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• Information sharing subscription 31 Dec 2005 (Forum)
  Next time my car has to have work done on it (which will be soon, see previous posts) I intend to leave a copy of the DISHONEST JOHN'S GUIDE TO SERVICE SCAMS prominently in the car to discourage rip off techniques. Has HJ ever considered a subscription scheme whereby little stickers - say, similar to those affixed to the door chassis to indicate next service date etc - could be bought, signifying that the owner is a member of the HJ dealership monitoring forum and reserves the right to share his/her experience for the purposes of improving service standards generally ?
• faith restored in honda dealer :-) 31 Jan 2005 (Forum)
  Problem is that only Honda dealer in 40 mile radius, sold us our last one as a one owner from new car (in fact had 3 previous) and denied all responsibility, serviced the car and neatly performed the screen wash scam on the bill, and in general treated in a very poor and unprofessional manner. With much trepidation we went to view another used CR-V. How refreshing it was to be treated by a salesman who didn't talk non stop, allowed me to drive him round for an hour, showed me all the paperwork and the V5, didn't give me any useless sales blurb, and eventually sold me a car which i consider to be a very good deal with no bovine.
• We're all criminals now 24 Jan 2005 (Forum)
  It exposed the tactics of some coucil traffic wardens with their easy targets like mums dropping kids off at school (£50 a time) and the parade of shops where anyone shopping or delivering goods gets clobbered too - shop takings down by a third in all of them, so goodbye shops/jobs/council tax any day. Another scam, which I hadn't heard of before, was the bus lanes where you can drive your car during certain hours/days but the times change along the same lane, with a tiny sign parallel to the road to say so! Naturally, there is a CCTV camera at that point so, unless you know the area and you're pretty nifty, another nip up your shirt.
• Fiat Panda - Malta car hire scam 7 May 2013 (Forum)
    I imagine it would have taken five minutes to repair the damage sufficiently at a cost of next to nothing, so it does look like a new version of an old scam. The annoying bit is that there's nothing we could have done to prevent that sum being removed from our Visa account. Or is there? Does anyone have any advice or comment? Thanks
• Fiat punto - Private Sale, suspected trader, Duff car! 5 Sep 2014 (Forum)
  I bought a fiat punto two days ago from a man who claimed it was a private sale. It has now started leaking water and my garage said it needs a new head gasket. I feel scammed. The seller is a mechanic and told me he had bought the car from a friend who did not want to spend money on the MOT. He said he bought if from his friend and put it through its MOT to sell on. I met him at the garage he works at to buy the car.
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  Is my friend the victim of an insurance scam? 30 May 2017 (Ask HJ)
  I have a friend whose car was allegedly involved in damaging another vehicle while parking in a legitimate bay adjacent to a town centre thoroughfare....
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  How do I safely pay for a car in lockdown? 8 Feb 2021 (Ask HJ)
  I'm in Manchester and there's a rare car in Kent that's available privately. I've spoken with owner extensively and we have agreed on a deal. But how do...
• VW Passat - Scammed by (deleted) 15 Jun 2017 (Forum)
  I have decided to expose xxxx on all the forums I can, after what they did to me as CAB couldn't do anything.  I paid £2000 for a recon...
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  Am I obliged to accept a third party's insurance company write-off decision? 5 Jun 2015 (Ask HJ)
  While parked outside her home, a friend's car was damaged by a supermarket delivery van. The driver admitted responsibility and left a number to call to...
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  Running up rental costs whilst waiting for a part for my Freelander 2 - should I be driving the loan car? 12 Jan 2013 (Ask HJ)
  My Freelander 2 was shunted in mid-September. The other car was a write-off but there was hardly any visible damage to mine. However, the absorbent cones...
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  The Rentalist 6 Mar 2010 (Ask HJ)
  My car has been in for repair. I received a hire car, for 4 days, the duration of the repair to my car. One week after returning hire car, I received a...
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  Something fishy 23 Jan 2010 (Ask HJ)
  Whilst on holiday last year in Sardinia I hired a couple of scooters on two separate days, from a hire company in Alghero. Last week I received a summons...
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  Carnapped 2 Jan 2010 (Ask HJ)
  I have had a second vehicle stolen in Derbyshire and whilst I was in the process of sending an email to the police requesting them not to use their contract...
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  Numbers blame 18 Jul 2009 (Ask HJ)
  My mother (aged 70+) has received a letter from her local police containing an accusation of dangerous or careless driving at 7:15 on Saturday May 16th....
• Autotrader Scam ??! 9 Apr 2009 (Forum)
  now im only 18 looking at buying my first car, so im not too good at spotting dodgy deals but this deal looks a little strange i emailed this guy about...
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  Is flushing the aircon system to 'kill bacteria' just a sales ploy? 9 Sep 2017 (Ask HJ)
  I was advised that the aircon in my wife's DS3 would need to be flushed to kill the bacteria in the system. Is this a sales ploy? The car had a pollen...
• Parking fine whilst on holiday in Jersey 23 Jul 2017 (Forum)
  This understandably fell on deaf ears at the penalty office (we could be telling a porky or scamming) Thing is, the fine is £100. Technically we were displaying an out of date badge so are 'guilty' to the letter of the law, but it was an innocent albeit foolish mistake. I'm going to appeal in writing when we get home, including a photo of the 2018 badge.
• Alli - Attempted fraud 12 Mar 2012 (Forum)
  The fraudsters have managed to find a way past the two levels of security that dealers have on autotrader and have taken over the dealers website . The scam works by having a buyer e mail rather than ring the dealer . The story is always the same ,you are asked to deposit money by western union in your own name ,if you're not happy with the car when you see it you can recover the money .
• is my car registered? 13 Mar 2009 (Forum)
  The DVLA asked what office the dealer dealt with, and I provided the details - they are investigating. There is now scam here - this was a merc main dealer, so just cockup, not conspiracy. However, I'm now worried about if I should actually be driving the car. Has anyone any experience of these matters?
• Road User Survey - Highways Agency 25 Jan 2009 (Forum)
  An interviewer will visit soon to question face-to-face one member of my household, aged 17 or over and selected at random (so that will be either Mrs D or myself). Fearful of a scam, I Googled and came upon the National Road Users' Satisfaction Survey 2007/8 Annual Report:- http://tinyurl.com/dbddeo Clearly it's legitimate but equally it's evident that the questioning will be detailed and intrusive: age, employment and health status, household income, ethnicity and that's before the serious stuff starts about usage and perceptions of the Highways Agency network (motorways, trunk roads).