Sold gf's car, new owner is being awkward

Owen

Sold herself's 98 Starlet on Tuesday night, after a long drawn out advertising period. A couple in their 50's came to me, and thorougly inspected the car, they looked at every sill, under the bonnet, under the boot carpet, drove it, touched and felt the paint, and eventually after haggling, bought the car. They went away happy.

Got a phone call today from the Husband, who wouldn't be the brightest tool in the box, asking why one of the receipts had strange mileage on it. Herself's car has about 33k Miles on it, and one of the receipts was from Advanced Tyres when she got 4 shoes fitted, and the idiot working the PC typed in the wrong mileage. It says 58xxx Miles, and I think there was about 28 on it at the time, so obviously someone hit the 5 on the number pad, instead of a 2. It's a tyre change, and not a service, and even though the mileage is wrong, I thought they'd like to have the receipt. There is a receipt for a full service after that with the correct mileage on it. The husband wouldn't accept my word for it, and said "I'll look into it and I'll be in touch".

Correct me if I'm wrong here, but a private sale is Caveat Emptor, or buyer beware anyway. Do they have any rights in this situation? The car is clearly a low mileage car, the interior is testament to that. It hasn't been clocked, and this is a stupid mistake made by Advance Tyres. I explained the mistake to this guy 4 or 5 times during the course of the call, and also explained that I want to hear no further about it, as it's a private sale, and there was nothing underhanded about the deal. Hell, I even gave them luck money back and filled the tank to look after them.

I'm extremely annoyed by this. Does the guy have the right to reject the sale? I don't think he does ...

cold_filter

ned78 wrote:

Correct me if I'm wrong here, but a private sale is Caveat Emptor, or buyer beware anyway. Do they have any rights in this situation? The car is clearly a low mileage car, the interior is testament to that. It hasn't been clocked, and this is a stupid mistake made by Advance Tyres. I explained the mistake to this guy 4 or 5 times during the course of the call, and also explained that I want to hear no further about it, as it's a private sale, and there was nothing underhanded about the deal. Hell, I even gave them luck money back and filled the tank to look after them.

I'm extremely annoyed by this. Does the guy have the right to reject the sale? I don't think he does ...

He has no come back at all

Anan1

I'm assuming you've been paid for the car? If so, tell him in no uncertain terms what you think of his attitude.

Owen

We've been paid for the car alright, I'm just worried because he knows the Dealership I work for, and if he was a complete a**hole, he could quite easily phone my employers and tell them the story, making life awkward for me, even though it has nothing to do with my work.

prospect

Nope, unless he specifically asked was the car clocked, and you said no, and he can prove it was.

I know it is little conselation now, but when I sell a car privately, I have a little document done up which we both sign and get a copy of. It basically says the cars is now sold as seen and there is no comeback. I have never heard anything back on the 5 or 6 I have sold, although they were all quality cars that were never likely to give grief (a few Renaults a MK1 Corsa and a Alfa to name a few, )

maidhc

ned78 wrote:

I'm extremely annoyed by this. Does the guy have the right to reject the sale? I don't think he does ...

No, he doesn't.

Unlike the situation where a garage passes a car off as "sold as seen", a private buyer purchasing from a private seller must face caveat emptor in all its glory.

You have the money, he has the car, and that is how it is destined to stay.

(Of course he can phone your employer, and it would be awkward... but you can threaten him with defamation if you feel belligerent.... )

Tea drinker

Well, firstly, take a deep breath, it's not worth getting het up about.
At the end of the day, we're only talking about an old starlet.
The guy will probably calm down, he may have OCD or something, just ignore him. Maybe his wife is like I don't the feel of this blah blah yeh yeh annoying. NOT YOUR PROBLEM! There's nothing to stop him getting the AA to look over it, at his cost of course.
I fully understand about the advance tyre thing, they could write anything down.

It's very frustrating trying to reason with a madman, until you figure out that they are mad, and you can say: "ahh that's the problem!"

As regards work, I wouldn't worry too much about it, what you have said sounds reasonable. Like I said at the start, deep breath, don't lose the head and he has nothing to say to the garage.

prospect

Might be no harm to casually mention this to your boss over a cuppa:

"You won't believe what the fella who bought my GF's Starlet is trying to do......"

Then, if he does ring, your Boss will most likely sympathise with him and then politely tell him ito fupp off as it is not the Garages business.

unkel

ned78 wrote:

I'm just worried because he knows the Dealership I work for, and if he was a complete a**hole, he could quite easily phone my employers and tell them the story, making life awkward for me, even though it has nothing to do with my work.

I understand where you're coming from. Of course they have no comeback, but perhaps it is best to continue what you did to prevent escalation: stay polite and play thick - keep giving him the same explanation over and over again and don't entertain any discussion about rejecting the sale / handing money back

C_Breeze

Anan1 wrote:

I'm assuming you've been paid for the car? If so, tell him in no uncertain terms what you think of his attitude.

Oh would u look at that , I agree with anan1!

seamus

You'll find there are people about who are paranoid about everything and everyone and are absolutely determined to not get ripped off. They are a pain in the ass to deal with, and once they have your number, they can be determined to not let it go. This is clearly one of these guys.

It was a private sale, he has no comeback. It was a mistake on the receipt for tyres, anyone would accept that, and any court would accept that.

He can ring your employer all he likes, but any accusations that he makes gives you the right to sue him for defamation. Probably no need to even say that to him, but you are the one in the superior position here.

I would advise that you answer one more call from him. Ignore whatever he says and tell him that the sale is done, you will no longer be answering his calls. He'll piss off quick enough.

unkel

prospect wrote:

Might be no harm to casually mention this to your boss over a cuppa:

"You won't believe what the fella who bought my GF's Starlet is trying to do......"

Clever!

layke

Ned I don't know who you work for but why should your boss care? if I owned a company and some aul lad rang me up I'd ask you what happend and believe you (my employee) before any old randomer.

Also, he can cross check it with the service history (I assume it's log book stamped).

Consumer law says you can return any product within 10 days as long as it's returned in the same condition it was sold (i.e unused). Then again that's a retail law from when i did my service at night during college and i' m not sure if it applies to the car trade or in fact even a 2nd hand sale.

kaizersoze1980

I'll have the same problem when I go to sell my car. Got it NCT'd at 48,000 miles. NCT cert shows mileage as 480,000 :eek:

Owen

layke wrote:

Ned I don't know who you work for but why should your boss care? if I owned a company and some aul lad rang me up I'd ask you what happend and believe you (my employee) before any old randomer.

I wish!

Anan1

C_Breeze wrote:

Oh would u look at that , I agree with anan1!

And it had to be the one time when I was wrong!;) Seriously though, I reckon unkel & prospect's advice is the way to go. Perhaps not as satisfying, but more sensible.

kmick

Next time he rings tell him as far as you are concerned the issue is closed and that if he wants to continue with these 'support calls' you will be forced to block his number if he continues down the mileage route. Don't mention caveat emptor ever again it kinda makes you seem shady. I would not be worried about your work they will not care. If you are going to continue with these support calls I would suggest you tell him he has two/three left and after the next one say now you have 2 left etc until they are gone. Then do not answer any more.

Duckjob

Agree with the other posts. I know as a private buyer you have to be careful not to be ripped off, but some people are a pain in the arse.

If he rings back I would:
- re-affirm that it's a genuine sale and there's nothing underhand going on

- remind him you've already given him an honest explanation to his query

- assuming you presented that receipt for inspection before he bought the car, then I would definitely point out to him that if he had a query with the receipt, then the time to raise it was before, not after the sale.

- firmly tell him the deal is done and the car is genuine.

cormac_byrne

I presume everything about the car is consistent with 33k miles
(except that the tyre change monkey hit the wrong button)

If so, If/when he calls again, tell him you've given him your explanation. If he is still calling you a cheat and a liar, he should contact his solicitor regarding legal action as you have nothing further to say to him and will not be taking the car back.

Also advise him of the National Consumer Agency
and it's website and locall number for reporting clocked cars.

Wish him good luck wasting his time and money pursuing a pointless claim.

http://www.consumerconnect.ie/eng/Learning_Zone/Guides_To_Consumer_Law/Buying_a_Car/



If a private seller has given you information which they know to be false and you are out of pocket as a result, you may be able to take legal action in another court against them. In this situation you may need to seek legal advice.

If you have evidence that a car has been clocked, report this as soon as possible to us on LoCall 1890 432 432, or through our website.

jjbrien

Quick question for you did the car ever go fo an nct? they check and record the milage there by looking at clock on th car and the cars computer. If it has and it matches what you said then your fine and you can show him the nct docs.

gucci

kaizersoze1980 wrote:

I'll have the same problem when I go to sell my car. Got it NCT'd at 48,000 miles. NCT cert shows mileage as 480,000 :eek:

wowser :eek: thats some value you got out of that car!

Kintarō Hattori

I agree with layke Ned.
You have a life outside of the company that you work for. Any boss knows that and it really doesn't matter what you do once your private business dealings are not connected with the company you work for. You sold your own car without involving your company. The individual can ring all he wants, there is nothing your boss can do or say in regards to that. Perhaps just get annoyed that your dealing with weirdo's in the real world.

Relax Ned and as others have said, be polite to this guy, keep telling him the explanation over and over until he see's that you won't be worn down and he will simply get browned off.

BrianD3

Did you explain about the mistake on the receipt *before* you sold the car to him? If not then I can understand him being awkward even if legally he has no comeback in a private sale.

To the people calling him paranoid and a madman - if you were buying a car and while looking through receipts found one with a higher mileage on it would it set off alarm bells. If not, then I would say you are naive. If the seller then tells you that it was because someone pressed 5 instead of 2 on a keyboard would you swallow that without questioning. If you would, again you are naive.

What the buyer has done wrong here is failing to spot the discrepancy before buying the car. But Ned should also have predicted that this could cause a problem and either binned the receipt or explained the situation before selling giving the buyer a choice to walk away and saving everyone hassle.

Duckjob

BrianD3 wrote:

If the seller then tells you that it was because someone pressed 5 instead of 2 on a keyboard would you swallow that without questioning. If you would, again you are naive.

If Ned78 had a chronological series of receipts before and after the tyre one which showed a clear progression of mileage in the order of 28xxx, then in fairness an 8 year old could probably deduce that it was a typo.

layke

gucci wrote:

wowser :eek: thats some value you got out of that car!

Hehe sure for mine the tool who wrote my milage down wrote a 1 instead of a 0 so it now has an extra 100k on the clock. Idiots.

seamus

BrianD3 wrote:

Did you explain about the mistake on the receipt *before* you sold the car to him?

He probably forgot about it. I would.

To the people calling him paranoid and a madman - if you were buying a car and while looking through receipts found one with a higher mileage on it would it set off alarm bells. If not, then I would say you are naive. If the seller then tells you that it was because someone pressed 5 instead of 2 on a keyboard would you swallow that without questioning. If you would, again you are naive.

It would trigger an alarm, but I wouldn't ring the seller. I'd check all of the other documentation, before and after that receipt. If they showed a correct mileage, then I'd drop it. I'm already out of pocket, there's **** all else I can do anyway. Checking out the receipts would be purely satisfying my own curiosity to see if I'd been screwed.

biko

BrianD3 wrote:

Did you explain about the mistake on the receipt *before* you sold the car to him? If not then I can understand him being awkward even if legally he has no comeback in a private sale.

To the people calling him paranoid and a madman - if you were buying a car and while looking through receipts found one with a higher mileage on it would it set off alarm bells. If not, then I would say you are naive. If the seller then tells you that it was because someone pressed 5 instead of 2 on a keyboard would you swallow that without questioning. If you would, again you are naive.

What the buyer has done wrong here is failing to spot the discrepancy before buying the car. But Ned should also have predicted that this could cause a problem and either binned the receipt or explained the situation before selling giving the buyer a choice to walk away and saving everyone hassle.

QFT, the person buying the car might not be as slick a salesman/buyer as some ppl here pertain to be. Ringing back to ask question about an obvious issue after the sale seems a justifiable thing to do. The buyer did not actually say he wanted money back, did he?

Darragh29

Understand your situation there OP. When I started in business I had to deal with this on a regular basis, in particular people automatically distrusting you when you have been honest. I have managed to filter out the few odd customers who you could never please and have been delighted to see them going else where with their business because now they are wasting someone else's time. I had to tell a small number of customers who were at the same sh*te as your man who bought you gf's car, to not come back as they were impossible to please. This raised a few eyebrows at first here amongst staff as it was perceived by some as arrogant and rude. But now that we have a core of extremely good customers who we will bend over backwards for, who actually appreciate the high level of service that we provide, there is a consensus now that we don't have ackward customers because we got rid of the few that we had and now we would see one coming and give the usual excuses to move them on to someone else.

I had to learn the lesson you've learnt, and with a bit of hindsight (which is always a great thing), you'd probably look back and now regret not running with your gut feeling and the fact that they were being so picky with the car when looking at it, feeling paintwork, looking under the bonnet when they probably may as well have been looking into space, spending too long looking at the car, these little things are subtle pointers that suggest that the person is likely ackward to deal with either in the process of agreeing to sell or as you have found out now, subsequent to a sale.

What I'd do to get some relief now is have an extremely abrupt conversation with them face to face and tell them that they have a fu*king neck annoying you any further, you stand over the mileage of the vehicle and that they are an impossible couple to deal with and to never come near you again. Insult them if you have to, if they as much as drop their jaw to your boss, take them to the fu*king cleaners for slander.

I had a customer in here a week or two ago looking for a timing belt done on a Renault Laguna. We had done a service for him on his wife's car, think it was a VW Golf, and even though we valeted & washed the car before delivering it back to him/her (we also collected it for him/her), he appeared to be a bit rude when paying his bill, nothing serious, just handed in a cheque and no thank you very much or kiss my arse or nothing, asked a few stupid questions in a rude manner about the parts we used and were we sure we replaced the parts we were charging him for. He rang up here last week looking for a price for a service & timing belt for his own Laguna. I recognised him from his attitude over the phone and when he said to me, "have any of your mechanics done a timing belt on a Laguna?", I knew it was the same guy. We do timing belts here on Laguna's on a weekly basis, but I didn't feel like I had to justify the experience of my staff to this muppet, so I said "yes, we have loads of experience doing timing belts on Laguna's but unfortunately we are booked up for the next 6 weeks." This job was worth a few hundred Euro to us as he wanted a service as well as a timing belt, but the point I'm making is that no amount of money is worth the hassle and grief a pr*ck like this can bring into your workplace.

With the full benefit of hindsight, you'll likely see a muppet like this coming before he even comes around the corner next time!

Owen

BrianD3 wrote:

Did you explain about the mistake on the receipt *before* you sold the car to him? If not then I can understand him being awkward even if legally he has no comeback in a private sale.

No, as I wasn't aware of it myself. It's her car, and I became aware of it after the sale when the owner brought it to my attention. As I have said, there is a further receipt that shows the most recent mileage at service time and that corresponds with the actual mileage if you were to follow on from that chronologically.

eo980 wrote:

You have a life outside of the company that you work for. Any boss knows that and it really doesn't matter what you do once your private business dealings are not connected with the company you work for. You sold your own car without involving your company. The individual can ring all he wants, there is nothing your boss can do or say in regards to that.

Ideally, that would be the case. Unfortunately, my situation is somewhat different. But I do appreciate the kind words.

jjbrien wrote:

Quick question for you did the car ever go fo an nct?

That's a great idea ... I'll just tell him to call the bloody NCT, the car has a mechanical Odometer, but they'll still have a record of it hopefully.

And lastly, Darragh29, thanks for the great advice, it's very heartening to see others dealing with the same thing!

biko

Darragh29 wrote:

What I'd do to get some relief now is have an extremely abrupt conversation with them face to face and tell them that they have a fu*king neck annoying you any further, you stand over the mileage of the vehicle and that they are an impossible couple to deal with and to never come near you again. Insult them if you have to, if they as much as drop their jaw to your boss, take them to the fu*king cleaners for slander.

I hope you're not located in Galway because I'm looking for a car and tbh you come across like a bit of a cnut.

Ned, the mileage is a bit of a hassle but as it was an honest mistake by the garage nothing can come from it. You're well covered.

cormac_byrne

ned78 wrote:

That's a great idea ... I'll just tell him to call the bloody NCT, the car has a mechanical Odometer, but they'll still have a record of it hopefully.

http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/motors/2005/1207/1132330272721.html

"The National Car Test service does record a vehicle's mileage at every test but it will not share that information, even with a dealer or private buyer looking to check the mileage of a questionable car"

Duckjob

Darragh29 wrote:

...

biko wrote:

I hope you're not located in Galway because I'm looking for a car and tbh you come across like a bit of a cnut.

a bit harsh maybe, but it is a fact of business that there are people who simply are not worth having as customers.

Anyway Ned78, even if you didnt notice the discrepancy, I take it he examined the service history himself before he committed to the sale. I would say that puts the responsibility firmly in his court to query it before buying.

Owen

cormac_byrne wrote:

http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/motors/2005/1207/1132330272721.html

"The National Car Test service does record a vehicle's mileage at every test but it will not share that information, even with a dealer or private buyer looking to check the mileage of a questionable car"

Thanks Cormac, as it turns out, herself is convinced she has a print out from the NCT at home, so if she does, I'll just photocopy that, and send it to him in a letter, along with a summary of the sale process, and everything he and I agreed to, in other words, close the door.

maidhc

cormac_byrne wrote:

http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/motors/2005/1207/1132330272721.html

"The National Car Test service does record a vehicle's mileage at every test but it will not share that information, even with a dealer or private buyer looking to check the mileage of a questionable car"

They most likely will share it with the registered owner though.

Churchy

Darragh29 is spot on. Some people just arent worth dealing with - unfortunately I was working for an employer when I used to tell punters that "they didnt have to buy a car and I didnt have to sell it". Boss under pressure for numbers didnt see the funny side when they complained

O/p just put it down to experience.

unkel

biko wrote:

tbh you come across like a bit of a cnut

No need for that. You're warned

scitpo

I'd have some empathy for both sides. If I bought a car with x amount of miles and I see a receipt for a different number I would be none to happy especially if it hadnt been explained to me before.

If the car had been clocked genuinely and the buyer had proof of it then it is most certainly possible to take a private seller to court.

Customers might be difficult with dealers/mechanics because they need to be as both professions have a deserved bad reputation. Obviously there are good guys out there and they have to live with the suspicion that comes with the territory.

"The National Car Test service does record a vehicle's mileage at every test but it will not share that information, even with a dealer or private buyer looking to check the mileage of a questionable car"

Its of no use to anybody. My NCT mileage is 40K below the actual mileage. They just read off the odometer and record whats on it.

biko

unkel wrote:

No need for that. You're warned

Sorry Mod, got a bit carried away there.
When buying a used car you go in with the mindset that the seller is trying to fleece you. If you find something dodgy and ask them about it and they give you grief like: that they have a fu*king neck annoying you any further, you stand over the mileage of the vehicle and that they are an impossible couple to deal with and to never come near you again. Insult them if you have to Kinda ruins your mood.

SMERSH

Darragh29 wrote:

Understand your situation there OP. When I started in business I had to deal with this on a regular basis, in particular people automatically distrusting you when you have been honest. I have managed to filter out the few odd customers who you could never please and have been delighted to see them going else where with their business because now they are wasting someone else's time. I had to tell a small number of customers who were at the same sh*te as your man who bought you gf's car, to not come back as they were impossible to please. This raised a few eyebrows at first here amongst staff as it was perceived by some as arrogant and rude. But now that we have a core of extremely good customers who we will bend over backwards for, who actually appreciate the high level of service that we provide, there is a consensus now that we don't have ackward customers because we got rid of the few that we had and now we would see one coming and give the usual excuses to move them on to someone else.

I had to learn the lesson you've learnt, and with a bit of hindsight (which is always a great thing), you'd probably look back and now regret not running with your gut feeling and the fact that they were being so picky with the car when looking at it, feeling paintwork, looking under the bonnet when they probably may as well have been looking into space, spending too long looking at the car, these little things are subtle pointers that suggest that the person is likely ackward to deal with either in the process of agreeing to sell or as you have found out now, subsequent to a sale.

What I'd do to get some relief now is have an extremely abrupt conversation with them face to face and tell them that they have a fu*king neck annoying you any further, you stand over the mileage of the vehicle and that they are an impossible couple to deal with and to never come near you again. Insult them if you have to, if they as much as drop their jaw to your boss, take them to the fu*king cleaners for slander.

I had a customer in here a week or two ago looking for a timing belt done on a Renault Laguna. We had done a service for him on his wife's car, think it was a VW Golf, and even though we valeted & washed the car before delivering it back to him/her (we also collected it for him/her), he appeared to be a bit rude when paying his bill, nothing serious, just handed in a cheque and no thank you very much or kiss my arse or nothing, asked a few stupid questions in a rude manner about the parts we used and were we sure we replaced the parts we were charging him for. He rang up here last week looking for a price for a service & timing belt for his own Laguna. I recognised him from his attitude over the phone and when he said to me, "have any of your mechanics done a timing belt on a Laguna?", I knew it was the same guy. We do timing belts here on Laguna's on a weekly basis, but I didn't feel like I had to justify the experience of my staff to this muppet, so I said "yes, we have loads of experience doing timing belts on Laguna's but unfortunately we are booked up for the next 6 weeks." This job was worth a few hundred Euro to us as he wanted a service as well as a timing belt, but the point I'm making is that no amount of money is worth the hassle and grief a pr*ck like this can bring into your workplace.

With the full benefit of hindsight, you'll likely see a muppet like this coming before he even comes around the corner next time!

I agree 110% with you. There really are people who you are better off without as customers. The customer is always right my arse!

If I was the OP I would not have sold to them in the first place.

scitpo

I had a customer in here a week or two ago looking for a timing belt done on a Renault Laguna. We had done a service for him on his wife's car, think it was a VW Golf, and even though we valeted & washed the car before delivering it back to him/her (we also collected it for him/her), he appeared to be a bit rude when paying his bill, nothing serious, just handed in a cheque and no thank you very much or kiss my arse or nothing, asked a few stupid questions in a rude manner about the parts we used and were we sure we replaced the parts we were charging him for. He rang up here last week looking for a price for a service & timing belt for his own Laguna. I recognised him from his attitude over the phone and when he said to me, "have any of your mechanics done a timing belt on a Laguna?", I knew it was the same guy. We do timing belts here on Laguna's on a weekly basis, but I didn't feel like I had to justify the experience of my staff to this muppet, so I said "yes, we have loads of experience doing timing belts on Laguna's but unfortunately we are booked up for the next 6 weeks." This job was worth a few hundred Euro to us as he wanted a service as well as a timing belt, but the point I'm making is that no amount of money is worth the hassle and grief a pr*ck like this can bring into your workplace.

That is the most ridiculous crap I have ever read. So this evil customer didnt say thanks or start kissing your ring just because you serviced his car and thats a bad customer? He then had the cheek to ring you up asking you if you had experience doing a timing belt? The scumbag. Well done for losing out on genuine business.

maidhc

scitpo wrote:

That is the most ridiculous crap I have ever read. So this evil customer didnt say thanks or start kissing your ring just because you serviced his car and thats a bad customer? He then had the cheek to ring you up asking you if you had experience doing a timing belt? The scumbag. Well done for losing out on genuine business.

Have to agree, sure sign some garages are making way too much money.

(should just add, where I work the only clients we don't like are the ones that don't settle their bills!)

Darragh29

scitpo wrote:

That is the most ridiculous crap I have ever read. So this evil customer didnt say thanks or start kissing your ring just because you serviced his car and thats a bad customer? He then had the cheek to ring you up asking you if you had experience doing a timing belt? The scumbag. Well done for losing out on genuine business.

Scitpo, I'm unique when it comes to experience on this particular topic because I've already failed once when starting up my own business, and it was almost exclusively down to having customers similar in attitude to the person who bought the OP's gf's car.

The first time I started up, some years ago, I failed in spectacular fashion, and I failed because I was being too nice to people. For some reason when it comes to garages, people try things that they wouldn't try anywhere else.

Trust me, I'm not on here with my particular opinion with regard to this subject for any reason other than I learnt the hard way. I learnt what the inevitable outcome is when you get your customer base wrong, when you don't have the confidence to say "no" to the guy who is only using you. Thankfully now I can see where I went wrong, I can identify the guy who is coming in the door who wants you to do something for nothing and I can identify the guy who comes in and is prepared to pay a reasonable price for an excellent service. The people the OP has described are in the former category and if you are doing business for these type of people, you're fu*ked from the very outset.

Darragh29

maidhc wrote:

Have to agree, sure sign some garages are making way too much money.

Absolute rubbish. From the first day I started up again, I operated like this and I was breaking even. Profit didn't come into the equation.

maidhc wrote:

(should just add, where I work the only clients we don't like are the ones that don't settle their bills!)

And what about the people who pay their bill but take issue with the work you have done subsequent to paying their bill and take up your whole day timewasting and messing with your head, like the people the OP is describing???

scitpo

As I said I can empathise with the fair garage owner and I wish I knew some but your industries reputation precedes you. If a garage owner knows your not a soft touch then they will think twice about messing up your service or doing unessecary work to bump up your bill. Thats why people mightnt sound too friendly to you.

Guy:Incognito

layke wrote:

Consumer law says you can return any product within 10 days as long as it's returned in the same condition it was sold (i.e unused). Then again that's a retail law from when i did my service at night during college and i' m not sure if it applies to the car trade or in fact even a 2nd hand sale.

It most certainly does not. You should have studied harder.

From Cormac's link above ( wasnt going rooting for it elsewhere) "You have no rights under consumer law if you simply change your mind about wanting the goods. However, some shops will offer you an exchange as a gesture of goodwill"

OKenora

Forget garages, same applies across business. I ran a conputer shop for a while and we had the same attitude, some customers were simply not worth the ahssle. Not that they saw through anything or made any startling discovery of shoddy practive - simply they went looking for something they would never find but treated the staff as if they had just found it.

We provided an exemplerary service and 90% of our business at the time was coming from personal recommendation. We simply did not have time to pander to the insecurity of the "awkward customer" at the expense of time we could spend working for other customers.

There were several customers that were given cards for other places to go and politely asked to elave the shop and not return.

I beleive that it stems from the fact that these people have little or no knowledge in the subject (computers/cars all the same) but they don't want you to know that so act like they do to protect themselves from being ripped off, totally forgetting the only reason they are there is because we had a great reputation for being honest and not ripping people off........

Owen

Anyway, getting back On Topic, I would have just given the guy back his money at this stage, but the bloody log book has gone off to Shannon, and it'll end up with 2 more owners on the book if we do that. So, I'm sticking to my guns, I'll let you know how we get on.

Darragh29

biko wrote:

I hope you're not located in Galway because I'm looking for a car and tbh you come across like a bit of a cnut.

Ned, the mileage is a bit of a hassle but as it was an honest mistake by the garage nothing can come from it. You're well covered.

I don't sell cars and reported for abuse.

Darragh29

ned78 wrote:

Anyway, getting back On Topic, I would have just given the guy back his money at this stage, but the bloody log book has gone off to Shannon, and it'll end up with 2 more owners on the book if we do that. So, I'm sticking to my guns, I'll let you know how we get on.

Just my advice but I don't think you should give an inch to twits like this. This guy is the type that if you offered him his money back, he wouldn't take it back, he'd be saying, "ah no, I was just making the point that I thought the mileage was dodgy, that's all!"... You can't please people like this no matter what you do, if you filled the car up with 50 Euro notes before giving him the keys, he'd be back in a week's time annoying you over something else. Tell him he's a time wasting pr*ck and be done with him...

Darragh29

scitpo wrote:

As I said I can empathise with the fair garage owner and I wish I knew some but your industries reputation precedes you. If a garage owner knows your not a soft touch then they will think twice about messing up your service or doing unessecary work to bump up your bill. Thats why people mightnt sound too friendly to you.

Yeah right. Firstly, a service provider is either honest and professional or is not. With a car comes car maintenance. If you don't trust someone to deal with your needs honestly, wtf are you doing bringing a car near them for work??? Nothing pisses me off more than someone coming into a garage with an "attitude". It's completely down to insecurity as OKenora has pointed out.

I go to great lengths to be as open and transparent with customers as I possibly can. We even go to the hassle of putting their service history online. We have a policy of showing customers old parts that we have replaced which they can take away if they wish. In this context, I simply haven't got time to endure the cynical clown who comes in with an attitude and wants me to jump through all sorts of phsycological hoops just so they can bring themselves to a point in their head that then can trust me enough to service their car. If I was the OP, I'd have seen the signs and told them I had another buyer who had just put down a deposit, "sorry"!

oleras

Darragh29 wrote:

Yeah right. Firstly, a service provider is either honest and professional or is not. With a car comes car maintenance. If you don't trust someone to deal with your needs honestly, wtf are you doing bringing a car near them for work??? Nothing pisses me off more than someone coming into a garage with an "attitude". It's completely down to insecurity as OKenora has pointed out.

I go to great lengths to be as open and transparent with customers as I possibly can. We even go to the hassle of putting their service history online. We have a policy of showing customers old parts that we have replaced which they can take away if they wish. In this context, I simply haven't got time to endure the cynical clown who comes in with an attitude and wants me to jump through all sorts of phsycological hoops just so they can bring themselves to a point in their head that then can trust me enough to service their car. If I was the OP, I'd have seen the signs and told them I had another buyer who had just put down a deposit, "sorry"!

@ned, i would get this bloke straightened out as fast as i could, with regard to going to your employer, as you work in the car business im sure your boss would not approve of rumours that his staff are selling clocked cars in their own time, guilt by association and all that.

@Darragh........ wow, thats some 'tude you have there, you must share what service industry you are in, just so i dont ever have the misfortune to use you.