Catherine J

BUYER BEWARE

DO NOT BUY A CAR FROM UNITED CAR CENTRE NORTHEND. I do not want anyone else to have to go through what I have. You may be lucky and get a car with no faults. However….. I bought a car from United Car Centre at the end of February 2018. I could have paid less buying privately, but I wanted the reassurance of buying from a trader. The before sales service was just about adequate, although I did feel uneasy that I had to point out faults not raised by the garage (the central locking not working at all and trims missing) and although advertised as having been serviced it had not been at the point of test drive (I was told this was done just before I picked it up). I was also sold an additional warranty, which on reflection was totally unnecessary. There was no negotiation on price and all the faults weren’t fully fixed when I picked up the car. I was advised I could return at a later date and have them fully fixed. I had owned the car for just 17 days, during which time I used it for normal, short distance commuting, when it broke down. My roadside assistance mechanic said there was a costly mechanical fault in the engine. He was also not convinced by the quality of the oil and questioned whether a service had actually happened. I easily researched my options through Trading Standards/Citizens Advice and was relieved to find that under the Consumer Rights Act 2015 there is a 30 day short term right to return clause for faulty goods, which included cars bought from a trader, (I was well within the 30 days!). I called the garage the next day and asked them to collect the car and let them know that I wanted refund of the purchase price. I was initially told by United Car Centre that I had to organise the return of the car to them. When I quoted the CAB advice that it is the trader’s responsibility to recover the car they sent someone to collect it the following day ‘To start the refund process’. This is where the real problems began. On calling the garage to find out when the refund was going to be made, now they had the car in their possession, I was told very abruptly by ‘The Manager’ (who I later was told was called Nas, but was always referred to by the garage as ‘The Manager’) that I would not receive a refund until they had their mechanic look at the car (that’s fair enough I thought) but this would be ‘when they could fit it’. When I said this was not reasonable, he became irate and I had to tell him to stop shouting at me. I reiterated to the garage that until this was resolved I was without a car or the funds to purchase another one. The manager was very difficult to get hold of but I was eventually offered a refund of what I had paid minus £300, as I had driven the car and they would have to add another owner when they resell it. I kept telling them that the vehicle was faulty and that it was not acceptable for the engine to have failed so quickly after I had bought it, so I was entitled to a full refund. Any suggestions I made about having a full refund were met with aggressive replies and how I should not expect to have had the best car when buying second hand. It was then that the manager told me if I did not accept his offer I would ‘be on my own’, that I would have to prove to a court that there was a fault with the car when I bought it and it would take me 6 months and more money to try and get any more than they had offered back. With the advice & reassurance of the CAB, a limited amount of money to hire a car twice and supportive friends able to lend me a car, I was lucky enough to be able to pursue my claim for a full refund through the court process. Along the way United Car Centre did everything they could to ensure it did take the 6 months they had threatened (they must have done this before to know it could take this long!) and even reduced there offer during the process to reduce the refund amount to £500 less than the purchase price. In addition to this: They re-sold my car before the case had gone to court, without my consent(I found this out after receiving a letter from the DVLA to find out if I had sold the car or had it stolen, as it was being registered in someone else’s name) They falsely returned the court’s letters as ‘addressee gone away’ so didn’t attend the hearing. When the judgment was reached in their absence, as I could prove they were still trading at the address, they contacted the court to say they wanted to appeal the decision (and therefore delay payment even further), as they were unaware of the date, time or location of the hearing (due to not receiving the letters they had returned). They then threatened me with the further delay of appealing if I did not meet with the manager at the garage. It was only when I called their bluff about the appeal (due to the £255 court fee it would have cost them to do so) After still not receiving my refund (plus costs by this stage) I told United Car Centre that I would start collection proceedings that would cost them further. It was only then that I received the settlement into my account It took me over 6 months, an extra £452.36 (which could have been more had it not been for extremely helpful friends) and a massive amount of stress and time invested in the process to finally get my refund from United Car Centre for a car I drove for 17 days. I am not able to say whether United Car Centre knowingly sold me a faulty car but I am absolutely certain that they are fully aware of the rights of their customers and how to manipulate the system to ensure that they do not have to adhere to the law in regard to those rights.