D&M

We were in the same boat, usually bought from BCA and not many other places. Went and spoke to the accounts manager at our local Manheim and told them we buy 'X' amount per year from BCA and want more options. The account manager wavered the sign up fee, and put us straight up to the equivalent membership level we were on at BCA (had to show them the BCA card to prove that we were on that level - understandable) Worth either popping in or giving them a call!

Don't often respond to eBay messages due to this. Never had any response back from a silly offer! Responded to one, asking for a 15% discount plus delivery. No, the price is the price. Delivery is extra. Ready for the crazy part, you'll never believe it....... Ok, send us the details and I'll pay now! SOLD!

Someone texted him asking if him if he took credit cards - he replied saying that the 'customer' could have asked with some manners. Customer then said 'I was only going to put £200 on a card, pay the rest by bank transfer' - Car was £6k (sure you were pal, sure you were) Customer then posted screenshots on Facebook group 'Slamber-City' - a nasty group with 150,000 internet trolls disguised as 'car enthusiasts' Some of them then post reviews etc on mateys business, because its 'hilarious'. -Same people who have been mentioned on 'this morning' for bullying Katie Prices son. I don't find these troll reviews funny. Individually, they are sometimes a little amusing - but you can't remove them. And from a customers point of view, when you see a business with 1000 1* reveiws would you bother looking through them? Or just thinks - bad business?

Also try places that do Caravan Storage. That's what we've be doing. £5 per car per week. Gold standard security, CCTV etc

Just a heads up, as I've heard about this too... As long as the car costs more than £100 (which I would hope it does!), they can claim back under section 75. Doesn't matter if they've only paid £0.01 on their credit card - if the thing they are buying costs more than £100, they are covered. They way it's mostly written makes it sound like the way you understand from what you've written, but that's not quite the case. Not that I think anyone has much to worry about in regards to chargebacks. We got our card machine in November after 'missing' a couple of sales (although explained to them they could transfer funds from credit card into bank account, didn't want to do that - I smell trouble!). Not a single soul has asked to pay via card! Never used the thing, thankfully its not on a contract - just pay as you go!

+1 plus we also use Lawgistics Sales invoices.

Found this post on a facebook page! Made me laugh!

No problem! Not a clue, was our first time there! We did buy, and asked where the car was parked.... The guy said it was in the Market car park and to jump in the minibus that was about 200yds away, shouted to his mate that we were coming up... walked up and spoke to the driver, he told us no, he wasn't giving us a lift so we had to walk all the blinking way around After a 3 hour wait for lost keys for the complete section!

We've gone up to Blackbushe on public transport. The nearest train station is Blackwater. We were attending the auction in person and stayed the night in the Ely Hotel - walked from the train station on a walking trail (and through some very secluded car parks with some very suspicious people in their cars!) The taxi from the Ely Hotel to Blackbushe was about £6. The train station is only a couple of miles from there so I can't imagine it being more than £10 About a 15 min trip in the car from the station to the front door.

Hello All, We've got a Peugeot 207 with the 1.6 VTi engine. Only 40k. The engine light is on along with 'Depollution System Faulty' on the display. It's been plugged in at our mechanic and it came up with a misfire fault and 'VTi Jammed' The misfire has been fixed with a new coil pack, and that code hasn't come back. Alternator and Battery have been checked and are fine, and the car has only just been serviced. It starts and idles fine - drives Ok but the power delivery isn't smooth. We can delete the code from our cheapie handheld code reader and it stays off for a couple of drives - when the light is off it drives much smoother but not 100%. Has anyone here had experience of the 'VTi Jammed' fault? Or can recommend someone in Devon? - Good garages are hard to find, and as there is only a finite amount of money in the car, we don't want to take it to someone who will just play 'Parts Darts' with it. Any help or pointers most welcome! Thank you!

Does this help? http://martinlewis.co.uk/ml/mini-paint-colour-codes/ Think your Mini is Pepper White

Update: Nothing - Yes, nothing further. No calls, no emails despite being promised one. I think they've realised they've fudged it by not getting their story straight. We're not concerned anymore - were a little at first. Our mechanic is happy to state that he couldn't see any signs of damage, and as they are saying that this 'damaged' part is what is causing the wheel to rub.... well... it wasn't rubbing for the first 6 weeks of ownership so whatever is bent has been bent whilst they've owned it. Thank you all for your comments, it has helped to put our minds at rest.... Like all, we don't like having unhappy customers. We put so much pride in our work, choosing and prepping our cars to a high standard so having a moaner does knock us a bit ( I think we assume the customer is right ). It's great to have other dealers comment to our posts with their own insights and experiences.

Update: The ex boyfriend called today, ranting and raving. Apparently have been to 2 garages and both have told them that the car is damaged. Still no idea what exactly is damaged. Also, the AA told them that the car had been damaged (although the AA only came out to change a rear tyre, and the damage is on the front). Told us that the car should have been a write off, it should be a Cat C apparently. It should never have passed an MOT etc. She then called, and told me the same. 2 garages have looked at it (no mention from her about the AA looking at it), - have been promised to be emailed the reports over. And the garage would call me. Still waiting for those. I asked on the phone to her if it was the same mechanic today who she referred to in the text message shortly after she purchased the car - she went quiet then, and had a quick think. Apparently now, she meant that she was going to have it looked at - but decided to tell us that it had been looked at. Visited our own mechanic who MOT'ed the car, he saw nothing untoward when the car was with him and is happy to speak to the customer or their mechanic and even put that in writing. Even our own mechanic thinks that the damage has been done in their ownership. Stand corrected R.E brake imbalance. I thought that if the car wasn't square on the rollers the wheels wouldn't be gripping equally on the brake test. Not true. She did say on the phone that usually when you buy something from a shop, you can get your money back within 6 months. I explained to her that it was difficult for us to understand exactly as we have no reports - and she wont tell us what garages the car has visited - and she is taking the car to these places, then relaying messages to her ex, who is calling us. Chinese whispers. But, she says she's doesn't want to deal with it completely in case we fob her off as she's a woman. We sold the car for £1,990, and they've done 4,000 miles in it already.

Have spoken to the customer this morning. Current mileage is 92something.... Was sold with 88,500 In their ownership, they have already replaced 1 tyre (when sold, car had 4 matching tyres, on Manheim report the fronts were 3.5mm and the rears 6mm) - unsure why it was replaced. The rubbing noise is coming from the drivers front wheel when reversing on right hand full lock and started to happen 2-4 weeks ago. Yesterday, she smashed it into a pothole and has done some damage to the passenger side front suspension too. So she is getting her trusted mechanic to look at the car, as the garage she took it to yesterday she doesn't trust (whether that's because of this report or not, I don't know). So they'll call me later on - she is under the impression that if there is a problem then she'll be swapped into a different car of ours. How that stands with her damaging the car on the other side, I'm not sure.

Just remembered after writing about the text message we got complaining about the cig burn and car tax. The buyer wrote in that text that they had taken the car to a mechanic to be looked over after purchase and the car is 'a very high standard for it's age'

No, of course not. Wasn't taken that way! Very difficult to read a 'tone' over written text - No offence meant, and no offence taken!

Thanks, we have been thorough with the PDI and take loads of photos. We use the Lawgistics PDI and sales receipts. We're quite new to the game, trading since April 17, so I think we might be scaring ourselves. We don't like unhappy customers, and we've had very, very few comebacks. Including this one, its 4 out of 80 cars. 2 of those were just moaners who we offered a little £ to go away. I'm sure they'll be in touch tomorrow so will get all the info then and see where we stand.

Just to clarify - we noted on the PDI report about the paintwork on the bonnet and bumper as they looked like they had been rubbed down and repainted. They looked like the original panels and there were no fixings/clips broken to suggest an accident. We are just over-cautious on the PDI's. There was nothing under the bonnet to suggest an accident either, everything looked straight and true. Radiator/Slam Panel etc. The bonnet panel itself on the Mini is double skinned and you could tell that there hadn't been a bump that had been hammered out. We assumed it had been painted due to stonechips as there was nothing to suggest otherwise. We did look closely at it due to the paintwork. We drove the car over 200 miles and it drove as it should, straight and true at all speeds and under braking. MOT brake test was no trouble. The tyres on it were all matching, and all the same age and were all worn evenly. Find it a bit strange how if the car wasn't straight has all of a sudden started making a rubbing noise. A gut feeling tells me its pothole or kerb damage from his inexperienced driver wife who was to be the main user of the car. At the moment, we are just waiting for the report from the garage she took it too. The way they are coming across it seems like they are saying its something underneath. I'm pretty sure he said that one wheel is sitting further back in the wheel arch than the other. Looking through the pictures we took to advertise, they look even to us. At the moment, we have spoken to the boyfriend who has been called by his wife who took the car to the garage so until the report comes, we're not 100% sure on what the garage have said. We're going to have a chat with our mechanic tomorrow, as I understand that if the car was out of alignment then the brake imbalance would be out of kilter as the car isn't sat correctly on the road. I know everyone is the same, we aren't chancers. If something isn't right then we make it right. If we can't, we don't retail it. My partner is a stickler for making everything right, so we're confident with what we sell. Even this Mini, had a naff farty exhaust - he hunted down a good original exhaust and fitted that instead. Even noting on the PDI that the wheels weren't the original ones for the car, they were from a later model and had kerb marks

Hello all, Got a bit of a strange one from a customer today. Sold a 2003 Mini Cooper S in early December, new MOT and a PDI. No advisories on the MOT. We noted, and wrote on the PDI that the car showed signs or repair to the bonnet and bumper - You could see that it had been rubbed down and repainted. Customer calls today to say they had taken the car to a garage because of a rubbing noise, thought it was the brakes but have been told by the garage that one side of the suspension is sat an inch further back than the other. We aren't sure exactly at the moment what the customer wants from us. The car isn't on Vcar or a Category car. As I've stated above, the car did show signs of body repair and this was shown to the customer and they accepted and signed that they understood that. The customer has left it on the phone today that they are going to send us the inspection report from the garage and then we will have to 'talk about it' This is the same customer who text a couple of days into ownership stating that we 'should have been more honest' as the tax was £305 and not the £245 they thought. They didn't ask us how much the tax was so I don't know how we were supposed to know what they assumed the tax was?! (also the amount the tax was is on the website) - also a cig burn in the seat they didn't see. We offered them to return the car for a refund then - minus a valeting fee, but they declined - but said that we should have given them the £90 discount they asked for at purchase and we declined. Has anyone else had this sort of situation? Interested to hear others opinions.

Another vote for Leominster here - not so much the people, but the stock. Same as Westbury, rough stock and almost everything sold provisional when we were there. Exeter is another place for the dodgy dealers - Don't know people buy from there, everyone knows is where local dealers send their crap.

Thank you for all the replies. We've decided to ignore - we don't answer texts anyway. Waiting for him to call - so far, no call.... Will update as and when

Tempting... No, we don't mind looking at cars if the buyer has a problem. The issue we're having with the car, is the buyer going against what we spoke about when selling the car to him. We supplied the car with a Warrantywise Bronze warranty. He knows the 'issue' isn't covered by the warranty supplied and is asking for it to be looked at as goodwill. Thanks all so far for the input.

I am very confident that the car is in the trade, as when you check it on askMID it comes up 'Mazda 5' and that's all. Privately insured cars come up with the make, model and trim, so it'd be 'Mazda 5 Sport' or similar. We may be incorrect, but every car that we've ever checked has come up that way. The car he turned up in and the reason why he needed a car was that his boss wanted the car back to put on the forecourt. That one came up again no tax and simple 'VW Passat' on the MID. He had 'owned' that car since September, and hadn't been taxed since May. He gave us the speil of 'we sell newer and lower mileage ones cheaper' when he was viewing. We told him the company he works for can do that, then he should get them to source him one. If they're selling better ones for less, why would he want ours? I suspect a hint of buyers remorse if something nicer has come in stock! We do the Lawgistics PDI, so have already checked and made sure that all that works as it should. We clean out all scuttle panels of leaves / debris too. We are sure the car wasn't leaking water inside, there was no evidence of this. No damp/smells/misting up etc whilst the car was in our possession.

Hello All, Sold a 2005 Mazda 5 4 weeks ago. Really nice proper car. Just had a text message (surprise surprise, a text.) complaining that the windscreen is continuously dripping wet. It wasn't ever steamed up when we had it in stock for 3 weeks. The guy says that he is in the trade - he said he worked in car sales and now as a valeter. And we spoke about that if he was going to be using the car for business purposes then there wouldn't be a warranty - but he assured us that this was his private car for the family. (we googled his number, and found lots of cars for sale and his valeting business.) We made it clear that for any claims to be valid, that the car must be privately insured and taxed - we even wrote this on the Lawgistics receipt in the additional notes and signed. The car has never been taxed since he bought it, and the insurance is trade. We're reluctant to offer goodwill since the car is likely being used for trade, against specific terms on the receipt, and we suspect that this 'issue' is either caused by him using the car as a valeting van, or from it being sat on a forecourt somewhere. We may have to have a scout around the town it was sold too and see if it's for sale anywhere. Interested to hear what you other dealers would do.

Just to add, if you didn't know.... If someone does message you, you still receive the message they send so can see what they've said. Up to you if after then you reply or not, but it's good to know that having an auto-reply doesn't mean you'll miss something (unlikely though!)