D&M

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!)

No, we don't have an eBay Motors Pro. I googled how to do it, as follows: Go to eBay, Click 'Messages' - On the Message Page, Click 'Change Settings' on the right hand side. That should bring up the page where you can turn on your 'out of office' reply. Ours says "Hi! Thank you for your message. We are away from the office at the moment and unable to reply via eBay message. We are able to be contacted on our mobile phones, so please don't hesitate to give us a call on:"

We hate eBay messages and especially texts. In the past, spent countless hours reply to all of them. Anything we receive, they get a reply asking them to call. Our eBay has an auto-reply. I don't think we have ever got someone who has sent an eBay message or text has ever called. And if they start communication that way, they'll be messaging and texting at 1:00am expecting an instant reply. If someone wants the car, they'll call - eBay & Text messages are (in our experience) all timewasters. Best/Last Price etc Wasn't it BT that said 'It's good to talk'? I'm guessing he is going with option C If he does turn up with his Part X - I wouldn't shake his hand

We learned the hard way after buying online from BCA. We've had a few appraisals that were pretty bad. Bought an Vauxhall VXR online. Gearbox was whining really badly, but no mention of it. Parked it in the carpark and complained - got nowhere as it was 'sold as seen' and the vendor didn't mention any fault. Car came with no history/books/MOT, which was odd for a VXR with 1 owner for the last 10 years. After writing to the previous owner, found out the car was traded in with the owners booklet, MOT cert, Service Book full of main dealer history with an invoice detailing the gearbox failure - this paperwork was missing when we bought it. Called the dealer it was traded in at, must have got lucky and spoke to a newbie there who meant to put me on 'hold' but but me on 'mute' so I heard the whole conversation that he and the salesman who took the car in had. It wasn't pleasant. - I know it's the name of the game, but we've got to be honest with our customers, and the dealers still have to declare major faults with the cars, no just dispose of any paperwork that confirms any faults! Decided I wasn't going to allow the vendor to just plead ignorance to the fault, so wrote the the CEO. Got a response pretty quickly and the complaint resolved. When complaining, the branch manager told me that the mistake I made was driving it out of the compound and into the car park. Bought a Fiat 500, drove from Devon to Walsall to collect it - Appraisal, and Assured Report were naff. We took the advice from we got, and didn't take the car off the site and were offered £200 and take the car as is, or chip it back. £200 wouldn't touch the repairs, so we chipped it back. Done and dusted within 25 mins. Shame about the 4 hour wasted drive up there though. The manager there offered us a free delivery next time we buy online from that centre, which was very kind of him. We much prefer to go to auction to see the cars in person, but we are at a different end of the market to some dealers here. We can see it from their side though, the people doing the appraisals are only human and occasionally things can be missed - or are they on a set time per car and sometimes rushing? If we had customers who bought from us and arrived to find something not as described, they'd hit to roof. Why should dealers have to put up with cars not coming through auction being not as described. We pay enough in auction fees! Yes, we do have some comeback, but its a PITA to get listened to and the gestures offered to make the car 'as described' most often don't cover it. You live and learn, eh? That's a right moany old post We're happy car dealers really - the good buys more than make up for the bad eggs. Wouldn't change occupation, dealings in the blood!

Car Shop (Lot 1 - 12) Wollaston (Lot 100 - 183) Perrys (Lot 200 - 211) Car shop (Lot 300 - 412) Parkway (Lot 500 - 535) Chris Favell Cars (lot 600 - 604) Hope that helps

The car isn't 11 days old though, the part that has failed is 11 years old. How do you know the customer hasn't filled up the car with a bit off s*itty fuel that has popped the light on? Or sat on the drive faffing about with the radio/windows/satnav etc and the battery has got low and that's put the light on? I would assume that you've already covered this, but has the customer had the fault cleared and taken the car out for a couple of days to see if the fault comes back? We wouldn't be jumping in and replacing parts until the code has been removed and the car road tested - seems like just giving certain cars a dirty look can pop a warning light on! I think you've been more than fair offering to pay for the part and 60% labour. If you outsourced a warranty to one of the big warranty providers, would the fault have been covered? I doubt it. We have a 'self funded' type warranty. Gentlemanly, firm and fair works well for us.

We've pulled out of AT altogether. Sponsored listings seem like a waste of money - If everyone paid to sponsor their adverts, who'd be at the top?

We do enjoy that feeling too. Bought a Mazda 5 in December, listed with no history. Came with this! Previous owner must have bought the car twice! A while back we were self servicing a little Fiesta, found an envelope near the pollen filter with £245 in it! Trying to add photo - not working. Can't find the 'Edit' Button either

Thank you again for all your insights. Much appreciated. We've done our best with the Auris. For the first while, we had it advertised everywhere. Then took it off everywhere, and readvertised it with fresh pictures and a new price. Then another reduction. Being so small - 5 or 6 cars it is a noticeable % of our stock volume sitting so I think we are going to dispose of it. Which is a shame, but it just isn't a car people look for online. We'll trade it out, and no doubt it'll sit on someones forecourt for a week or so before it's snapped up! Fingers crossed we'll get back what we paid out!

We reduced it a week before Xmas, so we're ahead of you there! You're certainly right, they just aren't what people search for. We've dropped the price, but the problem is that people just aren't looking for it! I like that approach, since we've started this is the longest we have had a particular car and the only one that even a little price drop hasn't encouraged it to drive away. With us only having a limited number of cars in stock, it is much more noticeable when you have a familiar face staring back at you! We know the first person to see it will buy it - it is just getting that person to see it! Is there any reason that you can think of? That seems a long time, especially for something like that. Would have thought that would have walked out the door with that mileage! All our other stock is shifting well - this one just isn't getting looked at. We've re-done the photos, lowered the price, advertised it to more places. We've learned a lesson - once this ones gone, we aren't buying another one! Had a 2004 Corolla a while back we had to almost give away - lovely buyers though! They weren't planning to buy that day but ended up driving away in it. Thanks for all your insights!

We've got a Toyota Auris in stock - we knew it'd take a little while to shift as we mostly trade online so rely on customers searching for the cars. Just over 3 months now, and not a sniff. 2 Lady Owners, 2 Keys, Nice Miles & History, We put an MOT on it with no advisories. Thought it'd be a safe bet, as we see loads on the roads around here! When we worked on a small forecourt, the owner had cars on the lot that had been there over a year and had no interest in trading out/adjusting price/different advertising. They'd just sit until they sold. When do you throw in the towel and trade out a lot to let another trader have a go?

We aren't doing too bad. Done 1 on 23rd Sold the 23rd's P/X on Christmas Day (no rest for the wicked, eh? - especially when you make them pay in full before viewing! Not working Xmas day for a 'just looking') And another sold on 31st - Paid in full over the phone and asked for delivery. Not a problem Sir! Guy on the 31st had to buy as he has a kid on the way, at 55 he wasn't expecting more kids! A TV licence would have been cheaper

Good luck with talking to AT about it. They make the rules up as they go along! Two months on, and after writing to the AT CEO's we've finally come to a resolution (after AT sent us a goodwill gesture of 42p plus VAT) This was after being blackmailed by a horrible customer.

We're the same as you - A small goodwill gesture MAY prevent them coming back if anything further happens. I think you can tell from the customer - if you can tell that the customer will accept a goodwill gesture and then leave you alone then we used to give a gesture of goodwill. But as a general rule, if you're too nice they will take advantage. Now we do the Lawgistics PDI - anything we find is noted down there and the customer signs to accept that. Shows the condition of the car at point of sale. Started doing these after customers taking advantage - Customer bought a 2004 CMax. A/C didn't work as well as it should, and we tested this on the testdrive so the customer was fully aware it didn't work. Called back a couple of days later saying the A/C wasn't working and they had found a broken pipe. We knew that was rubbish as the A/C was working, just very weak. But you could tell they'd be moaners if we didn't do anything (and without a PDI at that point, couldn't prove what was tested and said on test drive), so we sent £50 to cover a new A/C pipe. Didn't get a Thank You - Asked for the invoice to prove they bought the part. That's never arrived either.... Funny that they wanted a £50 discount at point of sale, which we declined.

From our experience, we find sites like eBay/Gumtree/Facebook etc are just full of wannabe traders passing the same old crap around between themselves. More often than not, if something looks cheap - it's knackered. If a car is cheap at auction - there is probably a reason for that too. We're quite rural, so it may be different for others but the auctions are good for convenience. We could spend hundreds of pounds in fuel and hours travelling to see private sellers - only to find the seller is a home dealer passing off as private and/or a scrapper. We've also found that the quality of cars seems to go hand in hand with the cost of advertising. Autotrader seems to find the most genuine sellers with honest cars / Gumtree private sellers and Facebook is the home traders and scrap / eBay a mixed bag. More crap than good. At auction, we've had much more good luck than bad. We do as much homework as we can before going to auction, and on the day asking the auctioneer or the driver about the car. Being pleasant and polite to the auctioneer and the drivers when asking, we seem to get polite and honest responses to any questions.

We started out doing that - it doesn't work. If you're car is coming up cheapest, it won't be long before another dealer with a similar car knocks a bit of their price to undercut you. That just ends up going around in a big circle and before you know it, you are chopping your prices left, right and and centre to be the cheapest and you just aren't earning anything from it because you can't source the stock any cheaper!

Evening All, We're on the hunt for a couple of car covers - we keep our cars indoors after valeting until viewing, and the cars get dusty whilst waiting for a new home as our storage unit isn't completely weathertight. We've had cheap ones before, and they are easy to tear and pretty naff.... Looking on eBay, they all look the same type. Does anyone here use car covers and can recommend a brand that is a good quality/price balance We don't want to buy cheap and keep throwing them away - but also don't want to buy pricey ones online to find they are cheap and nasty when they land on the doormat! Thanks in advance!

I wouldn't believe the classic 'sick family member' excuse. Heard that one far too many times! Why does a sick family member mean people can't honour commitments? - Are his Credit Card / Mortgage provider / Household Bills not going to get paid either? As Ocsltd said, email (with the appropriate 'sorry for such a hard time' bull) and ask to pay the balance. If he's genuine, no reason not to pay. These people are always suddenly unable to make a phone call as soon as a problem arises - any problems are always emailed in. Why? Most people don't have the balls to lie to your face. He knows if he says that he's changed his mind that you'll keep some/all of his deposit so he's giving you a sob story. We have deposit slips stating that deposits are non refundable, and gives the customer 5 days to clear the balance. We do say to our customers that we'll hold a car for as long as needed, but the balance must be paid within 5 days. (And remember to re-negotiate his P/X price when it comes to you with a shed load more miles )

We were on the free CarGuru's package. We've had a few email leads, 5 in the past 2 weeks. I've replied to all of them, once by just hitting 'Reply' to the email, and once by drafting a new email to the anon.cargurus email address provided. None have responded. I don't think the leads are genuine - all the leads have come through with a postcode, and I've searched on Google Maps for the postcode and they are always small villages in the middle of nowhere, very close to a registered business. CarGurus take forever to actually put the cars on, and even longer to take them off once you've deleted them too. However, we had one that looked like usual - I responded in the same way as I do to all of them IT WAS AN ACTUAL LEAD!!!! Came out to view the car, wanted a massive discount AND a service.

It is nice to hear from a consumer. From your points, it does seem like you only have a limited budget and are expecting miracles from it. Unfortunately, the cars we sell are pre-owned. They may be new to you, but they do have a past and bear the scars from that.

We've got an auto-reply to eBay messages, apologising that we are not at the computer and asking them to give us a call. Do they ever call? - No Are their messages ever anything more than 'What's your best price, I don't want a warranty if it helps' - Nope!

Probably expects that included too.... Plus delivery and a lifetime warranty

Been quiet here so have been scrolling through Facebook to see if there are any 'wanted' posts for any of the types of cars we have in stock. Maybe it's quiet because people are on a tight budget She was offered a Mercedes A Class - asked what was wrong with it and if it had an MOT! What do people expect for their money these days!

You are completely right - I'm just camera shy! Intending to make personalised videos soon - hopefully my mug won't put any punters off