Paying for car before seeing it?

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omniflow said:

I really don't get this concept of putting a deposit down, changing my mind and then asking for it back.

If you don't know whether or not you want something, then go and see it. If it sells before you get there, then find another.

A refundable deposit is totally and utterly 100% worthless to the seller. It shows absolutely zero commitment, and they could quite possibly lose several sales and still end up with nothing. I am not a car dealer, or involved in selling stuff in any way.

If I put a deposit on something and change my mind, then I would 100% expect not to get my deposit back. Whilst this would not fill me with joy, I wouldn't feel hard done by - I knew what I was doing when I paid the deposit.

For me, putting down the refundable deposit was simply to give me opportunity to get to see the car (almost a week later) without someone buying it in the meantime. It was a particularly uncommon combination of colour, model and spec, so to risk losing it for the sake of a refundable £99 deposit was daft.