Samantha H

Shocking Experience £727 lost.So upset.

We put our car into a Dealer Auction via Carwow. Hilton Garage won the auction and therefore provisionally bought our car. The day of collection they sent out a car transporter to collect the car. After umming and ahhing he advised that the garage may take some money off the agreed price as there ‘extra scratches’. He would need to speak to them and they would come back with a revised figure. 20 minutes later he advised that the new price would be ‘Six and a Half’. Being that the agreed sale figure was £6777, I assumed the new price was £6500. Disappointed but in the back of my mind I expected they would try this and we had moved on and bought an another car already I reluctantly agreed. Bear in mind I was on my own, with my six month old who was upset as she is at that age, my 5 year old who was off school at the time and the collection had been going on for an hour or so at this point. I signed the esign document. The transporter advised he now needed to wait for the money to land in my account but he said he was in a rush and asked if he could leave my car for now and come back later- he would call to check the money had landed and collect 2-3 hours later (he already had a car on his trailer). Around 30 minutes later he called again and asked me to check my account and my heart sank- they had only transferred £6050, £727 less than agreed! I advised that “this is not right, please do NOT take my car, the figure is incorrect, I will call the garage to advise.” I called them, no one available to take my call so left a message with sales team. 45 mins passed with no call back. I called again, still no one available from transport team so I left another message. I went outside to check the car which had now disappeared (again the transporter had said he would come back in a few hours and been explicitly told by myself there is an issue with funds and do not collect). The car had disappeared. At this point I am hysterical, everyone is ignoring me and I don’t know what to do. I informed my partner who rushed home from work, calling the garage all the way home (30 min drive). They advised (recorded phone call to prove) that ‘There is nothing we can do, the car is now OURS, your wife signed the document and that is the end of the matter’. My partner advised that I would never have agreed to that figure, she has called several times to speak the garage and has been unable to do so as no one is available and no one’s calls back. He informed them they need to return the vehicle as we do not agree with the revised figure and would like a call back from a manager. 30 minutes later the transport manager called him and further advised that ‘they would not return the car, it’s my wife’s fault for not reading the documents correctly and that’s the end of the matter’. So, they agreed the price based on extensive photographs which were obviously accurate. This car has done 20,000 miles, is 9 years old with full service and is almost showroom condition. Came to collect it, advised they would only pay £6500. I reluctantly agreed, as I was stressed and just wanted all this to be over, then sent £6050. I explicitly told them that is incorrect DO NOT take the car. They came back and then took the car. I have loads of evidence of all of the conversations, this above is a 100% accurate description of events, I ‘feel’ like I have been robbed, I’m really upset as money is tight- I would have never agreed to this figure and fell I am out of pocket at least £450 as that is what I was told was the new figure. We are short on bills now this month, £727 less is so much money to us we would NEVER have agreed to this. We have already taken this to the Motoring Ombudsman but we feel like people have a right to know just how bad our experience was and how far these companies are now going to make more money out of people. This weekend we will also be writing to Watchdog as after research it seems this kind of practice is on the rise. Just to reiterate, this is 100% how this happened- I asked them NOT to take my car as they had sent the incorrect figure- they took it regardless and then said ‘there’s nothing we can do- the car is now ours’. The feeling after someone dupes you into something like this is horrible and I’m still really upset that this can happen…