Another sold a car, buyer wants money thread

[steveo3002]

i suspect there's dozens of driveway traders buying cars up from decent people then making up lies to get a few hundred refund to booster their profits

block em

[Prizam]

Coincidently, I just did some amateur internet sleuthing and found that the eBay profile used to buy my car, now has 2 other cars up for sale. Benefit of the doubt and all that, but it does start to look a little fishy.

[Prizam]

OutInTheShed said:

Put in into AskMID. If it doesn't show as insured, you're either dealing with a criminal or a trader. (yes there is a difference!)

It is showing up as insured. I'm not sure how quickly the database updates.

[itcaptainslow]

Prizam said:

Coincidently, I just did some amateur internet sleuthing and found that the eBay profile used to buy my car, now has 2 other cars up for sale. Benefit of the doubt and all that, but it does start to look a little fishy.

Screams “Trying to lift your leg” even more, to me.

[steveo3002]

Prizam said:

Coincidently, I just did some amateur internet sleuthing and found that the eBay profile used to buy my car, now has 2 other cars up for sale. Benefit of the doubt and all that, but it does start to look a little fishy.

whats the buying history ? tyre gel and bottles of stp?

[Muzzer79]

Prizam said:

Muzzer79 said:

Prizam said:

Question 1 - Am I being silly by not telling her to foxtrot Oscar?

.

Yes.

What stress will you incur by telling her to FRO?

Block her number. If she turns up (unlikely) then don’t answer the door.

Pound to a penny says she won’t want to return the car - she’ll want cash back for the “repairs”

The stress of wondering if she really will try and take me to tribunal, or court. There is always an outside chance that the car really did implode and she feels wronged. Although she won't have a case, I will have probably years of worrying about it.

With the greatest of respect, this is a bit melodramatic.

If she does try and take you to court, it will not be a complicated process to win. It's been shown on these pages several times.

If the car did implode, it was a private sale. It's not your problem.

And 'years' of worrying about it? If she does something, she'll do it now and it won't take years.

Prizam said:

Coincidently, I just did some amateur internet sleuthing and found that the eBay profile used to buy my car, now has 2 other cars up for sale. Benefit of the doubt and all that, but it does start to look a little fishy.

This tells you all you need to know. They're amateur traders, trying to make more profit on the car by claiming a fault.

I'd double-wager that if you do engage, she won't want to return the car, she'll want cash from you for the "repairs".

These people rely on good-natured sellers who either genuinely think they've sold a car with a fault and want to make good or.........can't be doing with the stress of a potential court case and just want it to go away.

I implore you to block them. Don't message, don't respond, just ignore them and block them.

[paintman]

Probably the reason why they're getting a woman to come & look at the car then give you the sob story later.
Makes men do daft things as they feel guilty for upsetting a poor little woman.

In the 70s when I was still in the trade one of the local dealers stopped using salesmen & only had saleswomen - & only pretty ones.
Sales shot up.
Gullible men trying to impress the girls.
The girls found it funny & it was an education listening to some of the stories.

[Prizam]

ok, I'm going to block and ignore.

Let's say she is genuine and goes legal. Does she have a timeframe to do this within?

[Prizam]

steveo3002 said:

Prizam said:

Coincidently, I just did some amateur internet sleuthing and found that the eBay profile used to buy my car, now has 2 other cars up for sale. Benefit of the doubt and all that, but it does start to look a little fishy.

whats the buying history ? tyre gel and bottles of stp?

Nothing obvious like that, most of it seems to be cheap imported plastic tat.

[Muzzer79]

Prizam said:

Let's say she is genuine and goes legal. Does she have a timeframe to do this within?

As an individual raising a small claim, one can do this whenever one chooses to. IANAL but there is, to my knowledge, no time bar to raising a claim.

However, the longer it's left, the less chance of success (remember she has two hopes right now) and the easier it is to defend.

She won't raise a claim.

[TikTak]

Good for you and good luck OP.

As a small mention that I didn't see any others point out is, you've got no idea what she's done to the car intentionally or not once she drove it away so absolutely should not taking a return.

Frame the receipt and hang it on the wall. Maybe even get a big comical arrow stuck on the side that points to the bit that says "Sold as seen".

[soad]

steveo3002 said:

i suspect there's dozens of driveway traders buying cars up from decent people then making up lies to get a few hundred refund to booster their profits

block em

[Prizam]

TikTak said:

Good for you and good luck OP.

As a small mention that I didn't see any others point out is, you've got no idea what she's done to the car intentionally or not once she drove it away so absolutely should not taking a return.

Frame the receipt and hang it on the wall. Maybe even get a big comical arrow stuck on the side that points to the bit that says "Sold as seen".

Thanks, blocked her now, I had to google how to do it on eBay. I think I feel some relief from doing this. I also had a conversation with my wife, who agrees with you lot, that she is trying it on.

You are correct, I have 2 options here. Well.. 3, if you include block and ignore.

1 - give her money, in my mind, this is tantamount to blackmail with no guarantee the problem will go away and she won't just come back for more.
2 - get the car back, it's either broken, or it definitely will be out of spite. Either way, it won't be in the same condition it left in.

[sbk1972]

Gents, long time reader on pistonheads so I do remember back to many of these types of issues. Some very legal minds have commented on these issues and the general vibe is that `Sold as seen` means nothing and doesnt cover you anymore. There have been cases of buyers going to court / winning on private sales.

If I remember correctly it comes down to what was said / implied in the advertisement. If you mentioned `Great runner, last you a life time` then you are open for false advertisement or something and the new buyer can go to court and get compensation. So it's the advert you need to be careful with.

Search on google, or pistonheads and see the various threads from yesteryear

[K4sper]

Muzzer79 said:

As an individual raising a small claim, one can do this whenever one chooses to. IANAL but there is, to my knowledge, no time bar to raising a claim.

Sorry, nope.

Generally, claims will be time barred after 6 years with some exceptions (none of which probably apply here)

[Muzzer79]

K4sper said:

Muzzer79 said:

As an individual raising a small claim, one can do this whenever one chooses to. IANAL but there is, to my knowledge, no time bar to raising a claim.

Sorry, nope.

Generally, claims will be time barred after 6 years with some exceptions (none of which probably apply here)

I happily stand corrected.

However, the OP certainly need not be sitting by his letterbox for 6 years worried that this is going to bite him on the posterior.

[Muzzer79]

sbk1972 said:

Gents, long time reader on pistonheads so I do remember back to many of these types of issues. Some very legal minds have commented on these issues and the general vibe is that `Sold as seen` means nothing and doesnt cover you anymore. There have been cases of buyers going to court / winning on private sales.

If I remember correctly it comes down to what was said / implied in the advertisement. If you mentioned `Great runner, last you a life time` then you are open for false advertisement or something and the new buyer can go to court and get compensation. So it's the advert you need to be careful with.

Search on google, or pistonheads and see the various threads from yesteryear

The advert needs to be worded carefully to avoid mis-representation as this can be pursued for.

It's blatant lying that would create a real mis-representation problem - i.e "new gearbox" when it hasn't had one or even "full manufacturer service history" when there is no history at all.

This appears to not be an issue for the OP though.

[Sheepshanks]

sbk1972 said:

Gents, long time reader on pistonheads so I do remember back to many of these types of issues. Some very legal minds have commented on these issues and the general vibe is that `Sold as seen` means nothing and doesnt cover you anymore. There have been cases of buyers going to court / winning on private sales.

There was a really bizarre one on here a few years ago where the lady buyer alleged a fault and a lot of money to fix. Seller disagreed and said it wasn't faulty and even if was it should only cost £XXX to fix. Went to SCC, buyer had sold the car, there was no evidence of it having been repaired. Seller lost the case the Judge based damages on sellers estimate of the cost to fix if it had been faulty!

That's the trouble with small claims cases - the outcome can be close to random.

[bad company]

Sheepshanks said:

There was a really bizarre one on here a few years ago where the lady buyer alleged a fault and a lot of money to fix. Seller disagreed and said it wasn't faulty and even if was it should only cost £XXX to fix. Went to SCC, buyer had sold the car, there was no evidence of it having been repaired. Seller lost the case the Judge based damages on sellers estimate of the cost to fix if it had been faulty!

That's the trouble with small claims cases - the outcome can be close to random.

I remember that, it was a very unusual case. Can’t see anything like that happening here though.

[georgefreeman918]

The forums are full of stories like this and I thought it would never happen to me, but it did.

I was selling an MX5 (circa £5k) and a chap haggled be by text saying he could come and get it for £4.5k. I needed shot of it (it was a second car and I was buying a house) so I accepted.

He turned up for the test drive, gave me a speech about being a teacher, then said there were suspension issues with it (which there were not, and it had just had a service and MOT the week before). We agreed a sale and on he went.

A few days later, i get a longer winded message saying that he has had to do loads of work to it and requested a contribution of circa £2k. I never responded to this message and he never proceeded.

One week later, I found it on ebay, under a 'business account' which linked back to the chap I had purchased it from. Did I mention that he filled out the motortrader section of the V5 before I had realised. All made sense in the end and I think he was just trying it on.

Long story short - politely remind that it was sold as seen or just move on and forget about it