Lazz

I am not convinced there are particularly cheap cars at auction these days, you pays your monies and take your chances and if you get to look at them your time is very limited. Can't remember the last time I lifted a bonnet on a car at the auction, if it gets me home without breaking down I take that as a win. i think this is my form of gambling .

I know it's another story you have to tell the customer. had it once on a Picasso where a mot chap must of had fat fingers and put in the wrong mileage and it looked like the car had done approx 400k in one year part way through its life fortunetly the customer who brought it was sensible and could see the error. do any of you get the nmr to investigate it and if so how long did it take to put right?

When you are trying to negotiate the best deal you have got to be prepared to walk to perhaps achieve that, but the idiots took that option off the table talk about trying to negotiate with your hands behind your back and that lot in Europe would of known that. they should not of agreed the financial settlement before the terms of our departure was sorted out it should of all been done at the same time as that might have been the carrot that got us what we wanted and if they would not of entertained it I would of said adios amigo. they have made a right hash of the whole thing. if anybody was under the illusion we would get a good deal are kidding them selves we are being punished so the rest don't leave. i think the MP's have forgot who they work for and that is going to come back and haunt them big time. on a personal note I wish it was sorted one way or the other so we can put it behind us

Was just woundering what you do about mileage descrepancies showing on hpi checks, mot's etc. i have had a few recently where it looks like when someone has sent of v5for change of ownership they have perhaps rounded up the mileage because they can't be arsed to get the exact mileage car then recently mot'd which correct mileage then throws up the descrepancies, but mot history, service history tells you everything is write. is there a legal requirement to chase this down when it is obviously an admin error and if you do how long has it taken to get to the bottom of it.

While I can feel sympathetic to people getting ripped of like this, it is normally the green eyed monster that makes these scams work (greed/something for nothing) if something looks to good to be true it normally is. i doubt you will see your money again but I hope I am wrong on this for your sake.

gumtree is a messy interface

properly go to bed at night and come out the next morning to find a pile of rust on you drive instead of a car

Funny you should mention that, also had it once 6 months through a 12 months combined policy with a new company they contacted me to say i needed to provide them with electrical certificates etc for the premises i was in and i told them as i was n't paying for that as they should of stated that as a requirement when i took it out. We had a mexican stand of on that and they cancelled my insurance there and then (had to take out temporary insurance to get home) but eventually i managed to get all my premiums back with a bit of shoving. Also had a accident just under 5 years ago, old bloke ran into the back of us, admitted liability, his insurance company paid out etc, we did not loose any NCB or anything (it was n't protected or anything) as it was n't our fault yet that incident has put our premiums up a bit and has lived with for nearly 5 years. You can't win with them? one way street

Thanks for the feedback I will stick with the chap I use as from what your all saying his prices are fair, I think it's just with me not using anyone else for the past 10 years I have often wondered and when I sometimes think let's try someone else next time I think better the devil you know.

I don't think any of us particular like autotrader and the problem is people take it to personal this is purely a business descision, if your not getting return on investment stop shopping there and shop elsewhere. i do advertise on autotrader and others and do really wish somebody could knock them of their perch, but I don't see that happening anytime soon. they are more likely to do it to themselves if they keep cluttering up their website them selves and joe bloggs gets fed up with it and stops using it because it's to messy and often slows down

This is what happens when you have to little competion in the trade supply of vehicles

My experience with insurance companies is that they tend to want it all their own way and will try and wiggle on payout if possible so make sure your paperwork is all tight, approx 10 yrs ago when I worked from premises I had 2 right offs in quick sussesion with named people on my policy who worked for me and they tried every trick in the book to wriggle on payout on the second one( I thought I was going to be 14k out of pocket for a while) and my premiums jumped 4K a year for a while, it did not matter that the 10 years previous to this incidents was claim free. it tends to be a one way street in fact some of the treatment I have had with insurance companies over the years is shocking

I have always struggled a bit with fords always seem to be more prep than anticipated and struggled to get a decent margin across them, unless its something i have taken in part exchange myself, yet watch them make decent money at the block again and again so properly just me.

Only ever brought a couple of bits of dealer auction and they all neaded more prep than described and then look at you as though you have just sworn at them when you pull them up on it, so don't bother with it now. They want top dollar for but can't describe it properly which is either done through incompetence or deception at least if you attend an auction in person at least you can see it running even if it's only in 1st which is a shame as I would like to buy more stuff online but I am not confident in the descriptions of the stuff I buy.

Yeah your right it's me stuck in a time warp over prices and I must admit the more you have done the better value it seems. your right about the fact a lot of customers can't tell the difference between a bad job and a good one, used to use a bloke who used to do it on the side and would paint a full van for £500 but boy was it rough talk about runs, but I must admit never had a customer complain about it but I stopped using him eventually through embarrassment on my part Or they tell you it drives fine but within 100 yards of you test driving it you can tell the gear box is knackered and whining like a good un and the look of surprise on their face when you tell them yet they have just drove 40 miles to you in it.

As much as I prefer to buy stuff not needing bodywork I find it difficult to buy stuff not needing any but tend not to buy anything needing more than perhaps 3 panels painting, I only work from home and don't do massive numbers and have used the same bodyshop for the last 10 years or so, he is always busy and sometimes I can't get stuff quite as quick as I would sometimes like but the work is always ok but I will say I am sure the prices are creeping up but then it might be me just being a tight sod and it's just me but I was woundering what others might be having to pay, an example of what I am paying is full bumper paint and crack repair £180 or if it's something just like a bumper scuff its £80 is it time do you think to find another bodyshop or am i just being a skinflint

Awfull car, drives dreadful would n't want to drive one over 40mph especially in wind but surprisingly popular for some strange reason and never had a problem selling the few I have had over the years, would happily take one in part exchange

Do you use a non geographical number or a local number and are the call costs expensive for this type of system?

Was wondering if any of you have any experience with voip phones and if so what provider did you go with, was hoping you could advertise a landline number but obviously get everything diverted to you mobile and would the customer know this, as a number of years ago i had call divert with BT but the customer used to get a message to say the call was being diverted?

spend to much time on here

Let's not forget here that if someone pays for a car by credit card they then get additional protection and if it goes south for any reason you could be fighting a battle on 2 fronts ie: the customer and the credit card company wanting to do a debit back and if the customer is a good story teller you may find the credit card company will refund them for faulty goods. I feel the safest methods myself are bank transfer and then cash and then at least if anything goes south at least you can control the money side of things instead of a credit card company perhaps making that descision for you.

Your a bravier man than me if you let a car go without funds showing clear in your account, i am sure the customer wound n't let you take it unless they had cleared funds if the boot was on the other foot.

I sell stuff from home upto approx 6k, only do transfer or cash and don't have a card machine and don't feel as though i have missed anything. I prefer transfer as it saves me a trip to the bank but some customers insist on paying cash (i think they may feel empowered by it) or maybe they do cash because they are concerned if it does n't show in my account straight away they will have to hang around, when really they just want to just pay and go. If you do get a card machine read the small print as i once got caught out quite a long time ago when i had one, with a business debit card, and got charged approx £600 pounds in fees when i was expecting a charge of approx 50p as it was then for private debit cards but as i say that was a long time ago and i am sure things would of changed.

If you have just a road risks policy the will properly need to switch to a combined policy

As a home trader i would not give them a warranty, just prep the car, mot it make sure its safe, decide on what your fixing and not fixing ie: if the air con is not cold and you are not fixing it tell them it is and your not fixing it and that as they can see your not a garage this is where you live and if they want a warranty go buy from a garage and if they are not comfortable buying on them terms you are not comfortable selling to them or buy their own warranty themselves online obviously in a nice way. We always have the conversation about the fact i don't give an insurance backed warranty so there in none of this you did n't tell me. Write down the stuff you have told them don't work if anything on the appropriate paperwork get them to sign it and get on with your life. We all know that you can't take away the consumers rights but if you handle the customer in the right way you can limit your come backs, in over 10 years i have only refunded twice, one was a vw polo and the guy just got on my nerves so i gave him his money back and sold it to someone else for more and never heard from them again and another was a suzuki and on the way home a hose came off that when the lady was driving it home and she continued to drive it approx 20 miles and pretty much melted the engine on that (never seen anything like it) told the lady she should of pulled over straight away as she had destroyed the engine by keeping driving it, i felt sorry for her and we know if it went legal i am not going to stand a chance so gave her money back there and then, fitted a second hand engine and sold it to someone else (did not make any money on that one just about broke even)and moved on. I will say when buy something i prep it up to the standard i think i need to sell it at the price i want and never skimp on safety related items and am not afraid to tell the customer i am not doing anything, have contacted trading standards several time about instances where the customer is trying to take advantage of me and have found them quite informative. I will say i think this is the sort of job you are going to get a little bit of agro, it goes with the territory , i think if you are smart you can limit it quite a bit, but if you can't carry on when the fires are burning around you its perhaps not for you