Worst secondhand car buying experience ever

[Hannah B]

Our worst car buying experience ever - horrendous! I cannot underestimate how shocked we were at how Bullitt Cars in North London refused to refund us our money when we rejected a faulty car.

 

We bought a car for over £12,000 and the first time it rained it was clear that the roof was leaking. We returned the car to reject it as is our right under the Sales of Goods Act 1979 as it was not fit for purpose and they refused to refund us our money.

 

They then drove and fixed the car without our permission and attempted to force us to pick the car up by charging us £30 a day storage. The police were contacted who notified them they were acting outside the law but they continued on with the same threat.

 

They refused to tell us what work had been done on the car or who did the work. We even offered to sell it back at a loss but their counter offer was for us to lose over £1,000. When told we were going to inform other consumers about them they threatened to sue us for libel if we posted bad feedback unless it was done after we won a court case against them.

 

We are shocked and appalled that a Bullitt Cars could act in this way and it is experiences like these that we feel make people wary of buying from dodgy car dealers.

[Conniff]

Welcome Hannah B. Have you started court proceedings ??

[king12345]

I'm pretty sure that a car with a leaking roof is considered unfit for purpose.

Follow the procedure:

-Stop driving the car and let them know that they need to pick it up.

- written complaint and request of full refund within 7 days

- Letter before court action

- Court action.

 

They haven't got a leg to stand on.

Don't accept any telephone call, keep thing neatly in writing.

Sue you for libel???

LOL!

Unless they're swimming in money it's practically impossible

[Hannah B]

We have done everything possible to get them to refund our money. We stopped driving the car immediately and returned it to them with a letter telling them we were rejecting it and didnt want a repair. We stated in writing in 2 letters and many emails we did not want a repair. We have done all the letters as required and now about to start court proceedings.

 

What is annoying is that it will cost us £600 to register the claim (which we get back if we win) but we can only claim around 70%-80% of our fees back. So even if we win it will cost us around £800 (as it's over the £10k small claims limit). We dont have a choice as we dont want a faulty car back but they clearly know how much it will cost us which is why they have just said 'take us to court.'

 

We know 100% we will win - and in case anyone ever takes a car back and they fix it without your permission the court case to quote is :

 

Bowes v J Richardson & Son Rugby County Court, 28 January 2004. The Sale of Goods Act was applied in reverse, when considering whether a seller has accepted a buyer's rejection of goods. The Defendant had carried out repairs without Mr Bowes’ authority. In doing this, they had acted in a manner inconsistent with Mr Bowes' ownership, thereby accepting that the car had been rejected. They were bound by their acceptance of Mr Bowes’ rejection, even if he had not in fact been entitled to reject the car.

 

The other court case consumers should know about isClegg v Olle Andersson, 2003 which is about returning something that was not fit for purpose.

 

All they have done is claimed they have a right to fix it, which they dont. The tactic of trying to force us to pick the car up or they would put it in storage was a clever one but at 5pm on the deadline day they emailed to say they would not do this as they 'didnt want to put the financial burden on us'. We knew all along it was outside the law - as confirmed by the police and our solicitor and yet they still try to claim some form of moral high ground!

[Conniff]

Hannah, can you give us details from purchase along with dates how this has progressed to date please ?

[Hannah B]

23/8 car purchased

26/8 it rained and water poured in the roof

27/8 car returned and rejected in writing. They refused to accept the rejection as claimed the roof was put on incorrectly and it was their legal right to fix it. They tightened 2 internal discs by hand (didn’t fix anything just untighened 2 discs that tightend the removalble roof), sprayed water over the car and claimed there was nothing wrong with it. Told us as it was not fault we could not return it.

30/8 it rained and water poured in the roof

1/9 returned and rejected in writing infrming them we didn’t want it repaired only a full refund

Since then they have admitted the seal has gone in the roof, we told them we did not want it repaired but they repaired it against our wishes and are refusing a full refund

[Conniff]

That looks fine. That timeline would say you cannot be deemed to have accepted the car which would then give the seller the right to chose the method to move forward either repair, replace or refund.

[Hannah B]

thanks - we know we will win the court case but it's very annoying that they will clearly wait until we have issued court proceedings until refunding us. If they had taken any leagal advice thorough the process they know they dont have a leg to stand on, however it will still cost us £600 to do this which we wont get back. We feel they just want us to that so that we spend more money on it so they can claim a victory of sorts.

[Conniff]

Keep detailed records of every penny and how you spent them. As you have a right to be put back to the position you were before purchase, after you've been to court, (that's if they don't bottle out, most do), then you could consider issuing a small claim for the rest.

[oddjobbob]

I don't want to rain on anyone's parade (sic) but I'm pretty sure you have to give them an opportunity to fix it before full rejection, and, let's face it, it is NOT a major mechanical fault, merely a seal.

 

TBQH if it IS now fixed and fixed properly then you might be as well to go and pick it up.