Rogue Traders

[EPV 631]

A fair share of my stock comes from privates. Sooner or later I suppose I was bound to find one. 

Done all the usual Hpi checks, car was MOT’d 3 weeks ago. The seller sounded on the border of being iffy but I didn’t let my prejudice get the better of me despite him being named after a particular god. Not Jesus Christ. 

He picks me up from the station (not in the car I was interested in at my request as it’s a diesel and I want to see/hear a cold start) we chat, he’s an accountant, baby on the way. 

We arrive at the car, I check the oil cap, coolant, all fine. He starts it, no smoke, sounds a little on the rough side but it’s a 83,000 mile diesel, it won’t ever sound like a Prius on startup. 

I check the nearside front tyre. Slick. The opposite. Slick. I ask him if the tyres have been changed, as there’s no way that it passed an mot. He starts mumbling about the tyre place was supposed to do it, he didn’t take it for its mot, his friend did. I check the V5. Yellow slip missing, he says before i’ve had a chance to even look at it that he never got the name transferred to his name as he wasn’t planning to keep the car blah blah.

I tell him at this point, you’re a trader aren’t you. No no, why would i lie, if I were a trader I would have said so. I said ok, let me rephrase that. I’m a trader, so I know what time it is. Just tell me the truth, I ain’t buying the car from you so you may as well tell me but he still denies it, saying he’s not. 

Luckily it’s only 3 hours of my life wasted but next time, I WILL let prejudice get in the way. 

[andymc1973 199]

Birmingham?

[EPV 631]

18 minutes ago, andymc1973 said:

Birmingham?

May as well have been. Hayes, just up the road from southall. The walk back to the station was culturally enriching 

[Arfur Dealy 823]

54 minutes ago, EPV said:

Named after a particular god. Not Jesus Christ. 

Sadly, that’s has been repeatedly my experience. I would of asked some very direct questions and if there was any vagueness or waffle I would of ended the conversation right there.

I price up all my PX’s over the phone and then clarify on collection, it makes you become very wise the BS and blags. 

[It's me 613]

you usually get to the house and see signs of trading like a wheel in the corner or the gardens built in such a way that theres a fence where they do their dodgy repairs behind etc

if its a council estate or whatever they are called these days you usually spy a tattered old recovery truck very near the scenes of crime

seen it all

[andymc1973 199]

i ask the name etc and where they are from, then I ignore

[Arfur Dealy 823]

First question.......How long have you been the registered keeper ?

[Mojo121 229]

1 hour ago, EPV said:

The seller sounded on the border of being iffy but I didn’t let my prejudice get the better of me despite him being named after a particular god. Not Jesus Christ. 

Hell of a line, gunna use that one.

I'm sure his brother's uncle's cousin is the MOT tester and the uncle has a garage and maybe your man Mo might get the especially good px or auction buys to knock out from his house for "tu hunred pound prophet".

Unrelated question:

When you see trends, and these trends tend to exhibit themselves within a certain race quite commonly and over and over again you see a pattern and you say what's happening out loud, rather than just think it quietly, you don't attach any hate, just comment on what you see, is that racism or just observation?

 

[Arfur Dealy 823]

8 minutes ago, Mojo121 said:

 

When you see trends, and these trends tend to exhibit themselves within a certain race quite commonly and over and over again you see a pattern and you say what's happening out loud, rather than just think it quietly, you don't attach any hate, just comment on what you see, is that racism or just observation?

 

Absolutely agree. Its an observation....... Which continually repeats itself.... 

[trade vet 697]

27 minutes ago, Arfur Dealy said:

Absolutely agree. Its an observation....... Which continually repeats itself.... 

If you worked for the council or better still the BBC and you commented on your observation you could probably find yourself in trouble.Someone would probably get promoted for reporting you.

[metcars 395]

1 hour ago, Arfur Dealy said:

First question.......How long have you been the registered keeper ?

+1 Usually sorts the wheat from the chaff

 

Edited May 17, 2018 by met

[andymc1973 199]

PayPal? You can pull the payment if by credit card

[AutoJacob 34]

10 minutes ago, andymc1973 said:

PayPal? You can pull the payment if by credit card

Andy, does this work when done via eBay? I paid straight out of our business account via debit card, eBay apparently provide no protection for buyers or sellers when it comes to motor vehicles. It owes me £1K and is now sitting at my mates scrap yard with no passenger wheel and a smashed up passenger wing, bit annoyed to be honest and if I can get some cash back then that would be pretty awesome.

Does anyone know where I would stand taking this "private" individual to court as obviously this situation could of been entirely different, I could of sold this car and it potentially killing the customer if the wheel was to fall off at high speeds.

[Paddy 31]

Similar experience a few weeks back, nice BMW 120, called the guy up (private ad) and he was also named after a god...next he said he's in Blackburn and at this point I should of known better and just hung up but I didnt, we get up there to collect and the car is sat there engine running so I  turned it off and yep you guessed it it wouldnt start, 12 months MOT with no wiper rubbers and 2 bald tyres on the rear we just laughed and walked away...how they have the cheek to be so blatantly dodgy is truly staggering.

[justina3 518]

I am shocked at people who buy from ebay gumtree ect without seeing the cars first and then travel many hours to go and collect i would rather throw all my money on red down the local casino and have the rest of the day off eating ice cream than waste that amount of time on a gamble.

[MrC 142]

Slippery f**kers that need avoiding at all cost. 

[metcars 395]

Just now, tradex said:

This may sound somewhat controversial but I can tell you from our own experiences with kerbside traders, rogue traders, cars parked outside our site with 'for sale' signs, friendly family MOT's that the council/trading standards around here don't give a two cent shit about these guys, most of whom are serial offenders and well known.

It's simply too much legwork for not a lot of reward.

You need to prove whom the seller is, you need to prove whom owns the car, you need to prove the guy is plastic trade, you need to prove the MOT is bent.

There are far easier things to do like walk on car site, look at an odometer that says 76,567 mile and declare that the ad' states 76k on the net, boom.

But, anyone without the common sense to avoid these guys, well....

Totally agree. There's always been con men, nothing new there?

I'm guessing that if you regularly source stock privately its one of the downsides. Apart from wasting hours driving around everywhere?

[justina3 518]

I cant remember the last time i bought a car private, how do you check for log book loans there all the craze down here these days.

[metcars 395]

32 minutes ago, justina3 said:

I cant remember the last time i bought a car private, how do you check for log book loans there all the craze down here these days.

Same here. And i thought buying at the block was risky? Although if you have a small specialised shopping list and can afford to invest the time and miles. But still.....?

[EPV 631]

2 hours ago, met said:

Same here. And i thought buying at the block was risky? Although if you have a small specialised shopping list and can afford to invest the time and miles. But still.....?

I have a technique that avoids a lot of that, I won't give the game away completely but lets just say I rely on the expertise of others.

 

3 hours ago, justina3 said:

I cant remember the last time i bought a car private, how do you check for log book loans there all the craze down here these days.

I can't although I obviously do a full strength HPI check and ensure the seller doesn't have the log book shown in the advert. The way I look at private sellers, apart from those that aren't actually private sellers of course, is that if they have the time/patience/fortitude to advertise privately rather than shoving it on to WBAC/a n other then they are probably honest. Not many have the front to put a car up for sale knowing there's a huge bill looming, or that the car drives like a dog/smokes like a chimney. Generally people are reticent about face to face exposure with strangers and are worried they'll get scammed or ripped off somehow.

If someone has a car that has known issues or a big bill looming then they will try and palm it off on a trader or WBAC because they feel OK about tucking up a rich car trader or big firm like WBAC.

It's not always the case but I've bought 20 cars privately since the turn of the year, sold them all on and not had one screamer, apart from a bloke who moaned about the fuel consumption. Touch wood. I'm trying to get access to the good stock out there before people give up selling privately and just go to WBAC for a quiet life.

I struggle to buy at BCA because of the prices, like everyone but I'll have to expand my net father now, as I'm giving it a go full time.

[justina3 518]

Cool if it works for you mate then job done.

[Stephen 21]

Do all log books loans come up on HPI report?

[EPV 631]

No mate I don’t think they do. 

[NOACROSS 414]

Must do surely?  Otherwise how do they protect their outlay?  If they don't then the car isn't the security and makes no difference.

It's no different for the main dealer taking the car in chop.  Hpi check is all you can do.

Edited May 18, 2018 by NOACROSS

[NOACROSS 414]

https://www.moneyadviceservice.org.uk/en/articles/logbook-loans#what-to-think-about-before-taking-out-a-logbook-loan