My recent car buying experiance - Cool Story Bro etc
Discussion
I'd found a car that I wanted a few weeks ago from a multi national, as I'm not shaming them it's Evans Halshaw.
Rang up and arranged for car to come to my EH local dealer on payment of £200 deposit, did on credit card to give some protection.
Next day went to garage to look at a balance to change figure, the quote I got included:
6 months RFL - OK
GAP
2 Year warranty ( on an 18 month old car?)
Tyre protction
Admin fee
My response was I dont want any of the above, make the RFL 12 months because pro rata is cheaper.
Can't remove the admin fee sir, it protects you against us selling a stolen car. At the same time there was a young lad having his pants pulled down taking everything he was offered.
OK lets put it this was my balance to change figure is £10500 end of.
Sale man goes away and "business manager comes to see me. Tries to sell me a pcp, I'm a cash buyer, but in his eyes its better for me to have a PCP at 8% and keep my savings for something else, making it clear that these are saving for a car and not the only savings I have and my balance to change figure is £10500.
He draws me a car and then shows me what a PCP is, I have to admit to being rude and multasking at that stage reading my emails, but I do round off and correct his drawing of a car and how a PCP works by colouring in some of the car in a different shade to indicate the 8% intrest.
He is getting the message but not 100%, as he is a manager £10500 is the best I'll pay, so he goes off and sales man returns car to chage is £10598.98, yes the compulsor admin fee.
I'm getting there and fighting my corner, so ask what the T&Cs of the admin fee are, but I can't see those until I sign an order form. £10500 it is oh and by the way here is my Credit card so you can refund my deposit if you can't remove the admin fee.
You've guessed it Admin fee removed.
Saw the car yesterday and its good, sale rep too busy to see me ( not a problem) but opens the car any way from the comfort of the show room. Able to find service history of previous owner and contact number, quick photo of that then and rang over last night, car is straigh and owner a true gent.
So in conclusion, stick to your guns on a car sale, if not there are other cars about that will be suitable for you.
Rang up and arranged for car to come to my EH local dealer on payment of £200 deposit, did on credit card to give some protection.
Next day went to garage to look at a balance to change figure, the quote I got included:
6 months RFL - OK
GAP
2 Year warranty ( on an 18 month old car?)
Tyre protction
Admin fee
My response was I dont want any of the above, make the RFL 12 months because pro rata is cheaper.
Can't remove the admin fee sir, it protects you against us selling a stolen car. At the same time there was a young lad having his pants pulled down taking everything he was offered.
OK lets put it this was my balance to change figure is £10500 end of.
Sale man goes away and "business manager comes to see me. Tries to sell me a pcp, I'm a cash buyer, but in his eyes its better for me to have a PCP at 8% and keep my savings for something else, making it clear that these are saving for a car and not the only savings I have and my balance to change figure is £10500.
He draws me a car and then shows me what a PCP is, I have to admit to being rude and multasking at that stage reading my emails, but I do round off and correct his drawing of a car and how a PCP works by colouring in some of the car in a different shade to indicate the 8% intrest.
He is getting the message but not 100%, as he is a manager £10500 is the best I'll pay, so he goes off and sales man returns car to chage is £10598.98, yes the compulsor admin fee.
I'm getting there and fighting my corner, so ask what the T&Cs of the admin fee are, but I can't see those until I sign an order form. £10500 it is oh and by the way here is my Credit card so you can refund my deposit if you can't remove the admin fee.
You've guessed it Admin fee removed.
Saw the car yesterday and its good, sale rep too busy to see me ( not a problem) but opens the car any way from the comfort of the show room. Able to find service history of previous owner and contact number, quick photo of that then and rang over last night, car is straigh and owner a true gent.
So in conclusion, stick to your guns on a car sale, if not there are other cars about that will be suitable for you.
.so just to clarify you wanted them to refund the £200 deposit and cancel the sale? As a result they waved the admin fee and I assume still subtracted your deposit from the total amount due?
Admin fees are a total joke I would go to any lengths to avoid paying, walking away from a sale usually does it!
Not letting someone see t&cs before signing sounds very dubious.
A good line which can help in many situations of purchase is: it is a criminal offence at board level to misrepresent a customers rights - if you mention that to someone at ground level you usually find you get bumped up the chain of command pretty quickly!!
Admin fees are a total joke I would go to any lengths to avoid paying, walking away from a sale usually does it!
Not letting someone see t&cs before signing sounds very dubious.
A good line which can help in many situations of purchase is: it is a criminal offence at board level to misrepresent a customers rights - if you mention that to someone at ground level you usually find you get bumped up the chain of command pretty quickly!!
E36Ross said:
A main dealer let me walk over €30 (£26) a few weeks back!
Their loss, their livelihood relies on selling cars and unless it was particularly rare there is a ready supply of alternative vehicles.Liking the T&Cs idea, I've always just flatly refused to pay an admin charge and they've always capitulated, but it's good to have something else to fall back on.
I bought a Qashqai from Evans Halshaw about 4 years ago and had a similar convo. They tried to charge me the £99 and when I queried it they said it was to cover things like the cost of doing an HPI check. I explained if I was buying a car from a reputable dealer I would expect it to have been checked for Finance and any markers already. They waived the charge.
Carshop are the same. And stubborn to the point of actually losing a cash sale as I walked out after refusing to pay for it when I asked what it was for and they just keep saying ' our admin'
Your admin is a fixed cost and I'm not paying it. It was really annoying as it was a nice car.
All they had to do was add it to the price of the car and not mention it and I would have still paid it.
Fools.
Your admin is a fixed cost and I'm not paying it. It was really annoying as it was a nice car.
All they had to do was add it to the price of the car and not mention it and I would have still paid it.
Fools.
Yeah, I had this once...a £36 admin charge on a used motorbike purchase.
We'd agreed a fair deal, then the admin charge was added to the invoice...I'm sorry what?
Felt a bit of a dick arguing over 36 quid but it's the principle, it just seemed wrong.
We sat there in a stale mate for a while before the dealer gave me a "gesture of goodwill" and discounted the bike by the £36...he was at pains to tell me that under no circumstances should I think he was waiving the admin fee, but he was discounting the bike further.
Bit of an odd one!
We'd agreed a fair deal, then the admin charge was added to the invoice...I'm sorry what?
Felt a bit of a dick arguing over 36 quid but it's the principle, it just seemed wrong.
We sat there in a stale mate for a while before the dealer gave me a "gesture of goodwill" and discounted the bike by the £36...he was at pains to tell me that under no circumstances should I think he was waiving the admin fee, but he was discounting the bike further.
Bit of an odd one!
I once spent months searching long and hard for a car in specific spec. Eventually I found "the" car at Cargiant in London. I did a bit of research about the company before I went along to look at the car, so I knew what to expect.
I was a cash buyer on a £15k car and told them this. I said I was only interested in buying the car, not the GardX crap, GAP insurance and "special warranty" they were pushing for. It was so frustrating though, the sales patter obviously was drummed into them by management but it just wasted so much time. My OH and I were sat there for probably 45-60 minutes longer than neccessary, because the guy kept going on about these "special extras". I repeatedly told the guy I wasn't buying any special extras, just a car. Eventually I was allowed to leave, having bought just the car. They also stick on a £99 admin fee, which I think is a total con.
I was a cash buyer on a £15k car and told them this. I said I was only interested in buying the car, not the GardX crap, GAP insurance and "special warranty" they were pushing for. It was so frustrating though, the sales patter obviously was drummed into them by management but it just wasted so much time. My OH and I were sat there for probably 45-60 minutes longer than neccessary, because the guy kept going on about these "special extras". I repeatedly told the guy I wasn't buying any special extras, just a car. Eventually I was allowed to leave, having bought just the car. They also stick on a £99 admin fee, which I think is a total con.
Stormfly1985 said:
People should charge car dealers an admin fee when they buy a car. Just say it's to cover your time spent in the dealership when you could be doing something else! 
Good idea, slide an invoice over the desk to them when they present theirs, explain it's for your time listening to all the carp about GAP, Scotchguard etc.DoubleD said:
Surely the important thing when buying a car is the overall cost versus the overall cost at a rival dealer, rather than worrying about an admin fee. I agree that its an odd way to do it, but all dealers have admin costs that they add onto the price of the car.
I agree that it is all about the cost to change and how the dealer cooks the books to get to that figure is up to them.However the OP said they said they had 10550 as a cost to change and that was the max yet that message took a while to go through.
Grunt Futtock said:
Stormfly1985 said:
People should charge car dealers an admin fee when they buy a car. Just say it's to cover your time spent in the dealership when you could be doing something else!
Good idea, slide an invoice over the desk to them when they present theirs, explain it's for your time listening to all the carp about GAP, Scotchguard etc.Give them an invoice to match theirs - and tell them that your admin charges are now running at £1/minute.
If they want to leave you sitting there whilst talking to their business manager, that's fine, but you'll need to add this up and revise your invoice before funds are transferred.
I'd love to see the look on their faces
Motorrad said:
E36Ross said:
A main dealer let me walk over €30 (£26) a few weeks back!
Their loss, their livelihood relies on selling cars and unless it was particularly rare there is a ready supply of alternative vehicles.If it was a good car I would say in this case the OP is really cutting of his nose for the sake of a principle and £26.
Nanook said:
Monkeylegend said:
Not really their loss, they still have the car and will sell it to somebody else.
If it was a good car I would say in this case the OP is really cutting of his nose for the sake of a principle and £26.
If you think a car is worth x amount, or you only have a certain amount to spend, where do you draw the line?If it was a good car I would say in this case the OP is really cutting of his nose for the sake of a principle and £26.
Only an extra £1000? £100? £26?
I can be a good car, and still not be worth what they're asking.
If you ordered a meal, based on the prices on the menu, then the bill came and there was an extra £26 charge on there that you weren't told about, would you happily pay it?
Madness I tell ye
Had exactly the same conversation when buying 2007 Mini Cooper S from Peter Vardy in Edinburgh.
Price tag at £7,999 on the window.
Go to pay for it and he says that's £7,999 plus admin fee of something like £100 to £200. Please sign here for £8,199.
My friend is the quieter type so gave me the nudge and his confused look.
It took quite a push from me and then the bringing out of the sales manager who again tried to explain to me what his Admin fee was for.
I turned it into an example in the industry I worked in. Product priced at X.. you pay X. Advertised at X and it is X.. simple as that. Imagine you walked into my work and I tacked on a random fee and told you it was a charge for my administrative assistants to work through the paperwork of the sale. What would you say?
Round we went and I laughed out loud at all the b4lls that was coming out of their mouths.
Conclusion, it was waivered and we bought the car.
I am on the exact same page as the chap who said they should have just advertised the car for £8,199 and we would have paid that. Strange world. How to really p1ss off a customer.
RW
Price tag at £7,999 on the window.
Go to pay for it and he says that's £7,999 plus admin fee of something like £100 to £200. Please sign here for £8,199.
My friend is the quieter type so gave me the nudge and his confused look.
It took quite a push from me and then the bringing out of the sales manager who again tried to explain to me what his Admin fee was for.
I turned it into an example in the industry I worked in. Product priced at X.. you pay X. Advertised at X and it is X.. simple as that. Imagine you walked into my work and I tacked on a random fee and told you it was a charge for my administrative assistants to work through the paperwork of the sale. What would you say?
Round we went and I laughed out loud at all the b4lls that was coming out of their mouths.
Conclusion, it was waivered and we bought the car.
I am on the exact same page as the chap who said they should have just advertised the car for £8,199 and we would have paid that. Strange world. How to really p1ss off a customer.
RW
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