Refunds

[thecarenthusiast 2]

Hi all, not had this happen yet but want to be prepared, if a customer wants to return a car, as dealers we have a right (can anyone point me to where it says this) to offer a full refund minus reasonable deduction, now the amount if not set in stone and i'm sure it varies on dealers, i just want other dealers opinion of what they consider a reasonable deduction.

 

Thanks

[betginge 73]

We have been Discussing this in another post, There is no clear way to refund and deduct on wear and tear. I am waiting to hear from other members to see what they have done or could use as a guide.

 

The main defence is reasonable cost, you can argue anything is reasonable lol we do need some test cases or guide going forward, so we as traders and customers know where we stand.  

[thecarenthusiast 2]

Yes it's the other post that made me post this up so we can have a single thread where other dealers can give examples of what their procedure is and will give other people to have something to go by. I read somewhere something reasonable is £250 per month and 80p per mile.

[Max Branning 149]

There is no simple answer to this and it also depends on the price bracket the car is in. If you sell a car for £2495 and the buyer has it for 3 weeks and covers 600 miles, the gearbox blows up and demands a refund - what do you do?

At 80p per mile deduction you would be charging them £480 for 3 weeks use which i dont think is reasonable. I would expect most buyers to expect a full refund in this situation. On the other hand if the same buyer had the car for 4 months and covered 6000 miles and demanded a refund then i dont think a full refund would be fair but maybe offer to give some money back towards the cost of repair or even refuse altogether due to the amount of use.

It is a bit of a minefield but charging £xx per mile is not a good way to work it out.

[colnecarcentre 2]

Back in around 2004 I had to do a vehicle refund on a new Peugeot 307 for a customer when I was GM at a Peugeot dealer. The customer had had the car for 3 or 4 months and covered 3 or 4000 miles. I recall at the time, after researching it online that the RAC had a mileage calculation which worked out at around 45p per mile.

HMRC still quote 45p per mile if you are claiming expenses, if that helps in any way.

 

[Trident 24]

Hi, when i spoke with trading standards,they suggested that a deduction of 50p per mile was a reasonable charge, i vaguely recollect him saying that the government recommend 40p per mile as reasonable, so a court would probably stand by 50p! we also advise on our invoice a deduction of £295 restocking fee for the addition of keeper to the log book.  We have used this deduction on one occasion when a customer adamantly bought a car which he assured us would fit in his garage only to find it didn't, having been offered a test drive to see! he exchanged and accepted the deduction as fair due to it being his mistake!!!

[It's me 615]

1 hour ago, Trident said:

Hi, when i spoke with trading standards,they suggested that a deduction of 50p per mile was a reasonable charge, i vaguely recollect him saying that the government recommend 40p per mile as reasonable, so a court would probably stand by 50p! we also advise on our invoice a deduction of £295 restocking fee for the addition of keeper to the log book.  We have used this deduction on one occasion when a customer adamantly bought a car which he assured us would fit in his garage only to find it didn't, having been offered a test drive to see! he exchanged and accepted the deduction as fair due to it being his mistake!!!

make sure on the invoice they sign that it says they have had a test drive as i had a customer the other week return a car because of an uneven tickover speed and he had the cheek to say he wouldnt have bought it if he realised he couldnt get comfortable in it,he had had a 10 mile test drive

he would have used it as a wiggle out

all this advice comes from lawgistics by the way

Edited November 19, 2016 by s and b