Buying from a Dealer Woes :( !

[Secki]

Hi all was in the process of buying a second hand car from a dealer, paid a $500 deposit, and now the other half has decided it wasnt a good idea at the moment, would liek to know how we would go about gettin our deposit back. According to the Fair Trading Dept we had a 24 hour cooling off period to cancel the contract (because we applied for in house finance linked to the dealership), but the dealer is now sayign the papers we signed when we left the deposit have nothign to do with anything?!?!? and that too bad and we should get a solicitor!

Well we spoke to another dealer and they are thankfully helping us out, and will be on the phone to Dept of fair trading in the morning but was just wondering if anyone else has had this experience?

[sik_dogg_vn]

i used to work in a dealership that loved doing that to people. i think that if you notify the dealer in writing they can cancel the contract but can keep $100 or 1% of the purchase price of the vehicle, and in regards to the cooling off period it should be 3 days(not including saturdays, sundays or public holidays), if you want more info check out
Motor Car Traders Act 1986 - SECT 43 Cooling-off period

[Secki]

Would be good mate i think its slightly different here in NSW i thinks its $250 or 2% whichever is lesser, i dont mind being out of pocket $250 for making them hold it but wanting my $500? No Way they were so rude and didnt want to help and didnt even want to sign our written contract termination letter we wrote, so in the end we had to get another manager from the same dealership but different brand (ie not holden) just so it was on record that we had done it within the 24 hours

[Scooter79]

Are we allowed to know which dealer this was?

[Hot-Rod]

Another good story for you all,

My friend recently bought a new Suzuki Swift. They were nice and quick to make the sale then the problems with the dealership started before we got the car.

They tried to get us to sign up for in house finance which was a rip off 10.95%, tried pushing paint pretection for a $1400 price tag, with arranging payment to the dearship from a credit union (finance my mate used) they kept stating the sales man wasn't in, they wouldn'g give his name to the credit union, they wouldn't return phone calls to the credit union. We ended up ringing them and they said the sales man wasn't in, so we walked in and he was working.

After that they said the car would be ready the next day at 9am. Car wasn't ready until 7pm which was to late for pick up. They promised a full tank of petrol when picking it up, it was half. They promised floor mats in the deal but we had to argue for it when we picked the car up.

What was the point of all these delays?

[Not_An_Abba_Fan]

No cooling off period in WA, once the contract is signed, you own the car. As long as there are no subject clauses, you would not have any chance of backing out.

[Scooter79]

I guess you should have put more thought into the purchase before signing on the dotted line and asked a few more questions. Still doesn't excuse the poor behaviour of some dealers.

[Secki]

Well this morning rang fair trading, they told us to lodge complaint online, we did this and i went to work. About lunch time the girl gets a call from them saying that they are contacting the dealer to inform them they have to give us $250 back by the law of the contract. Dealer then rings the girl and apoligises for the behaviour of his salesman and in fact the car was sold to us at the wrong price to start with. He then tells us he will be refunding the full $500, and that the salesman in question will be spoken to not only for the way he talked to us but for the way he spoke to the Hyundai new car salesman for trying to help us out. So in the end we were right, and this w@#$er obviously had no idea about the contract and cooling off period even though he told us he knew he was right and had been doing ti for 23 years ! A big thanks to Paul Wakeling holden for advising us on where we stood with the other dealership in question who shall remain nameless.