Anyone bought a car through Car & Classic Auctions?

Anyone bought a car through Car & Classic Auctions?

Author
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livinginasia

Original Poster:

850 posts

111 months

Wednesday 29th September 2021
quotequote all
Hi,

I bid on an auction with Car & Classic website, and they are asking for a payment through "Mangopay" based in Luxemburg. HSBC think this is highly fishy - has anyone paid through them successfully please?

Many thanks


aland75

172 posts

78 months

Wednesday 5th July 2023
quotequote all
OP, what happened with your purchase (2 years ago!)
I've got suspicions about C&C also.

Edited by aland75 on Wednesday 5th July 15:13

livinginasia

Original Poster:

850 posts

111 months

Thursday 6th July 2023
quotequote all
Wow I forgot all about this !

I paid and picked up the car - all good. Very happy with it !

aland75

172 posts

78 months

Thursday 6th July 2023
quotequote all
Thanks for replying.
I'm in the process of buying a car - at the other end of the country - and the idea of paying £lots to 'Mangopay' (who have terrible reviews on trustpilot) before C&C will release the seller's contact details all seems a bit risky.
However, the reviews for C&C (from both buyers and sellers) are generally good. It's re-assuring to hear it worked out well for you.

I might have a new 'Reader's Cars' thread soon wink

livinginasia

Original Poster:

850 posts

111 months

Thursday 6th July 2023
quotequote all
Fantastic ! Hope it all goes well.

C&C aren’t a scam like all the ones in Facebook.

What car is it by the way?

Mine was an Austin Healey

aland75

172 posts

78 months

Thursday 6th July 2023
quotequote all
Jaguar XJS

aland75

172 posts

78 months

Thursday 3rd August 2023
quotequote all
Follow-up to this, for anyone who searches C&C and finds this thread.
As you can see from the above posts, I asked the OP about his experience buying a car through C&C, which was good. I also checked the many reviews on Trustpilot etc, all generally good.
Put in an offer on an XJS that looked very tidy, supported with clean MOT history.
Offer was accepted, get email from C&C requesting that money is paid into escrow account BEFORE they release the seller contact details.

Pay. Contact seller, discuss car, it's history, collection etc. He describes how wonderful it is, and states it's clean as a whistle, no rust - which agrees with the pictures and description online.
I'm in Bedfordshire, car in Glasgow. Book flight from Luton to Glasgow, day off work, take out insurance etc.

Fly up, taxi to his house. Have a look at car. Immediately find rust that has been painted over in wheel arches, and it's coming off in chunks under the rear floor, around rear subframe mounting areas. Discuss with seller who claims to know nothing about it, however offers to reduce price or cancel sale. I'd taken photos underneath and show him. I state this is significant and would need serious work soon.

C&C's website here states:"Once you've seen the vehicle and confirmed you're happy to proceed, we'll release your funds from our secure account and send them to the seller. If the vehicle isn't as described, you have the freedom to walk away and we'll refund you 100% of your money"

Agree to cancel sale as I'm not prepared to take on another project (and price wasn't project money), we shake on it, and he says he'll contact C&C to advise them we'd agreed to cancel the sale.

I get taxi back to airport and expensive same-day flight back home.

I call C&C from the airport, who ask me to send email with details and say they need to confirm with seller, then they'll refund money back to me. I send mail and include the photos of the rust issues I found.
Following day I chase C&C, who fob me off that they haven't had time to discuss with seller yet.
Eventually get email from them at 5pm ish (on a Friday) stating that they have discussed with seller, who thinks that I had no intention of buying the car and was just there to kick the tyres etc.
Further they say that the rust issues are not significant enough to consider it as mis-described and that I should have contacted the seller before putting in offer (expect they make it virtually impossible to do so, as they don't provide seller contact details and don't have a message relay facility).
Then they go onto say that the seller will be enforcing the sale as per point XYZ in their T&Cs and that he can change me storage fees if the car isn't collected by 1 week's time! censored

And for further misery, the seller is away for a week.
I dispute it with C&C, highlighting that the recent MOT may be dodgy as it should have at least had an advisory for rust near suspension 'prescribed areas', and that I wouldn't travel to Scotland and take out insurance if I had no intention to buy the car, however they simply ignore me, and reply 4 days later with pretty much a copy/paste of their previous mail.

Seller returns, also ignores my requests to cancel sale or at least significantly reduce price, and only states where I can collect car from.
I eventually get him on the phone and conveniently he's busy/working away so I can't collect for 9 days. Agree to collect from his house.

So yesterday, I flew back to Glasgow, met a sheepish seller who handed me the keys then closed his front door on me. censored
Drove car ~380 miles home - found many more issues that weren't described.

So now I have a car that is worth less than I paid for it, with a load of issues that weren't described, which will cost me £lots to sort out.

C&C were absolutely useless, saying they couldn't take sides and it was down to the buyer and seller to agree to proceed with a sale or not - (WE DID!) but it seems they were only interested in forcing the sale through in order to get their fee.
Because it's effectively a private sale (and they are just an advertising platform.... who control the money) I don't appear to have much of a case legally - or not without a very long fight.

All-in-all, it's been an unpleasant experience. and i'd suggest avoiding anything advertised through them!

jeff666

2,323 posts

192 months

Thursday 3rd August 2023
quotequote all
aland75 said:
Follow-up to this, for anyone who searches C&C and finds this thread.
As you can see from the above posts, I asked the OP about his experience buying a car through C&C, which was good. I also checked the many reviews on Trustpilot etc, all generally good.
Put in an offer on an XJS that looked very tidy, supported with clean MOT history.
Offer was accepted, get email from C&C requesting that money is paid into escrow account BEFORE they release the seller contact details.

Pay. Contact seller, discuss car, it's history, collection etc. He describes how wonderful it is, and states it's clean as a whistle, no rust - which agrees with the pictures and description online.
I'm in Bedfordshire, car in Glasgow. Book flight from Luton to Glasgow, day off work, take out insurance etc.

Fly up, taxi to his house. Have a look at car. Immediately find rust that has been painted over in wheel arches, and it's coming off in chunks under the rear floor, around rear subframe mounting areas. Discuss with seller who claims to know nothing about it, however offers to reduce price or cancel sale. I'd taken photos underneath and show him. I state this is significant and would need serious work soon.

C&C's website here states:"Once you've seen the vehicle and confirmed you're happy to proceed, we'll release your funds from our secure account and send them to the seller. If the vehicle isn't as described, you have the freedom to walk away and we'll refund you 100% of your money"

Agree to cancel sale as I'm not prepared to take on another project (and price wasn't project money), we shake on it, and he says he'll contact C&C to advise them we'd agreed to cancel the sale.

I get taxi back to airport and expensive same-day flight back home.

I call C&C from the airport, who ask me to send email with details and say they need to confirm with seller, then they'll refund money back to me. I send mail and include the photos of the rust issues I found.
Following day I chase C&C, who fob me off that they haven't had time to discuss with seller yet.
Eventually get email from them at 5pm ish (on a Friday) stating that they have discussed with seller, who thinks that I had no intention of buying the car and was just there to kick the tyres etc.
Further they say that the rust issues are not significant enough to consider it as mis-described and that I should have contacted the seller before putting in offer (expect they make it virtually impossible to do so, as they don't provide seller contact details and don't have a message relay facility).
Then they go onto say that the seller will be enforcing the sale as per point XYZ in their T&Cs and that he can change me storage fees if the car isn't collected by 1 week's time! censored

And for further misery, the seller is away for a week.
I dispute it with C&C, highlighting that the recent MOT may be dodgy as it should have at least had an advisory for rust near suspension 'prescribed areas', and that I wouldn't travel to Scotland and take out insurance if I had no intention to buy the car, however they simply ignore me, and reply 4 days later with pretty much a copy/paste of their previous mail.

Seller returns, also ignores my requests to cancel sale or at least significantly reduce price, and only states where I can collect car from.
I eventually get him on the phone and conveniently he's busy/working away so I can't collect for 9 days. Agree to collect from his house.

So yesterday, I flew back to Glasgow, met a sheepish seller who handed me the keys then closed his front door on me. censored
Drove car ~380 miles home - found many more issues that weren't described.

So now I have a car that is worth less than I paid for it, with a load of issues that weren't described, which will cost me £lots to sort out.

C&C were absolutely useless, saying they couldn't take sides and it was down to the buyer and seller to agree to proceed with a sale or not - (WE DID!) but it seems they were only interested in forcing the sale through in order to get their fee.
Because it's effectively a private sale (and they are just an advertising platform.... who control the money) I don't appear to have much of a case legally - or not without a very long fight.

All-in-all, it's been an unpleasant experience. and i'd suggest avoiding anything advertised through them!
Oh bugger,

that's not good, I was also looking at a couple on there. thanks for the review.

livinginasia

Original Poster:

850 posts

111 months

Thursday 3rd August 2023
quotequote all
Thank you for the feedback, that’s a real shame. My experience was brilliant. The Austin Healey I bought is amazing

It’s down to the honesty of the seller I guess.

916 sounds lovely !

JNW1

7,802 posts

195 months

Thursday 3rd August 2023
quotequote all
aland75 said:
Follow-up to this, for anyone who searches C&C and finds this thread.
As you can see from the above posts, I asked the OP about his experience buying a car through C&C, which was good. I also checked the many reviews on Trustpilot etc, all generally good.
Put in an offer on an XJS that looked very tidy, supported with clean MOT history.
Offer was accepted, get email from C&C requesting that money is paid into escrow account BEFORE they release the seller contact details.

Pay. Contact seller, discuss car, it's history, collection etc. He describes how wonderful it is, and states it's clean as a whistle, no rust - which agrees with the pictures and description online.
I'm in Bedfordshire, car in Glasgow. Book flight from Luton to Glasgow, day off work, take out insurance etc.

Fly up, taxi to his house. Have a look at car. Immediately find rust that has been painted over in wheel arches, and it's coming off in chunks under the rear floor, around rear subframe mounting areas. Discuss with seller who claims to know nothing about it, however offers to reduce price or cancel sale. I'd taken photos underneath and show him. I state this is significant and would need serious work soon.

C&C's website here states:"Once you've seen the vehicle and confirmed you're happy to proceed, we'll release your funds from our secure account and send them to the seller. If the vehicle isn't as described, you have the freedom to walk away and we'll refund you 100% of your money"

Agree to cancel sale as I'm not prepared to take on another project (and price wasn't project money), we shake on it, and he says he'll contact C&C to advise them we'd agreed to cancel the sale.

I get taxi back to airport and expensive same-day flight back home.

I call C&C from the airport, who ask me to send email with details and say they need to confirm with seller, then they'll refund money back to me. I send mail and include the photos of the rust issues I found.
Following day I chase C&C, who fob me off that they haven't had time to discuss with seller yet.
Eventually get email from them at 5pm ish (on a Friday) stating that they have discussed with seller, who thinks that I had no intention of buying the car and was just there to kick the tyres etc.
Further they say that the rust issues are not significant enough to consider it as mis-described and that I should have contacted the seller before putting in offer (expect they make it virtually impossible to do so, as they don't provide seller contact details and don't have a message relay facility).
Then they go onto say that the seller will be enforcing the sale as per point XYZ in their T&Cs and that he can change me storage fees if the car isn't collected by 1 week's time! censored

And for further misery, the seller is away for a week.
I dispute it with C&C, highlighting that the recent MOT may be dodgy as it should have at least had an advisory for rust near suspension 'prescribed areas', and that I wouldn't travel to Scotland and take out insurance if I had no intention to buy the car, however they simply ignore me, and reply 4 days later with pretty much a copy/paste of their previous mail.

Seller returns, also ignores my requests to cancel sale or at least significantly reduce price, and only states where I can collect car from.
I eventually get him on the phone and conveniently he's busy/working away so I can't collect for 9 days. Agree to collect from his house.

So yesterday, I flew back to Glasgow, met a sheepish seller who handed me the keys then closed his front door on me. censored
Drove car ~380 miles home - found many more issues that weren't described.

So now I have a car that is worth less than I paid for it, with a load of issues that weren't described, which will cost me £lots to sort out.

C&C were absolutely useless, saying they couldn't take sides and it was down to the buyer and seller to agree to proceed with a sale or not - (WE DID!) but it seems they were only interested in forcing the sale through in order to get their fee.
Because it's effectively a private sale (and they are just an advertising platform.... who control the money) I don't appear to have much of a case legally - or not without a very long fight.

All-in-all, it's been an unpleasant experience. and i'd suggest avoiding anything advertised through them!
That's an awful story and I can only sympathise.

I'm not familiar with C&C or how they operate but you'd think there should be some sort of arbitration process as part of their T&C's to cover this sort of eventuality (e.g. in the event of a disagreement between the seller and the prospective buyer an independent specialist is appointed to inspect the vehicle and their decision is binding). To just force a buyer to complete a sale on a vehicle that's been misrepresented by a dishonest seller is scandalous in my view.

I suppose C&C might say it's a buyer's responsibility to look at a car first - and satisfy themselves they're going to get what they think they're getting before making an offer - and I see that to some extent. However, in this age of sales being agreed at distance over the internet it should also be a seller's responsibility to describe their car honestly and it doesn't sound like yours did - not sure how he sleeps at night if he shook on an agreement to cancel the sale and then back-tracked and got C&C to force it through. However, if C&C are prepared to be a party to things like that they're an outfit best avoided IMO...

Pistom

4,978 posts

160 months

Thursday 3rd August 2023
quotequote all
I've also had no issues but then again, I didn't need to cancel buying the car. It was as described.

hunt123

282 posts

62 months

Thursday 3rd August 2023
quotequote all
Certainly put me off them.

Pistom

4,978 posts

160 months

Thursday 3rd August 2023
quotequote all
hunt123 said:
Certainly put me off them.
It is an awful experience and I get a sinking feeling for the poster here but there's lots of sales and I imagine the number that turn out like this must be low, otherwise the model breaks down.


aland75

172 posts

78 months

Friday 4th August 2023
quotequote all
I agree that for most sales, the system is fine, and most buyers are very happy.
It's when it goes wrong, and you THINK you have the protection that if the car isn't as described you'll get your money back - however they don't state that that's only if the seller is honest and agrees when they call them. I suspect they may have 'put words in his mouth' as clearly they're only interested in getting their fee, whatever that takes.
I have left a suitable Trustpilot review also, but as there are so many good ones, it won't affect their overall score by much.

While the listing link is still working, it's here for anyone interested.
I think you'd agree that it looks excellent.

I'm not sure what I'll do with it now. My love for this one has vaporized with the unpleasant journey to get this far.
I'll either sort it's rust issues (and various other faults I've found) and re-sell it in a few months to try to recover most of the money, or store it and spend more time with a more thorough overhaul next year, when I have time. I have a XKR restoration project in my garage currently, and until that's done, I can't spend too much time on this.

livinginasia

Original Poster:

850 posts

111 months

Friday 4th August 2023
quotequote all
aland75 said:
I agree that for most sales, the system is fine, and most buyers are very happy.
It's when it goes wrong, and you THINK you have the protection that if the car isn't as described you'll get your money back - however they don't state that that's only if the seller is honest and agrees when they call them. I suspect they may have 'put words in his mouth' as clearly they're only interested in getting their fee, whatever that takes.
I have left a suitable Trustpilot review also, but as there are so many good ones, it won't affect their overall score by much.

While the listing link is still working, it's here for anyone interested.
I think you'd agree that it looks excellent.

I'm not sure what I'll do with it now. My love for this one has vaporized with the unpleasant journey to get this far.
I'll either sort it's rust issues (and various other faults I've found) and re-sell it in a few months to try to recover most of the money, or store it and spend more time with a more thorough overhaul next year, when I have time. I have a XKR restoration project in my garage currently, and until that's done, I can't spend too much time on this.
Really sorry to hear this - that certainly has put me off C&C. It’s the old adage, anyone can run a business when things go well, but it’s what they do when there is a problem that counts.

The Jag does look amazing in the photos, that’s for sure.

Pistom

4,978 posts

160 months

Friday 4th August 2023
quotequote all
That does look OK for the age. I'm taken by it.

Even zooming in on the photos shows little to be worried about.

Bad form on C&C to support an unsatisfactory outcome.

It would be better all round if they allowed a buyer to back out - even if that means unhappy sellers claiming time wasters, that would give more confidence than even a few examples like this.

aland75

172 posts

78 months

Friday 4th August 2023
quotequote all
Besides the 'hidden' rust issues underneath, I keep finding things that the photos deliberately missed.
EG;
- There is paintwork/clearcoat damage on the center of the bootlid. The photos show each side of the bootlid, but not the center.
- The center chrome of the front bumper is rusty and lifting - you really have to go looking in the photos to see that.
- The plastic cover of the front bumper has cracks and hazing - deliberately missed out in photos
- The photos showing the floors under the front carpets - however miss that if the carpet was rolled back 1" more there is a nasty welded patch, which hasn't been finished very well (or pained over) and is now rusty.

AFAIK C&C send out a photographer to take these - and it seems to me that they deliberately photograph it in a way to miss issues.

And that's before I start on the list of faults that I've found that weren't mentioned, eg suspension knocks and creaks.

Trevor555

4,457 posts

85 months

Friday 4th August 2023
quotequote all
aland75 said:
Besides the 'hidden' rust issues underneath, I keep finding things that the photos deliberately missed.
EG;
- There is paintwork/clearcoat damage on the center of the bootlid. The photos show each side of the bootlid, but not the center.
- The center chrome of the front bumper is rusty and lifting - you really have to go looking in the photos to see that.
- The plastic cover of the front bumper has cracks and hazing - deliberately missed out in photos
- The photos showing the floors under the front carpets - however miss that if the carpet was rolled back 1" more there is a nasty welded patch, which hasn't been finished very well (or pained over) and is now rusty.

AFAIK C&C send out a photographer to take these - and it seems to me that they deliberately photograph it in a way to miss issues.

And that's before I start on the list of faults that I've found that weren't mentioned, eg suspension knocks and creaks.
I'd be interested to hear a legal person's view of all this.

I'm sure C&C will tell you that they are only an advertising platform, yet they've handled your money?

They took the decision to pass your money to the seller?

So had you chosen not to collect this car, who would you have to pursue to get your money back?

Op, did you seek any legal advice?

And now that you've bought the car, it seems its been miss described?

Presume you've printed off the sellers description?

Maybe you should take some legal advice now?


Edited by Trevor555 on Friday 4th August 12:16

aland75

172 posts

78 months

Friday 4th August 2023
quotequote all
Trevor555 said:
I'd be interested to hear a legal person's view of all this.
So would I!

Trevor555 said:
I'm sure C&C will tell you that they are only an advertising platform, yet they've handled your money?

They took the decision to pass your money to the seller?
Yes.

Trevor555 said:
So had you chosen not to collect this car, who would you have to pursue to get your money back?
There's another twist. C&C mailed me last week to say as X days had passed since the transaction finished, they would release the funds from escrow to the seller! So at that point, the seller had the money AND the car, and was unavailable so I couldn't collect it.
I would have had to peruse the seller, who clearly had no interest in paying me back.

Trevor555 said:
Op, did you seek any legal advice?
I checked with citizen's advice. Essentially, because it's a private sale, they aren't interested. But as you highlight, C&C handled the money transfer and elected to release that money to the seller despite the issues I raised.

Trevor555 said:
And now that you've bought the car, it seems its been miss described?
Absolutely, there are many areas that are mis-described, either by deliberate omission (photos, rust issues) or debatable things like how genuine the MOT is. I'm certain that if I put this in for an MOT now, it would fail (or at least get an advisory) for the rust in 'prescribed areas' (I have spoken to an MOT tester I know and showed him the photos.
However doing that, would negatively affect the car's value, which doesn't help me at this point. So I'd rather repair those issues before it goes for it's next MOT.

Trevor555 said:
Presume you've printed off the sellers description?
Yes, saved that C&C listing and downloaded every photo from it.

Trevor555 said:
Maybe you should take some legal advice now?
Maybe. I was reluctant to get in to a drawn-out fight that would cost me at each stage in legal fees, with no guarantee of recovering my money (and fees) at the end of it. I've experienced the small claims court before and it wasn't quick.
At least by just collecting the car and sorting it out, I have the option to sell it on and recover most/all of the money in a reasonable timeframe.

Trevor555

4,457 posts

85 months

Friday 4th August 2023
quotequote all
Understand all that aland75

But it grates me, and I'm sure it does you, that C&C and seller, have got away with that.

The likes of autotrader, ebay, get away with being just an advertising platform, but they don't handle your money.

I hope you can find peace in your mind with it all and move forward.