Car rip-off?
GB
"I had another look for cars. The Ford C-max does seem the right way to go
for me.
I found one fairly near where I live, 07 reg, reasonably low mileage, £6.5k.
I went to test drive it. It had sold by the time I got there, but the bloke
persuaded me to test drive another one 08 reg, ridiculously low mileage (11k
miles in 3 years), ex-motability so good service history. It was on at £8k.
I said it was nice but I wasn't looking to spend £8k so no thanks. He phoned
his boss and offered it to me for £7250 with 2 years' AA warranty thrown in,
which seemed to me to compare favourably with others I've seen online that
have been older and higher mileage, so I bought it.
I got home and checked it online and found it had actually been listed on
autotrader as £7k, but this seems to have been a mistake. The label on the
car definitely said £8k. Have I been ripped off paying £7250 for it? If so,
should I try to do anything about it now? I have already paid for it, and am
due to collect it on Thursday."
My guess is that the garage advertise it online for £7k, where prices are
easy to compare, but stick an £8k sticker on it in case someone comes across
the forecourt unprepared. Is there any come-back for the buyer?
--
Murphy's ultimate law is that if something that could go wrong doesn't, it
turns out that it would have been better if it had gone wrong.
Invisible Man
> Posting this for a friend:
>
> "I had another look for cars. The Ford C-max does seem the right way to go
> for me.
>
> I found one fairly near where I live, 07 reg, reasonably low mileage, £6.5k.
> I went to test drive it. It had sold by the time I got there, but the bloke
> persuaded me to test drive another one 08 reg, ridiculously low mileage (11k
> miles in 3 years), ex-motability so good service history. It was on at £8k.
> I said it was nice but I wasn't looking to spend £8k so no thanks. He phoned
> his boss and offered it to me for £7250 with 2 years' AA warranty thrown in,
> which seemed to me to compare favourably with others I've seen online that
> have been older and higher mileage, so I bought it.
>
> I got home and checked it online and found it had actually been listed on
> autotrader as £7k, but this seems to have been a mistake. The label on the
> car definitely said £8k. Have I been ripped off paying £7250 for it? If so,
> should I try to do anything about it now? I have already paid for it, and am
> due to collect it on Thursday."
>
> My guess is that the garage advertise it online for £7k, where prices are
> easy to compare, but stick an £8k sticker on it in case someone comes across
> the forecourt unprepared. Is there any come-back for the buyer?
>
As far as I am aware any advertised price is an invite to treat. There
is no requirement for a vendor to sell at the advertised price. £8000
could have been a price advertised so they could give a hefty discount
or bump up the price of a trade-in.
Once I bought a car that needed at least 3 calls allegedly to HO to get
down to a price I was prepared to pay. Probably ringing his wife for a
chat each time but it wasted half my day.
steve robinson
> Posting this for a friend:
>
> "I had another look for cars. The Ford C-max does seem the right
> way to go for me.
>
> I found one fairly near where I live, 07 reg, reasonably low
> mileage, £6.5k. I went to test drive it. It had sold by the time I
> got there, but the bloke persuaded me to test drive another one 08
> reg, ridiculously low mileage (11k miles in 3 years), ex-motability
> so good service history. It was on at £8k. I said it was nice but
> I wasn't looking to spend £8k so no thanks. He phoned his boss and
> offered it to me for £7250 with 2 years' AA warranty thrown in,
> which seemed to me to compare favourably with others I've seen
> online that have been older and higher mileage, so I bought it.
>
> I got home and checked it online and found it had actually been
> listed on autotrader as £7k, but this seems to have been a mistake.
> The label on the car definitely said £8k. Have I been ripped off
> paying £7250 for it? If so, should I try to do anything about it
> now? I have already paid for it, and am due to collect it on
> Thursday."
>
> My guess is that the garage advertise it online for £7k, where
> prices are easy to compare, but stick an £8k sticker on it in case
> someone comes across the forecourt unprepared. Is there any
> come-back for the buyer?
No not really
Just zis Guy, you know?
Hash: SHA1
On 25/04/2011 18:15, GB wrote:
> My guess is that the garage advertise it online for £7k, where prices are
> easy to compare, but stick an £8k sticker on it in case someone comes across
> the forecourt unprepared. Is there any come-back for the buyer?
Or perhaps Hanlon's Razor applies - after all, if people turn up having
seen the Trader ad and the sticker price is different, there are going
to be some long and boring conversations with Trading Standards.
I reckon you paid a fair price for the car, which is really all that
matters.
- --
Guy Chapman, http://www.chapmancentral.co.uk
The usenet price promise: all opinions are guaranteed
to be worth at least what you paid for them.
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Alex Heney
wrote:
>Posting this for a friend:
>
>"I had another look for cars. The Ford C-max does seem the right way to go
>for me.
>
>I found one fairly near where I live, 07 reg, reasonably low mileage, £6.5k.
>I went to test drive it. It had sold by the time I got there, but the bloke
>persuaded me to test drive another one 08 reg, ridiculously low mileage (11k
>miles in 3 years), ex-motability so good service history. It was on at £8k.
>I said it was nice but I wasn't looking to spend £8k so no thanks. He phoned
>his boss and offered it to me for £7250 with 2 years' AA warranty thrown in,
>which seemed to me to compare favourably with others I've seen online that
>have been older and higher mileage, so I bought it.
>
>I got home and checked it online and found it had actually been listed on
>autotrader as £7k, but this seems to have been a mistake. The label on the
>car definitely said £8k. Have I been ripped off paying £7250 for it? If so,
>should I try to do anything about it now? I have already paid for it, and am
>due to collect it on Thursday."
>
>My guess is that the garage advertise it online for £7k, where prices are
>easy to compare, but stick an £8k sticker on it in case someone comes across
>the forecourt unprepared. Is there any come-back for the buyer?
No.
The buyer has seen one advertised price, and has then dealt on the
basis of that advertised price.
If he later finds out it was advertised somewhere else at a different
price, that makes no difference.
Incidentally, I bought a Mondeo last week from my local ford dealer. I
had seen it advertised online at £5700, but when I got to the dealer,
the windscreen price was £6800. The salesman *appeared* to be
surprised that the windscreen price was different, but dealt on the
basis of the online price (which his computer was also showing).
I suspect (as you do) that the windscreen price is there for people
who don't do their research online, but rather just wander around the
dealers with a vague idea of what they expect to pay.
But given that everybody expects the price shown to be a starting
point for negotiation with second hand cars, there is really no
comeback if you later find out it was advertised differently.
--
Alex Heney, Global Villager
How do you get holy water?... Boil the hell out of it!
To reply by email, my address is alexATheneyDOTplusDOTcom
Steve Firth
[snip]
> He phoned his boss and offered it to me for £7250 with 2 years' AA
> warranty thrown in,
That's a classic salesman's trick. He is most unlikely to have called
his boss, or anyone, since the salesman will have authority to discount
vehicles on the spot. The pantomime is supposed to impress upon a
customer how hard the salesman is trying to "do a deal" for the customer
when in fact no deal is on the table.
[snip]
> Is there any come-back for the buyer?
None as far as I am aware since the buyer has agreed that the price
offered was a fair price at the time of sale. The only comeback is if
the vehicle was falsely described to the buyer.
Mark
wrote:
It depends on the type of garage. IIRC car "supermarkets" often do
not negociate in price and the sticker is a "take it or leave it"
price.
In addition wouldn't a systemic difference between advertised prices
and actual prices really be fraudulent?
The CA say: "It is against the law for a trader to deliberately give
misleading or wrong prices, and they can be prosecuted for doing
this."
--
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(")_(") their inaction to the problem. I am blocking some articles
posted from there. If you wish your postings to be seen by
everyone you will need use a different method of posting.
the Omrud
> In addition wouldn't a systemic difference between advertised prices
> and actual prices really be fraudulent?
>
> The CA say: "It is against the law for a trader to deliberately give
> misleading or wrong prices, and they can be prosecuted for doing
> this."
Richer Sounds routinely give a lower price on their web site, which you
can pay in store if you mention that you've seen it. But if you don't
bring it up then you pay the higher ticket price shown on the item. £50
difference on a TV for me this year.
--
David
Roland Perry
2011, the Omrud <usenet...@gmail.com> remarked:
>Richer Sounds routinely give a lower price on their web site, which you
>can pay in store if you mention that you've seen it. But if you don't
>bring it up then you pay the higher ticket price shown on the item. £50
>difference on a TV for me this year.
Do you need to reserve it first, for pickup? Plenty of stores have a
cheaper price for that. It'll save them having to expend sales effort on
you in the shop.
--
Roland Perry
Theo Markettos
> In addition wouldn't a systemic difference between advertised prices
> and actual prices really be fraudulent?
>
> The CA say: "It is against the law for a trader to deliberately give
> misleading or wrong prices, and they can be prosecuted for doing
> this."
IANAL, but that seems to me protection against 'bait and switch' schemes:
car is advertised for a bargain price, but oops we made a mistake and it's
actually more expensive. Or oh dear the car just sold five minutes ago but
we have this other one for a higher price (which turns out to be not such a
good deal, but the punter's just wasted their afternoon to come and visit so
is under pressure to buy).
Theo
Paul - xxx
> In addition wouldn't a systemic difference between advertised prices
> and actual prices really be fraudulent?
>
> The CA say: "It is against the law for a trader to deliberately give
> misleading or wrong prices, and they can be prosecuted for doing
> this."
But they're not wrong or misleading prices, they're just different
prices. High price at garage/shop where extra overheads have to be
covered, online price where there may be fewer overheads.
--
Paul - xxx
Stephen Wolstenholme
wrote:
>GB <NOTso...@microsoft.com> wrote:
>[snip]
>
>> He phoned his boss and offered it to me for £7250 with 2 years' AA
>> warranty thrown in,
>
>That's a classic salesman's trick. He is most unlikely to have called
>his boss, or anyone, since the salesman will have authority to discount
>vehicles on the spot. The pantomime is supposed to impress upon a
>customer how hard the salesman is trying to "do a deal" for the customer
>when in fact no deal is on the table.
>
My wife dealt with a "phone the boss" salesman by taking the phone and
saying "let me speak to him". There was nobody on the line. The
salesman suggested his boss had hung up. He then realised he had been
beaten and announce he would have to see an even more important boss.
Nothing happened after that so we went home.
--
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GB
>
> In addition wouldn't a systemic difference between advertised prices
> and actual prices really be fraudulent?
>
> The CA say: "It is against the law for a trader to deliberately give
> misleading or wrong prices, and they can be prosecuted for doing
> this."
This is what I had in mind. I guess to make that stick, my friend would need
to take a photo of the forecourt showing the sticker prices and then check
prices on autotrader (taking screenshots). If there is a noticeable
systematic difference, she can then start talking to them about a price
reduction to reflect the £1k difference between the sticker and autotrader
prices on her car.
Do you have a link to the legislation? ISTR there are regs dealing with
misleading price adverts, but I have no idea where to look.
TTT
researching on autotrader will be more price aware/sensitive, and perhaps
willing to travel further than someone just wandering into the dealer.
One dealer I was looking at recently had a 'you must print this advert off
to get this price' disclaimer on their website and autotrader prices -
presumably to make it easier to offer the dual pricing.
Man at B&Q
<g...@chapmancentral.co.uk> wrote:
> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
> Hash: SHA1
>
> On 25/04/2011 18:15, GB wrote:
>
> > My guess is that the garage advertise it online for £7k, where prices are
> > easy to compare, but stick an £8k sticker on it in case someone comes across
> > the forecourt unprepared. Is there any come-back for the buyer?
>
> Or perhaps Hanlon's Razor applies - after all, if people turn up having
> seen the Trader ad and the sticker price is different, there are going
> to be some long and boring conversations with Trading Standards.
Why?
Many, many businesses have different pricing models for different
sales channels.
MBQ
steve robinson
> Mark wrote:
> >
> > In addition wouldn't a systemic difference between advertised
> > prices and actual prices really be fraudulent?
> >
> > The CA say: "It is against the law for a trader to deliberately
> > give misleading or wrong prices, and they can be prosecuted for
> > doing this."
>
> This is what I had in mind. I guess to make that stick, my friend
> would need to take a photo of the forecourt showing the sticker
> prices and then check prices on autotrader (taking screenshots). If
> there is a noticeable systematic difference, she can then start
> talking to them about a price reduction to reflect the £1k
> difference between the sticker and autotrader prices on her car.
>
> Do you have a link to the legislation? ISTR there are regs dealing
> with misleading price adverts, but I have no idea where to look.
Its not ilegal to advertise the vehicle at different prices in
different places only to have misleading price adverts .
Prices do change after things to to press
Your freind saw a car on the forcourt negotiated a price , paid for it
Not really got a leg to stand on unless he/she can prove that the
price misamatches are systemic throughout the whole lot
the Omrud
No, you merely have to tell the sales assistant the lower price from the
web site. No need to book or reserve. I usually print off the web page
when I leave home, just to be sure, but they don't ask to see it.
--
David