From deposit to collection

[Steve92 80]

If a customer puts a deposit on a car what would you consider a reasonable amount of time before they collect it ?

Edited June 13, 2016 by Steve92

[SC Derby 259]

I always work on 7 days for standard deposit, anything over that I'd want at least 1k or even 50% of car value.

[umesh 336]

Dito ! 7 Days - if longer bigger deposit and so forth ! Just have to make it clear on the day and in writing then you won't have issues. 

[TDB 31]

Do any of you refund deposits if a customer changes their mind?

[SC Derby 259]

No, but I  tell them it's not refundable when they place the deposit, if they are unsure I tell them I'd rather they go and have a think about it because if they put a deposit down we take it off sale etc.

[Rory RSC 596]

We let customers place short term holding deposits of £100 for up to 48hrs that are advertised as completely refundable. If they turn up and simply dislike the colour or anything else about the car they get it back.  I think we have had 3 people decide car is not for them and the good has far outweighed the bad. 

 

Normal deposit if they have seen car in person then yes absolutely not refunding it because of the loss of opportunity to sell elsewhere. 

[umesh 336]

Same as said by Rory , If they've seen the car - then Non refundable ( Unless they've said for example subject to the Mrs/Mr ..or a mate giving it once over etc at the start of the process ) AND I do make it clear that if they change their mind ..then sorry its non refundable and I don't really want a deposit if they are not 100% committed .. Only ever had an odd one or two who's changed their mind and to be fair if for example the other half didn't agree and they called the next day as a gesture I've refunded .. its amazing a bit of good will goes a long way!

Had one where it was genuinely man lost his job, paid me £500 deposit - car was ready for him and on the day of collection told no job! I agreed to refund half and keep the other should he back in the market ! He was overjoyed with that as he thought he'd lose it all ! Think we have to look at reasons and treat everyone as individual !

 

[It's me 612]

you can only keep reasonable costs so the best way is to keep the deposit as low as you can and then not refund citing costs such as readvertising etc,this is what ive always done but if customer had indeed lost his job then i would be pretty bendy 

[Steve92 80]

Ok, so at the minute we tend to give 7-14 days but it seems fair enough to restrict that to 7 days but we do need to put that in writing. We do refund distance selling deposits if it's not as described, that just stops them from not turning up. We also refund deposits if they fail the credit check when applying for finance. Our deposits are pretty much £500 every time.

i think I need to write up a new procedure and hand it over or email it when ever a deposit is taken.

[Rory RSC 596]

Is 7-14 days currently working for you ?

We all want the shortest time on deposit as it helps cash flow. 

99% of my stock is MOT tested and Serviced and fully prepped ready to drive away which tends to speed things up. 

 

I would hold a car for a couple of weeks especially if the customer was buying something That had been sat for a while but would rather that was the exception than the norm. 

Have you tried asking for larger deposits ?  

[Steve92 80]

Ours are all ready to go, it wasn't so bad but at the minute we are changing stocking companies so the stock is our own. The one that's started the query is a 20k car that we have £500 deposit for, the rest is px and finance, so in this instance asking for more probably wouldn't help. It will be 2.5 weeks before they collect.

I'm going to write something this morning that we will hand out to everyone that puts a deposit down, I'll probably go with

£500 holds the car for 7 days

50% for 7-14 days (or whatever the customer will use as a deposit if finance)

100% 14 days plus

obviously the aim is to get the car gone not take the customers cash, all deposit is refundable if they drop out with the exception of the first £500) that should cover depreciation,costs incurred, lost sales etc.

 

[Tom 164]

Sounds fair to me. I would do the same. 

[TDB 31]

We allow full refunds on deposits over the phone. Any deposit face to face is lost if the customer backs out or simply changes their mind as we are a business not a charity and any deposit is to remove the car from sale.

[Tom 164]

Could any customer challenge this in a court for no refunds?

[Steve92 80]

They could, if they win i guess is down to the court and if you want the hassle. 

A deposit is is the intent to purchase on behalf of the customer, however it should be reasonable and cover reasonable costs.

[TDB 31]

So how much do you all take as a non-refundable deposit then?

We take £300 in the form of a contract to purchase non-refundable deposit.

 

[Steve92 80]

3 hours ago, TD said:

So how much do you all take as a non-refundable deposit then?

We take £300 in the form of a contract to purchase non-refundable deposit.

 

For us we nearly always take £500, in some instances we take more such as if a private plate is involved. So if someone put down a deposit over the phone, turned up and the car wasn't as described then we would refund £500. If they turned up and didn't like it then it would be between £0 and £500 that we would refund. If they failed to show then they would get between £0 and £250 (depends on circumstances)

If someone arrives at the showroom, puts down a deposit but its subject to finance approval and they failed the credit check then we would refund the £500

If they visited the showroom, test drove, agreed a price then changed their mind we would refund £0 to £250 depending on the costs and time involved.

A couple of instances for us, someone put a deposit on a car, we allowed them 2 weeks to sell there car, at the end of the second week we called to find out how they were getting on, they hadn't even advertised it ... we gave them another week..... then they dropped out, in fact it was near to 4 weeks and in that time we had lost sales and the stocking fee had consumed most of the deposit.

Another one was a Scirocco, a deposit was placed over the phone, on the test drive they wanted to test the cruise control to which I replied it didn't have cruise control ... they got the full deposit back and I now read every advert to make sure auto trader doesn't do something stupid - even though there is a disclaimer.

 

 

Edited June 14, 2016 by Steve92

[TDB 31]

Steve....all you have written is almost exactly as we do.

We do not however keep any of the deposit if they turn up and don't like it for ANY reason.

[Steve92 80]

In all honesty we would take it case by case, however i cannot think of an instance where someone has turned up and not liked the car.

[TDB 31]

Same here except for a chap on a TT who could not get on with the interior colour!....It was black!

[Steve92 80]

We have had quite a few TT's and only 1 has had the exclusive line white/black interior, everything else is like a coal store