Discussion
Why do sellers, particularly main dealerships, stick £149 (how do you work that out?) onto the list price? Appalling psychology! So- called supermarkets also attempt this futile deception. Why? The resulting resentment from punters must lose sales. Been looking at “good” used stuff and this put me off on principle.The irony being that some cars are still well priced but I have no wish to pay this “fine”.
I wouldn’t pay it either. My brother walked out of a car supermarket place last week. Point blank not paying it. There are plenty of other places to buy without.
I’m surprised more people don’t object or walk out. It must cost them loads of sales. It’s like just eat. I now just call my local takeout as there admin fees, card fees and delivery fees for my local takeout amount to nearly £4.
I can ring the SAME local takeout and they deliver for free and don’t charge a fee for online payment. Oh and there prices are lower direct from them as just eat have to be paid by them as well.
I’m surprised more people don’t object or walk out. It must cost them loads of sales. It’s like just eat. I now just call my local takeout as there admin fees, card fees and delivery fees for my local takeout amount to nearly £4.
I can ring the SAME local takeout and they deliver for free and don’t charge a fee for online payment. Oh and there prices are lower direct from them as just eat have to be paid by them as well.
Purely and simply its a way to make their cars appear cheaper than they actually are "ooh that cars is identical and it's £150 cheaper than that one" once there and ready to sign up, you're hit with the "admin fee" which has been in the (very) small print all along, its b
ks.
I'm fortunate that the dealership I work for doesn't have an "admin fee" and they also advertise that fact too.
ks.I'm fortunate that the dealership I work for doesn't have an "admin fee" and they also advertise that fact too.
Lester H said:
Why do sellers, particularly main dealerships, stick £149 (how do you work that out?) onto the list price? Appalling psychology! So- called supermarkets also attempt this futile deception. Why? The resulting resentment from punters must lose sales. Been looking at “good” used stuff and this put me off on principle.The irony being that some cars are still well priced but I have no wish to pay this “fine”.
It's just another in a long line of dodgy sales tactics designed to get the customer in the door and emotionally committed to buying before it's sprung on them at the very end where they'll feel like "timewasters" for backing out for "such a small amount".I'm sure a car salesman will be along shortly to say that it's in the terms and conditions etc....to which my reply would be if it's that obvious and transparent it would make more sense to just have it added to the screen price to start with.
They must make a fortune over a year with these “admin fees”.
A couple of years ago I went with my dad to buy a new(to him) car from Toyota. A rav 4 at £11500. Really nice spec, he really wanted this particular car.
Doing the paperwork this admin fee tripe came up. My Dad was going to just pay it for an easy life, I told the salesman we will walk over the £149 admin fee. He reckoned the fee was non negotiable, I said ok and asked him to remove £149 from the sale price instead. He said I’ll have to clear it with the sales manager.
2 mins later he returned and spouted some ste about it being our lucky day and he caught him in a good mood and we could have the car at £11500 inc all fees. The invoice read Admin Fee £0.
I wouldn’t mind betting most people wouldn’t even question it. In our case, I called their bluff and dad would have paid the fee to have that particular car. £149 is better in your pocket than theirs.
I doubt it’s something I’ll need to worry about for some time though as I generally drive cheap stters.
A couple of years ago I went with my dad to buy a new(to him) car from Toyota. A rav 4 at £11500. Really nice spec, he really wanted this particular car.
Doing the paperwork this admin fee tripe came up. My Dad was going to just pay it for an easy life, I told the salesman we will walk over the £149 admin fee. He reckoned the fee was non negotiable, I said ok and asked him to remove £149 from the sale price instead. He said I’ll have to clear it with the sales manager.
2 mins later he returned and spouted some s
te about it being our lucky day and he caught him in a good mood and we could have the car at £11500 inc all fees. The invoice read Admin Fee £0.I wouldn’t mind betting most people wouldn’t even question it. In our case, I called their bluff and dad would have paid the fee to have that particular car. £149 is better in your pocket than theirs.
I doubt it’s something I’ll need to worry about for some time though as I generally drive cheap s
tters.2 sMoKiN bArReLs said:
Ever flown with Ryanair? 
O/T but a few weeks ago I was booking flights to Portugal, through Skyscanner the flights were something like £120 each return with Ryanair. Add luggage and seat selection and the price went up to over £800 each!
Booked direct through Ryanair for £180 each including luggage etc. I have no idea if it was just a glitch but it did make me laugh.
HTP99 said:
Purely and simply its a way to make their cars appear cheaper than they actually are "ooh that cars is identical and it's £150 cheaper than that one" once there and ready to sign up, you're hit with the "admin fee" which has been in the (very) small print all along, its bks.
I'm fortunate that the dealership I work for doesn't have an "admin fee" and they also advertise that fact too.
The correct approach On a “big ticket” item like a decent car this should be absorbed (if it even exists). The admin when I sold cars at a little independent took all of 15mins. If the bigger players need to sign folk up for PCP they will recoup that anyway. Admin fee = terrible marketing.ks.I'm fortunate that the dealership I work for doesn't have an "admin fee" and they also advertise that fact too.
Cut and paste from another site.
"If a dealer doesn’t display the full price of a car, including any mandatory admin fee, it's contravening the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008, because doing so is classed as a ‘misleading action’."
https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-brie...
On page 6 and 7 of the PDF.
The government even has a handy booklet on what you should and should not do as a car dealer.
https://www.businesscompanion.info/sites/default/f...
Page 12 footnote #9
"If a dealer doesn’t display the full price of a car, including any mandatory admin fee, it's contravening the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008, because doing so is classed as a ‘misleading action’."
https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-brie...
On page 6 and 7 of the PDF.
The government even has a handy booklet on what you should and should not do as a car dealer.
https://www.businesscompanion.info/sites/default/f...
Page 12 footnote #9
Trading Standards have stated that the advertised price must be the price you pay, tacking on compulsory additional fees contravenes the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008.
https://cardealermagazine.co.uk/publish/auto-trade...
https://cardealermagazine.co.uk/publish/auto-trade...
2 sMoKiN bArReLs said:
Ever flown with Ryanair?
Yes but harder to walk away when you want to fly 1000 miles very soon. Easier when a humdrum local main dealer is adding £149 (whoever made that up?) for a nice looking car - though I didn’t go to see it in the metal- a mainstream family car- I don’t need to go to Malaga ASAP, so I can continue looking at equivalent cars for some time as my/ our family cars are all ok anyway.Gassing Station | Car Buying | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff