Arthur thicken

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Posts posted by Arthur thicken

  1. Posted

    A lot of us provide a 3 month warranty, as some have said it is really 6 months, if there's a problem in the first 30 days they have more rights,

    after 30 days it changes, after 3 months it changes again. In the second three month period the seller has to prove the fault was not present at point of sale,

    you could use a pdi/inspection/ MOT etc. It is a bit vague as time passes, I'll copy a summary I use to send to customers who want money back, it's a simplified version

    of the CRA 2015 specifically for motor trade, it points out that its not the 'beat the dealer up rights act' and we actually have rights too. More to follow...

  2. Posted · Edited by Arthur thicken

    Before you risk buying a car from BCA go to:   www.trustpilot.com/review/www.british-car-auctions.com

    Copy and paste it into your browser, If this was a review for a hotel, I would rather sleep in a bus shelter.

    25 years of having an account, I have bought my last car from them, which has faults, again, inspector been out today and

    confirmed our diagnosis, wonder how long this will take to unravel.  What a shit show they have turned into..

    • Haha 1

  3. Posted

    Latest update on the shit show which is BCA, after contacting the main investor TDR Capitol, I finally got a call from a senior member of BCA within hours, funny that.

    He's an ok bloke but I thought it prudent to record the 35 minute call, so damning things were said to say the least. They finally agreed to buy two cars back, I've had the credit notes, but still nearly 2 weeks on no payment. I've been chasing every other day and all I get is empty promises. I now believe I have just bought my last car from BCA, I bought a Q5 for £14,500 from Bridgwater, it's on an assured check, drove a few yards and the EML came on and it would then only select 2nd 4th and 6th gear. I'm away at present so the driver took it to our site where we ran a diagnostic test in our workshop, it came up with a gear box fault. ACE vehicle inspections are coming tomorrow to assess. It's likely a £1500- £2,000 repair or they'll have to buy it back, leaving me in the promised land for even longer.

    I don't know what's happened to BCA, I've been a buyer for over 25 years for either myself or dealer groups, always bought over 200 cars annually, I hope they read this and close my account so I'm never tempted to log in again, P.S ANY CHANCE OF PAYING WHAT'S OWED ANY TIME SOOM????  Mingebags

  4. Posted

    9 hours ago, GreenJungli said:

    I recently had the misfortune of winning a vehicle at BCA. The car was sold with EML on but later they called me to tell me the engine smokes and is noise when I questioned this I was met with aggressiveness. Many calls back and forth nothing changed in the end I accepted I may have made a mistake when bidding (not heard the auctioneer mention above faults). Usually I printscreen the description as well as the pictures but on this occasion it was at a branch I've never had a problem with. On the day of the delivery I refused the vehicle as it didn't start, they tried to threaten me but I refused point blank. They took it to the nearest bca depot, they just would not accept their mistake. Kept telling me cars mess up overtime. Unfortunately I've had to accept it as they were adding charges on and just found out the engine is dead. A non starter advertised in the wrong category. 

    I'm currently seeking advice on court action. If there are others looking to take them to court perhaps we can join forces and appoint one solicitor? 

    You can ask for a recording of the sale, you'll then hear what was said, don't roll over, that's why they keep getting away with it.

    42 minutes ago, BHM said:

    Sorry, but trying to drum up a class action lawsuit over your misrepresented lot. Good luck on that score.

    Tbh you don’t need to seek much over this advice. You simply either instigate a small claim or you don’t & you don’t need a solicitor for that. Tbh it’s probably easier to suck it up & move on. In either case ensure you have followed & exhausted the AH’s complaints procedure & make sure you do it by email/writing.

    Hi BHM, I agree it's easy to start a small claim, and as you say no solicitor required. I've had so many problems recently, I am not a 'suck it up' kind of bloke.

    Nor should anyone else be, there's right and wrong, imagine the deluge of complaints we would get if we sold cars in this way. My google reviews and AT reviews are

    golden compared to BCA trust pilot reviews. 

  6. Posted

    Hi Trade survivor, fair comment, but when you look at Manheim sales volume there's not enough.

    Perhaps I deal with them because I always have and it's now time to look elsewhere. Thanks you all for your feedback. 

    Hi BHM, I guess it's not just happened to me, tempted to explore the small claims court route.

  7. Posted

    I've got a BCA Black card because of the amount of cars I buy. I have an account manager but even she is not replying now.

    Recently picked up a BMW from Blackbushe, started it selected 1st and nothing happened, probably linkage. It was on an essential check,

    I called customer services who said get a pick up truck to collect it. I told them it hadn't left their premisis but they still said they could do nothing.

    I contacted my account manager who refunded me within 2 hours. Had I not had an account manager it would be either still there or I would have had to get it on a truck, either way BCA still had my money. All three cars that need engines came from BCA Bristol, all on essential checks, these cars would have been started and moved, someoner would have heard the noise and seen the smoke, but chose to ignore it. Cars were mis described and mis sold, there should be recourse, we can't sell cars in this way so why should they be able to get away with it. I have emailed the guy in charge of bca assured and essential checks, I also sent him a video of one of them with the chattering timing chain and smoking exhaust but he has not responded. I'll work out or perhaps someone could advise how I upload a video and I'll put it on here for your valued opinions. I am Graham from Motorwell in Yeovil Somerset.

  8. Posted

    Hi, Anyone having issues with BCA essential check? I have had three cars recently with clean checks

    but all had noisy and smoking engines. All three new engines. BCA customer services, waste of time, I have

    escalated the issue but seem to be getting blanked there. 

  9. Posted

    4 hours ago, XFS said:

    I have been reasonably lucky and have tended not to bother with most minor issues as it tends to balance out...particularly with grading. I work on the basis Grade 1 has to be 100% accurate in description. Grade 2 Max spend on prep £600, Grade 3, £1000, Grade 4 you are playing a lottery, some you win, some you lose. I have only ever bought one Grade 5 car, it ended up only needing £800 spent on it and made me my biggest ever profit. My worst ever was a grade 3 Volvo. It was a shed in every way and has ended up breaking my heart. Luckily it was sold to a very patient and reasonable customer.  If I ever see it again, I am going to scrap it.

    I have just made my first BMW assured claim.. On a 2014, 24k mile BMW Z4 2.8 M Sport Auto. Grade 1 car, clean report. It makes a whistling noise in reverse gear ...like a turbo whistle.  Has anyone heard of this? Spoke to a BMW specialist and they say the have seen it on other models but not a Z and it doesn’t cause any issues, but they have no idea what causes it.

    Anyway, made a claim via email, BCA were on it right away and are sending an engineer out on Monday.

    Afraid to say they will use the 'static check' response. I'm surprised they are sending someone out, I'd be interested in the outcome, can you let us know please.

  11. Posted

    Anyone having problems with BCA Assured. Bought a 12 grand car front tyres listed as 5mm across the whole of the front tyres, turned up

    and both outside measurements were less than 2mm, sent a picture of the car with a digital tyre depth showing the measurement. Submitted the claim

    and got a reply 10 days later to say they wanted a video!! It's not practical to have cars sat around waiting for them to respond so prepped the car and kept the tyres

    as evidence. Still heard nothing back. Covid 19 has affected everyone but it's all you get from them, I have to say they were just as slow pre covid. This is just one instance

    of the service you get from BCA Assured, I've had loads of problems with BCA cars but get frustrated with being told, 'static check' or 'it doesnt change the grading'. The only thing about BCA assured is you can rest assured you'll be kept waiting and get nothing back. Good Luck all. Arthur Thicken......

  12. Posted

    4 hours ago, sparky said:

    I'm presuming next gear and bca didn't put a gun to the head of dealers when they were considering signing up? You live by the sword....

    No they didn’t but the issue is how they respond to dealers who have no income during lockdown. In normal times it worked.

    3 hours ago, Ratt101 said:

    Saw a post above about getting a £25k grant we only got £10k where did the extra come from? cos would love to apply, however we did get approved for a bounce back loan within 48 hours we have no current funding 

     

    The grant was based on rateable value you your premesis 

  13. Posted

    13 hours ago, poor-trader said:

    I've only dealt with NextGear and nothing like that amount of money. However, they've been brilliant thus far. No margin payments, cars automatically extended for 60 days when they become due, no audit fees, just the interest which they even offered to defer (I didn't). No idea on BCA but I've heard less positive things about them. My rep's view is that if they put everyone out of business then they'll have zero customer base afterwards so it is self defeating. Furthermore they'll have loads of cars to dispose of they don't want.

    To be honest I'm small fry and probably not their top priority and if I really had to could probably clear it but nonetheless they've been much better than I expected.

    that's good to hear.

  14. Posted

    1 minute ago, BHM said:

    Very true - what would you do if you were a creditor? 

    Now might be the time for a few to pop their businesses & go bust on their creditors, after bleeding-off any cash first obviously. 
     

    Plenty but plenty will also spend it on additional/different stock and plenty more will spend it on catalogue ‘designer’ clothes, belcher chains, thick gold plated bracelets & RRSports/BMWs/white Audis.

    Yes I applied for cbils and got it also got the £25k grant. This all leads on to my next question.. So saying dealers will milk cash and go bust, not so easy.

    Receiver comes in and sees you've made yourself a preferential creditor and makes you pay it back or could seize assets if you try and hide it. Next, personal guarantees for stocking facilities a lot of businesses in all sectors will do bust, through no fault of their own, do you think it right or wrong for them to be pursued personally for something which isn't their fault. Equally you could argue it's not the creditors fault either. Will there be court cases with creditors pursuing directors personally, will legislation follow making it more difficult??

  15. Posted

    5 minutes ago, CCC said:

    They really said it like that? Though if you don’t engage with them I can see they’d get twitchy. 

    How many dealers will replace stocking loans with bounce back loans?

    we've got facilities amounting to 1.5 million so a bounce back loan isn't going to be sufficient. I engaged with them from day 1.

    All they keep asking is have you had any government money, that's because they want it. 

    9 minutes ago, justina3 said:

    Think it was only to be expected, they played there cards very close to there chest and waited for the government to give out loans like they where smarties.

    Not sure loans we handed out like smarties. I got a CBIL through my bank, it was over £100k I had to provide more info than ever before.

    Business plan and cash flow forecast for the rest of 2020 and a full year of the same for 2021. It had to be a work of fiction, who knows whats coming??

  16. Posted

    Good Morning all, hope you are all safe and well. We've been closed for 6 weeks now so no income. We have stocking 

    with BCA partner finance and next gear capital. If like me you have stocking facilities with them, are you finding them helpful or difficult?

    One of them said if I didn't agree to a payment time line they would be picking up keys and log books. I though this harsh to say the least in the times we are in. 

    Good luck all. Best Regards. Arthur..

  17. Posted

    Well we are 6 weeks into the challenge and can't continue with it any longer. The site that cancelled Motors and stayed with Autotrader has continued with the normal volume of sales, even looking like it will increase a little this month, so that site won't be going back on Motors. The other site that stayed with Motors and came off Autotrader.... sales down 10 units last month and going the same way this month, if not worse. So there you have it  AT seems to be worth 10 units per month, about a third of our sales on each site. Will be going back to Autotrader and reviewing Motors as I've just checked 'the eye' (motors system) and we've had 3 calls this month, two were from the same person. We all have to make our own advertising decisions, I've made mine. Arthur Thicken, hoping to drive the sales back up..

  18. Posted

    Going to Spain later this week, been asked to dispose of a SL55 AMG for a client out there, not one for me, its done 82,000 miles, full Merc History,

    on a 58 plate (will be when re registered in UK), seen some photos but not seen paperwork yet, only down side for me, its gold. It is a right hand drive but currently on Spanish plates. If anyone has an interest in it message me and I'll get back to you when I've seen the car, driven it and checked history etc. Not sure if I'm 'allowed' to put this on this forum but if you're interested let me know. Arthur Thicken, driving the prices up..

  19. Posted

    26 minutes ago, sparky said:

    I take your point. It will never stop me buying cars that fit my profile regardless of whether i control tells me they are good news or not but it may open my mind a little to stuff I wouldn't usually look at. It's buckshee so not much to lose IMO. Enjoy your San Miguel :)

    Back home now, pissing down..

  20. Posted · Edited by Arthur thicken

    4 hours ago, sparky said:

    I also had a meeting with my rep this week and as ever, I felt like I got something out of it and compared to previous reps, he actually gives a ****. Also, I've now got full i control on trial for two months which is a handy tool to have to work alongside good old fashioned gut instinct. Like Arthur, time will tell...

    I would stick with your gut instinct, i control is a waste of time, will tell you to buy certain cars then tell you to reduce them every 5 minutes because someone else is ten bob cheaper. You’re either a car dealer or you’re not, if you need I control (which I’m sure you don’t) you’re in the wrong job. 

    • Like 2

  21. Posted

    The rep from AT called me today to see if she could do anything, talked all over me and didn’t listen, I said ‘you know I’ve cancelld, what do you want, why have you called?’ She said she’d emailed me the analysis template to complete. These people are in denial, they don’t listen. Whilst she was rambling on I said the only thing you can do is stop charging more to advertise less cars.. anyway I’m in Spain and a bit pissed so excause my shite post, hope you all have a good Easter weekend. Arthur Thicken driving the prices down (in Spain) 

  22. Posted

    There is something starting to bother me about this, it would be good to see dealers get price reductions by either saying they’ll cancel or reduce their package, my concern is AT won’t care and will actually put the prices up of the franchised deares who they said had cheaper deals. The last thing I wanted to do was cost anyone money, all I wanted AT to do was prove their value to dealers. 

  24. Posted

    17 hours ago, Earunder said:

    We don't charge any fees (Selling £3k-£30k cars).  It's illegal.   I don't understand the admin fee rubbish?  Whenever I see admin fee on any invoices I feel it's a con.  Because it is.  If you can't do without the £50-£200 charges then your margins are not setup correctly or your haggling your prices too low.

    On a side note:  Do you guys still get charged £120 + VAT from Zuto or CF247?

    247 we’re charging £150 plus the vat so I binned them.

  25. Posted

    It’s difficult as you want to sell the car, you could consider an admin fee but it could be argued you should then charge this to all customers irrelevant of if they’re using a credit card or not. Another way to look at it is would you give them 50 quid off to do a deal? Probably. You could also put the price of the car up on the net when they’re there and sell it at the increased price, you’ve got choices..