Trident

I'm baffled, why on earth are you taking any instruction from the garage? go collect it on a truck (or have them deliver) keys or no keys, recover it back, inspect it and refund the customer accordingly, if the key has been lost, then its a deduction along with anything else you can 'prove' has been removed or replaced. The customer is responsible for the agreement between him and the garage and if that garage has acted fraudulently or unprofessionally (losing keys!!! ffs) its between the customer and that garage and he will have to chase them for the refund of your loses which you have no choice but to deduct from him. My point is the thrid party has no involvement and cannot dictate whether you do or do not start the vehicle.

I think they intercept the outgoing email somehow... then change details and forward the ammended email!!! scary stuff.

10 YEAR LEASE...!!!! REALLY.... At this stage in your motor trade career? you should be looking at 3 years max. No, 12 months rent is not a reasonable deposit, we had a six year lease and paid 1.5 months rent as a deposit... i'm assuming your running round with your pants around your ankles atm ( google 'pulled my pants down' if your not sure of that phrase)

Bloody hell!!!

We got a logo made and do our own with excel. use it for sales/purchase invoice and warrant. Got the logo made at our local printers.

I think this is a great one, perfect for showing the customer how diligently the MOT testers you use are. Obvioulsy it's an advisory since rectified with the free included service. If i was a customer i would love this pointing out to me and it would give me confidence that everything had been done thoroughly... negative to positive.

Not sure if i am missing something here, but regardless of whether your a sole trader or ltd, you sell cars for a living, and take a nett profit, this is your salary divide it by your annual hours worked = hourly pay, but you don't consider you get an hourly wage because it is made up of the sale of the vehicles, so, you are already being paid for your time, if you charge it again, you will be being paid in effect twice. You can definately bill the factors for the 'call out' ie two hours labour, had the part not failed you wouldn't have had to go, it's a warranty claim to them and you can charge out to yourself the mileage...but i don't think hmrc would like this and could end up scrutinizing books...

We use sage on its own, i use it along side an excel spreadsheet which calculates the margin vat for each sale, then i input the vat figure separately...never had a problem.

The V62 only works if you have the previous keepers postcode if the car isn't in trade. We have had this recently a couple of times and where the Postie would do it on a v62 it was only ever if it was in trade, if you don't have the previous keepers postcode written on the bottom of the V62, they refuse to tax it and you have to apply for the v5 in your name. It's a ridiculous system imo...

Similar story, different product, sold a barn find snake pit (you read that right) and description started off...'this is sold in an absolutely knackered condition...' made £100 and got it collected - bonus...imo start off the description as you mean to go on, warts and all...

We have just changed business category from farm workshop (sui generis) to servicing workshop (light industrial)... i would reckon you need to change to light industrial too, we found the council really helpful and just asked in reception what we needed!!

Absolutely, however, as they are unable to tax it until they have the green slip in their hand, it is surely good business practice to assist them to tax it before they drive away! imo it helps them to drive away quicker!

Ring them, they might be touting for businesses to sign up to their 'buy with confidence' scheme... worth being a member imo, gives your customers confidence in your trading practices but also it gives you a trading standards contact, that is there for you! believe it or not, ours is always happy to offer advice and step in and talk sense into a customer, although this has been on very rare occasions, he is on our side of the fence... worth every penny.

We, dont get spares cut, note one key on the pdi and insert a mobile key cutters business card and tell them to quote us to get a discounted price... rarely a problem.

"Dear such and such, sorry you felt compelled to write a poor review, unfortunately it is always hard for smaller companies to balance work and home life and as you confirmed you were simply browsing we could not offer an out of hours viewing on this occassion, we welcome viewings during working hours for those unsure of exactly what it is they are after." Reviews are the new 'in thing' and whether we like it or not are here to stay, i guess we all just need to show courtesy and 'understanding' and at the very least respond to negative comments, at least that gives two sides to the story for anyone interested to make up their own mind... people love to be keyboard warriors nowadays and businesses won't get away with being shite anymore....