RJEauto

Update! Phone call received today. They would like to accept a partial refund of £3400. Still have a nightmare car to trying and sort but at least the customer stress element is removed!

Could come down to area? On Facebook we advertise all of the cars on our page and on marketplace. Then each week we have a "Car of the week" which we boost the post. Typically, I target 21-60 yr olds within 20 miles. If it's a specific age range car like a new driver car I'd reduce the age specification further. Other than that, sometimes I'll make slideshows of our stock. Trying to show a car for each "target market" and boost this.

Congrats! Hope the deal goes smoothly for you. Our 2 strong leads dealt today too with deposits down so fingers crossed looking good.

Ebay / Gumtree - Combined package - OK. Not as many sales as AT but it's a fraction of the price so can't complain. More timewasters/weak leads than other platforms AT - Great for units sold but it should be with the price it commands. Facebook - Good. Few deals done from Facebook page / Facebook marketplace. We typically spend £40 p/month on page / post advertisement so very good return on investment.

2 strong leads already in the past half hour so hopefully get them dealt! Looks like it will be a busy weekend for us -Kelly-

Less than a week until the end of the month! How are you all getting on? We've been fairly steady with 7 done but would like to see another 2-3 before Feb ticks around!

I didn't want/dare to ask. No, unfortunately not lol!

Hi all Looking for some advice - apologies for the long post! We sold a VW golf GT TDI 170 (2007) to a customer 13th October. Car was perfect for a 10 year old vehicle and drove fine. All PDI'd properly and test drove. Within a week, customer calls, DPF light on. Brought the vehicle back, driven with 2 flats. 1 alloy, 1 space saver. The space saver was almost square! Front bumper scuffed, number plate cracked. We done a re-gen. Customer paid for tyres. We added new space saver no charge due to inconvenience. Customer comes back 3-4 weeks later. Light back (with EML) and car been in an accident. Can we do the repairs and charge the company who's van was at fault and fix DPF at same time. Company in question provided hire car. Car was with us 3 weeks waiting for panels. Launch diagnosed fault as DPF pressure sensors. Replaced, road tested over 2 days - perfect. Car goes back out. Few days later, customer back again!!! Fitted aftermarket DPF also had to fix radio as broken due to fizzy drink spilled (not by us) and crystallised and shorted wiring. At this point, customer offered courtesy car due to inconvenience - rejects this, not required. Christmas! This bloody Golf if back. Explained we're shut down over Christmas but will send the car to a VW specialist as soon as re-opened. Car gone to specialist 7th Jan. Diagnosed fault, new DPF failed. Advised - genuine second hand DPF, terracleaned and fitted. They will do the job - currently waiting on this DPF which is due to arrive on Saturday, delayed due to weather conditions. In the meantime customer gone to jail, partner and brother in law made contact for updates complaining about money spent on taxi's etc. Explained our courtesy car is currently out with another customer but welcome to use it as soon as it's back in. Today, brother in law called. Demanding full refund basically. Said he's spoken with Trading Standards and solicitors and if we can't come to agreement they will be pursuing. I have advised this is the first time we've had mention of a refund. We're trying our best to get this resolved asap and can only apologise for the inconvenience. Due to the time passed since purchase and the wear and tear on the vehicle, we would only be able to offer partial refund of £3400 (purchased vehicle for £4150). Brother in law to speak to customer / solicitor and contact us. This car has caused nothing but grief for the past few weeks as well as the customer! We've spent a lot of money getting this repaired to go back with a full refund. What do you recommend / what would you do? -Kelly-

They were eastern European, not sure where from specifically. I honestly couldn't believe it. I've dealt with mum's/dad's/friends/second pair of eyes but 10 people is just mental. I didn't have enough seats for them lol

Things started picking back up this week, few enquiries and 2 sales Then this morning a customer emailed to enquire if we take PX's, we do Customer then turns up half an hour before closing unannounced with 5 other adults and 4 children in 3 different cars, all to view a £2200 C Max! All the while we had a gentleman viewing a £17k Range Rover! Kids were running wild, then said customer wanted £5500 for her 2009 SE 330i which booked at £4100. I honestly couldn't believe it. Have any of you experienced anything to this extreme before!? Surely you don't need 10 people to buy 1 car!

I input them manually. enter purchase invoice as normal - no VAT for cost price. Calculate margin scheme amount in spreadsheet. Enter sales invoice as 0% rate, tax excluding then input the car sales amount as the sale minus the VAT and manually adjust the vat for the calculated amount. The invoice total then should match your sale price. If you want any help let me know and I'll PM some screenshots so you can visualise it. -Kelly-

Welcome!

We are on the Pilot scheme and using Xero. Very straightforward, especially if you are only doing sales (we have margin scheme for the sales and std for the workshop). Doesn't account for margin scheme but I do the calculations in the spreadsheet and make a manual adjustment on the tax value. Xero is costing us around £25 p/month

I wouldn't be taking this. No explanation for the delay. No call at time of fault. No option for you to recover and repair. Surely this guy can't be serious?

Slowed down here. After 4 last week, we've had nothing yet this week and the enquiries have slowed down once more. Hoping to get some wheels turning over the weekend!

Thank you all for your comments and advice, extremely helpful. I will update the ad and try at £10490 for a week, if there's no interest I'll see if I can make it the cheapest (or atleast one of) on AT. With regards to how I got landed with it, it's was a friends personal car. I wouldn't have bought it in specifically but they wanted out and I didn't really think it would be here this long, plus it was cheap with minimal prep. -Kelly-

Hi All, We have a 2013 BMW 320D Efficient Dynamics on site with 50k. We've had it priced at £9990 for 2 months and hardly had the door open on it. It is a lovely car, well prepped with good history so it's baffling me but I know you can never really judge it. We've got it advertised on AT and it's given us a "priced low" indicator. I've adjusted the web price on AT to £10490 but kept the forecourt price at £9990, we now have a "great price" indicator. Do you think this will make a difference? As we tend to deal with cheaper stock (£3000 - £7000) I want this gone so I can start turning over other bits and even at £9990, there's a great margin. Any help/advice appreciated. Thanks, -Kelly-

After an awful December (we sold 1 car), January has started pretty well. Four this week so well on our way for our monthly target of 10, fingers crossed! -Kelly-

We missed 2 calls on Christmas day! Busy day today with enquiries but no deals as of yet! Open tomorrow so fingers crossed.

We're both young too. Ryan (my partner) is 27 and I'm 23. As long as you're learning from your mistakes then you will inevitably progress! Autotrader package should work out cheaper for you than PAYG with better results, especially when your website is up and running. We used Clickdealer for our website, the setup fee is small and the monthly fees are not extortionate, they can also feed your stock into AT, Ebay/Gumtree and any Facebook business pages etc. With a valeter, rather than employee someone who you may not have work for have you looked at sub-contracting someone who does trade work? Prior to this, Ryan was a full time valeter/detailing, mainly doing higher end cars but would bulk his diary up with trade work and had contracts with 4/5 garages. They rang when they needed him and paid per car. I'll pm you with the other stuff. -Kelly-

We've had an awful December. 1 car sold and 2 warranty comebacks, both dreaded DPF issues! Hoping to see a few deals in the next few days to scrape through the month before January. Full site wash done today, prices and adverts adjusted and 4 new cars to advertise so we're almost fully stocked. Fingers crossed and good luck to all for the New Year. -Kelly-

We use Facebook a lot and so far, around 30% of our sales are generated from there. Not as advanced skill wise as yourself but we do use the pages manager, target audience specific ads, engaging posts etc. I review our insights section daily and try and post at the most active time etc. We're in a semi-rural area of South Wales so we try and use that to our advantage with the social media stuff

Hi DBCars! We're also newbies here. My partner had been in the industry for roughly 8 years but took the leap of faith in September taking on our own site, stocking up to 25 cars with a workshop, tyre bay and valeting bay. Initially, we only used ebay & gumtree (the combined package) but took on a small AT package with the double up offer at the start of the month. Best of luck with the new premises! -Kelly & Ryan-

Awful month for us so far! 1st deal done today and 2 warranty comebacks, both DPF issues. Cannot wait for January lol -Kelly-

Yes, apologies, typo on my comment above. As far as I am aware, only your contracted stock is doubled -kelly-