some good advice.Depending what mileage has been done you should negotiate out of this with not too much damage.One thing,if you want to stick around in this industry,you are going to get a lot more of this.Get this one sorted and there will be another one waiting to happen.

5 months use...He has probably done several thousand miles.Try offering a full refund less the HMRC mileage allowance 40p per mile ( should be 45p I think) offer expires after 5 days.Then when you get it back have a go at his VW specialist.

Hi Frankieola. I think it is a good idea.You could do that where we are because in general people are very open and tell you all their circumstances.However,I don’t think I would chance it in south London.Infact the more I think about it,I might pinch your idea.

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.

90 mins with a punter.....that’s a P45

4) That used to happen in the old days when you rarely got declines.Rather than decline a deal and cause ill feeling,finance companies would cover themselves with the future value of the merchandise should the punter default.General Guarantee springs to mind.

What music do you use.That must be important,if you have a pink Fiat 500 and you use a Metallica or Judas Priest track,that may not help.

What about when you can’t get parked at the block.Then some big shot in a Bentley with a vanity plate cruises in and are welcomed through the gate.More often than not,these guys are frauds and later on either go bust or do a runner leaving financial havoc.I was talking to a guy this week who has recently stopped working for a similar guy as he could not take any more.Apparently this one buys his stock with BCA stocking money.Then after so long transfers the stock to another stocking facility.This guy personally leases some big smoker with the vanity plate and makes sure he has the latest iPhone ( are they a grand now).We have all seen them come and go and they really annoy me.

Clearly the punter was a pain from the start.No way would I have let them have a demo.

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

No you never get any thanks.Except when someone you have helped previously has then bought elsewhere but then returned for another car having had issues with both the dealer and the warranty company.

I don’t know about sport !,but until motor dealers end up in the small claims court failing to defend some dubious claim for £4K on an old Range Rover or similar (because the judge interprets CRA differently),they may then want to change their business model.If you run a pitch,the risk reward ratio with retailing older stuff is a lot higher with the introduction of CRA.However,this does not appear to be the case with home traders,good luck to them.

I would not want to retail 1) and 3). too risky. but 2) is different,I would be helping the punter.If you are going to deal in heavy old stuff,expect to take some big hits.

Not much happened this week,the new signs have been delayed by high winds,the website is not ready and NAT West are stalling with our new proposed faster payment account.Bought a few to help get us going.Star buy....I was at the local block and a ‘faded’ 61 Jag XF 2.2 Auto with cream leather but no nav comes through as a rerun from last week.Auctioneer says it’s done 9k but no history.Anyway I have only one bid at £93 and the hammer comes down.I thought ‘O dear’ what have I done.Picked it up the next day,it’s one local owner,it is 9k miles,smooth driver and just needs minting up and we are getting the history from the local Jag Dealer.What a relief. We are about 10 days away from trading,but I will do a warts and all running commentary until I am told to stop.

I think if you work on your own or you are a home trader,when you have a problem,punters are more flexible and don’t expect a warranty.However with a pitch,staff and workshops etc and you are doing 500 or more per year,your punters expect warranties.Long ago,we began administering our own FREE 12 month 12000 mile warranty or mechanical breakdown agreement as we call it.We started by putting £70 per sale in a separate account.The fund mounted up very quickly and from then on we treated claims as an investment.The outcome was that we then did a lot more repeat business.Most people do appreciate that if they break down or have a problem miles away from home and with one call you can sort it out for them.Some of the claims would be suspect,but we just paid them. Nowadays main dealers offer service contracts which are charged monthly and are a good source of extra income.With our new venture we are exploring a similar thing with warranties and free future MOTs and few other things.Our theory is that a good proportion of punters taking out our ‘ customer care pack’ but who will have the option to cancel at any time,will instead let them run on......I think I can sense the doorsteppers reading this with negative thoughts !

Hi Area 51 ...Been on a Virgin 787 ,it was great,super smooth and quiet.Unfortunateley when it landed ,it couldn’t get parked at LAX,we had to wait for an hour.Hope you have photo of you and The Donald in your office.

Hi Ryan. All clever stuff,sounds good to me,these LA guys are ‘switched on’.We call the rejections ‘chucky duffers’ over here,what do you guys call them.?

Owen ?