BHM

Only curious?

Absolutely correct, as the staff at my local branch has found out. The Christmas gift they’re getting from TSB is more spare time. In the form of redundancies. It seems a lot of banks’ basic services are being done on their behalf at Post Office counters. The one man band Post Office near me is doing the work of 4 bank branches so far.

They must be getting run with the same amount of customer service, that’ll be why yesterday when I was in Asda with a trolley full of Xmas booze there were 2 staff on the tills, a queue of 20 people & they’re desperately trying to get punters with overflowing trollies to self scan. Greedy bastards More supermarket consumer reviews to follow

Unfortunately I suspect your time would be better spent doing something else.

Surely it can’t get much worse Tbh from what I can tell, despite the prices, half of the lots are half-fucked anyway. I don’t think I’ve dipped my hand into my pocket for repairs as much as I have in the last 4 months. The only saving grace is least we can now add it on at the other end.

Agreed, it kills a car stone dead. I know which cars will look brown underneath so 2 or 3 tins of Schutz before I visit the tester does the trick. I also check the MOT histories of every car I’m interested in bidding on & if I see “corrosion” I immediately forget the car - once it’s on an MOT it’s a brave tester who then won’t pass comment on a subsequent MOT.

Long term you’re better off with a harder tester & because you’ve already identified the car’s latest test is somewhat suspect I’d be getting it tested properly (after a coat of Schutz). Shite testers passing shite cars is a recipe for comebacks & possible disasters. Personally I’d rather draw a blank on a car with a proper MOT than make a few quid selling a death trap that ends up snuffing someone out - however plenty of banger sellers will disagree!

Some lads can make it pay (I think those buying lumpier stock where private buyers don’t like buying privately) but I sacked it off many many moons ago. Like yourself, at the lower end I usually found it a waste of time looking at severely misdescribed shite. The last time I actively went buying from privates was in pre-Facebook times. I’d hate to think what it’s now like buying from one of the many ‘privates’ on FB wanting to meet in Asda’s car park A couple of tins of Hammerite Schutz & 10 minutes of your garage’s time with their spray gun is your friend here. As we’ve all found out there are MOTs & there are MOTS. Sometimes I wonder what the hell the last tester was advising on, yet others pass cars that are blatantly unroadworthy.

You must be very new to trading - the average 8-10 yr old car starts to look horrible underneath so as for a 14yr old Micra I’d honestly be more surprised if it wasn’t fucked. To put it simply, at 14yr old it’s beyond it’s life expectancy. If you’re buying cars like that you MUST see them yourself. The place to buy 14yr old snotters is NOT from auctions - tbh their fees are more than the average old banger is worth. Also, I’m afraid expecting the auction house reports to put them on a ramp & give you a full, honest & in-depth appraisal is optimistic to say the least.

Isn’t that a bonus considering what 50% of the public have to say?

Short sightedness comes as standard in this industry. Back to AHs - no doubt we can all look forward to their annual buyers fee increase in January. I feel your pain but; A) do you really think it’s just BCA who are guilty of this? b) I don’t think whinging car dealers being raped by AHs would sell many newspapers.

if they look pissed off & start whining about the how they are being treated you know you were right to brush them off. It’s just like them ‘Cash waiting’ dickhead emailers & also those who arrive playing Billy Big Bollocks wanting immediate VIP service & shouting about being a cash customer. When you ask to see their cash they start backtracking cos they’ve got next to fuck all cash on them. Pitiful.

I wonder if AE currently have an offer - I’ve only got a handful of cars but this last week I’ve been asked twice if I’ll take it. Perhaps it’s just a coincidence.

A tale - I was at the mechanic’s recently when he introduced me to a punter looking for a new car for his 18yr old son. In my experience these punters never have realistic expectations & never have any brass despite having 18yrs to save up. Anyway I start with a rant about small car buyers to which my mechanic started laughing. Anyway it turns out that the budget is ALLEGEDLY £2000. I pointed out that’s shite old car money & then asked him what he fancied. Apparently he fancied a VW UP for £2000!!!! I told him a £2K UP would of been dropped out of an aeroplane so he’d better take a reality pill. It turns out he may accept a “Nice low mileage new shape Fiesta” so with such expectations, after laughing I made my excuses & left. Three weeks later this £2000 man has made a purchase.....a £600 welded-up Picanto from my mechanic .

How the f*** anyone fresh to the game could get started nowadays is beyond me. They are absolutely having it off but as long as all the big players stick together I can’t see an improvement anytime soon. As for one of Manheim’s supposed open sales I visited one - no keys, not allowed in the cars & the drivers had been instructed to not open windows & talk to the filthy scum (formerly known as paying customers). These shysters hide behind COVID but it’s f.a. to do with COVID, it’s all about managing us. Of course, it can’t be proven & they’d swear blind otherwise but as an old farmer once told me ‘Never trust an auctioneer’.

God knows about the M3 market but I suspect the newer the better when it comes to performance cars. As for flogging an old p/x, anything even remotely sporty has always attracted the gimps, penniless, dreamers & bullshitters like moths to a lamp. The actual buyers are fine but the other 99% of punters are fucking diabolical.

How on earth should we know?

If they’re anything like Manheim then from my formal rejection of the car (which was about 30 minutes after they delivered it) to receipt of my money it was about 7 weeks. The cheeky chappies used every trick in the book to try & avoid their obligations. In the end it went via their delightful Surecheck system (for a second time) & an external inspector. The best thing was it was rejected under misrepresentation, not a warranty issue, but greedy Manheim still kept the Surecheck fee because they said they’d only accepted it back via Surecheck. I fully accept many cars are chopped-in for a reason & correcting these faults is all part of the game BUT the auction houses’ blatant refusal to accept liability for their (honest) mistakes & oversights are an absolute disgrace.

They’re all the same - absolute sacks of shit that ride our arses at every opportunity. It recently took Manheim a week (after over a month of arguing that they’d accept it back) to get a credit, and I know someone else who waited over a fortnight. What really sticks in the crop is they all want prompt payment (I’ve no problem with that) but when money is coming the other way they REFUSE to practise what they preach. As for payment times from auction houses’ assurance schemes - don’t get me started

A customer confirming the fault has just appeared torpedoes any claim they may have.

This. The days of goodwill are (mostly) long gone. In my experience, at my end of the market most returning customers (and I do get a few) return on the basis of price. How many of these ‘goodwill’ men show any goodwill upfront? There are certain buyers for certain cars and as for a Meriva peasant not wanting to take responsibility for their own property, well is that really a surprise? The greedy fuckers only ever put a spanner on their cars when the MOT tester condemns it.

“We’ve sent it in the post” is AH code for ‘Fuck off, you can’t prove different, we’ve washed our hands of you. Crack on!’

Hi, I’m not either but after going through the claims procedure a few years ago I decided it’s barely worth the long drawn out hassle getting a result. By the time I got my day in court (about 8 months, if memory serves) the whole episode was just a distant memory & the few hours spent over the months (every time winding myself up thinking of the cheeky bastard main dealer who’d tried to get one over on me) I came to the conclusion that unless the issue involved big money it’s just not worth the time/hassle/‘upset’. In the business of car dealing we all win a damn sight more than we lose, so the occasional loss is par for the course. Tbh I’d probably only resort to a small claim if I wanted to hold to account a small business taking the piss who would really feel a financial kick up the arse.