Dealer registered MY new car with no delivery date | Motoring discussion | Back Room Forum

Thu 29 Jul 2010 20:00

Dealer registered MY new car with no delivery date - 996

Back at the start of July, I decided the house would look much nicer with a nice shiney new car parked outside. So off to the main dealers I went, knowing exactly what make/model/engine/coulor/options I wanted.

Turneds out a factory build would have take quite a while, so the dealer managed to find a car in the 'computer' of the right model/engine/colour. It was in Scotland. I was happy to do without the options in lieu of a quick delivery date and a discount, so paid a deposit with delivery agreed for mid-July.

A few days later the dealer contacted me to say another dealer had sold the car prior to them getting it allocated to them. But it wasnt a problem as there was another one 'just been built Sir at Germany and the Genrman ones are better anyway'.

Delievery was still estimated at around 2 weeks so I was OK with this. At the dealers request I gave them a cheque for the balance of the car in mid-July.

I chased things up a week later and the delievery had slipped by a week. I chased up the following week and delivery was promised for today. Yesterday the dealer gave me the registration number and told me to organise the 7day free insurance that came with the car so it started today.

Lovely I thought, but when I phoned them this morning...lo and behold the car hadnt been sent to the dealer from Ford. I pressed them on this, and several phone calls later it appears that the dealer has NO IDEA when the car is going to be supplied to them!!! Could be next week or even next month. He says he still 'hopes' it will turn up tomorrow. But when pressed this isnt based on any information or facts. Completely unbelieveable!!! (I win the lottery on Saturday but I dout it will happen)

I'm absolutely amazed the dealer has registered the car without even knowing when it will be supplied to them! I know they have monthly targets but this is stretching it a little! I have asked for it to be 'unregistered' and the car held back for a 60 plate...but apparntly (as I suspected) this is impossible. So they were happy to register a (MY) car that for all they know they wont get until September when it will have an obsolete plate! UNBELIEVEABLE!

Also I am now losing my free 7 days insurance (now at 6 days and counting) and my 3yr warranty has already started. Im also worried that the dealer has many thousands of my pounds sitting in their bank account and no sniff of a car! Theyre quite a big dealer group but in todays world whos to say that they wont go under tomorrow taking my money with them?

The best the dealer can say is that the car is in a compound in Scotland and they will plate it up and prep it thew same day it comes in. Obviously Im now far from happy with this! My new car (fully paid for) is god knows where and no one can tell me when I will get it. Ive mentioned cancelling but as Ive paid obviously the dealer isnt all that interested in customer service.

Ive got some ideas of what I do next but any opinions anyone has more than welcome!

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Thu 29 Jul 2010 20:42

Dealer registered MY new car with no delivery date - jonny1

rather than pay by cheque in advance you are better putting the money in your current account and paying by debit card when you have seen the car and are happy with it.this way you dont have to wait for cheque to clear.

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Thu 29 Jul 2010 20:49

Dealer registered MY new car with no delivery date - Collos25

The question is do you want the car or not if not get your money back(you should not have paid them)and walk away is our right.Or negotiate a big discount for all the trouble and I do not mean a set of mats.The free insurance is available anytime almost to anybody.

Personally I would have my money back plus a figure for the trouble caused.

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Thu 29 Jul 2010 21:11

Dealer registered MY new car with no delivery date - 996

Cheque wasnt my first option either. But car was financed through a loan from my employer. The scheme means that I pay a very low rate of interest...but money is released to me in a cheque payable to the retailer.

I was happy to have the car with delivery in July. But with delivery now looking like August (at the earliest!) I would have asked for it to be held and put on a 60 plate. Unfortunately this is no longer possible because the dealers have registered it.

I dont know what Im more angry at, the dealer for lying to me over delivery dates or the fact they have registered my car when they dont know when they will get it. Althrough Im able to stick up for myself I can only wonder what they get away with when dealing with the less fortunate like the elderly.

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Thu 29 Jul 2010 21:32

Dealer registered MY new car with no delivery date - oilrag

"I can only wonder what they get away with when dealing with the less fortunate like the elderly."

Well, some call me elderly - but i`ve always not handed over the cheque until the car was standing in front of me - ready to go....

Welcome to the Forum, 996 ;-)

edit

Careful with the`elderly` comments - there`s a large contingent of them on here, supping their hot chocolate - and looking forsomeone to have a go at...

(only Joking ;-)

cough

Edited by oilrag (Moderator) on 29/07/2010 at 21:44

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Thu 29 Jul 2010 21:49

Dealer registered MY new car with no delivery date - madf

Some of us "elderly" have learned a lot in life.

Putting yourself at the mercy of people who are unscrupulous and often lying toerags is one of the many things in life we have learned to avoid..

Paying in advance for a car? I hope you got a 5% discount on top of all the normal ones...

And no delivery date "time is of the essence" in the contract?

I'm glad I'm older.. and.. w##er (fill in the blanks:_)

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Thu 29 Jul 2010 21:51

Dealer registered MY new car with no delivery date - bonzo dog

Hi 996, unfortunately it's an all too common occurrance once dealers have your money that customer service goes out of the window. A similar but on a smaller scale (accessory rather than actual car) happened to me earlier this year. Calls by telephone & in person to the dealership had no impact so I found the e-mail of a group director & complained to him copying the manufactuer / importer. Within a couple of hours I had apologies & the situation resolved. You could try this.

The thing is though we are only at July 29 so unless you stipulated that delivery by July the whatever was a condition of purchase you will not be entitled to cancel the contract just because the car looks like being a few days late. If on the other hand it looks like moving to a September delivery you can argue that the car wil have significantly devalued by the time you take ownership & they should IMO supply you with a new reg car.

Hindsight is a wonderful thing but I'm sure in the future you will:

pay a deposit by credit card (thus protecting the deposit & any other monies handed over)
pay the balance on delivery or
if required to pay prior to delivery as is the case with a cheque, ask for the invoice at the same time

Good luck

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Thu 29 Jul 2010 22:12

Dealer registered MY new car with no delivery date - 996

The original order form said 'estimated delivery date' 15th July 2010.

As you say hindsight is a wonderful thing, Unfortunately Ive never had a problem with car dealers so when they said the car would be here in a week and they wanted for the cheque 7 days before delivery to allow time for it to clear I didnt have any reason not to believe them.

Thanks for the advice through about complaining loudly to anyone who'll listen, think I'll be doing that tomorrow morning! Shame through, its always been a pleasure before buying cars and this has really taken the shine out of it.

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Thu 29 Jul 2010 22:34

Dealer registered MY new car with no delivery date - Ravenger

Be careful of the warranty situation - even 7 days can make a difference.

My C-Max developed a fault 5 days out of warranty, but the dealer had registered the car to me a two weeks before I'd picked it up. if it had been registered when I collected it the car would have been under warranty and I'd be several hundred pounds better off.

Ford weren't very helpful with goodwill either - I only managed to wrangle a half-price service out of them.

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Thu 29 Jul 2010 23:33

Dealer registered MY new car with no delivery date - Vitesse6

I think I would be down at the dealers on saturday morning with a flask, a packet of sandwiches and a newspaper and just occupy a seat in the showroom and make a point of talking to every customer who comes in.

I did that once when they wouldn't find me a courtesy car, amazing how they managed to track one down for me...

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Fri 30 Jul 2010 00:52

Dealer registered MY new car with no delivery date - bathtub tom

Vitesse6 (I had a swing-axle 2-litre).

I did exactly the same with a dispute over some furniture. They resolved the problem remarkably quickly.

I may have to do it again with a certain holiday company that 'tailor holidays'.

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Fri 30 Jul 2010 10:33

Dealer registered MY new car with no delivery date - madf

I sat in the reception of a FTSE100 company waiting for a very large payment before Christmas... they had refused to pay despite it all being due etc..

They apid up within an hour ...:-)

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Sat 31 Jul 2010 08:13

Dealer registered MY new car with no delivery date - 996

Thanks everyone for your help and support

I was at the dealers at opening time yesterday and 'expressed my disatisfaction' to someone senior. Turns out the registration hadnt been completed after all, despite being told yesterday that it had and couldnt be changed.

Car now being delivered 1st September on a 60 plate <*** class="inlineimg" title="Big Grin" src="http://images2.moneysavingexpert.com/images/forum_smilies/biggrin.gif" border="0" alt="" />

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Wed 14 Mar 2012 16:01

Dealer registered MY new car with no delivery date - Honest Job

If the dealer isn't helpful then go above them. I had a problem on a 3 and 1/2 year old VW, well outside of its warranty which had FSH but not all VW stamps.

After a call to VW customer services they offered to pay 70% of costs and labour.

Dealers will do anything to get out of thier obligations and generally don't play fair. But the companies have thier reputation to uphold.

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Wed 14 Mar 2012 18:49

Dealer registered MY new car with no delivery date - NARU

As the original post is nearly two years old, I think its probably been solved by now!

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