Vehicle Advertiser Services
Vehicle Advertiser Services
Author
Discussion

2 Wycked

Original Poster:

2,335 posts

248 months

Thursday 3rd March 2011
quotequote all
Good afternoon folks,

I'm relatively new to selling cars to a broad market. I usually sell mine to friends, scrap them or advertise them through ebay. However, since I've been asked to advertise my Mum and Nan's cars (a 307 and a Tigra) I've received all sorts of crap from people.

There's the usual that you get wherever you advertise:

  • "What's your best price?"
  • "If I come with [half the advertised amount] cash today can I buy" etc etc
But today I received the strangest call from a company called "Vehicle Advertiser Services". On the surface of it it seemed entirely reasonable; there are plenty of companies about that source cars for people, although quite who is after a yellow/gold coloured 307 Auto I don't know, so I sort of presumed that this was the case with this company. They asked if I was available for a viewing, to which I said that I was, and they asked if there were any issues not mentioned in the advert, to which I said that there wasn't. Nothing out of the ordinary for an interested party so far.

However as the call wore on with the very loud speaking gentleman who had the same name as me, he asked me whether I'd like to pay for the service by credit or debit card. It transpired after I quizzed him on this that they wanted £99 from me for selling the car at the full asking price, but when I told him that whilst that seemed perfectly reasonable (we're expecting people to haggle down by more than £99), he hadn't actually sold the car yet, he hung up.

Does anyone know more about this company? I'm not stupid, but that seems like a perfectly decent system to have in place until they crack under the pressure of someone uncovering their little scam. I can only assume that had I paid the £99 fee, which I'm sure people do, I'd have been given a viewing time only for no one to turn up and for them to be uncontactable. It seems like more of a scam now that I've looked at their website too.

Cheers,
Adam.

john_p

7,073 posts

267 months

Thursday 3rd March 2011
quotequote all
Yeah it's been going on forever

Offer them a percentage of the sale price if they get someone to buy it. They never accept, which shows just how successful they think their service is wink

robbieduncan

1,993 posts

253 months

Thursday 3rd March 2011
quotequote all
It's a complete and utter scam. Swear at them loudly and put the phone down

Gruber

6,313 posts

231 months

Thursday 3rd March 2011
quotequote all
There seem to be an increasing number of these companies around.

The basic business formula is that they take your 99 quid and then you never hear from them again.

Best avoided.

richyb

4,615 posts

227 months

Thursday 3rd March 2011
quotequote all
Lots of similar scam companies about. "We have several customers looking for your make/model just waiting to pay the asking price" blah, blah, blah. No Thanks, phone down, every time.

Pork

9,455 posts

251 months

Thursday 3rd March 2011
quotequote all
I remember a mate dealing with these once and was apparetnly dealing with the top man.

He ended up, by the sounds of it in quite a jokey/light hearted manner, saying "if you're claims are true, I'll give you DOUBLE what you're asking for, AFTER the car is sold. If you're talking nonsense and this is just a scam, then just hand up"

Eventually the chap just hung up.

What's worrying is a LOT of people must go for this and they're effectvively ripping off the vulnerable/desperate/clueless who are probably the last people who can afford it!

nekrum

586 posts

294 months

Thursday 3rd March 2011
quotequote all
I had something similar.. company said they had buyers ready to purchase and wanted £99 of me to but them in touch.. I said send them down and if one buys I'll double their fee - strangely for somebody so confident they had a buyer he didn't take my offer?!..

Pork

9,455 posts

251 months

Thursday 3rd March 2011
quotequote all
nekrum said:
I had something similar.. company said they had buyers ready to purchase and wanted £99 of me to but them in touch.. I said send them down and if one buys I'll double their fee - strangely for somebody so confident they had a buyer he didn't take my offer?!..
Is that you Oz? hehe

Hub

6,793 posts

215 months

Thursday 3rd March 2011
quotequote all
You just have to think that it isn't hard to find a car for sale, so why would people need to go through these companies to find one?

andye30m3

3,493 posts

271 months

Thursday 3rd March 2011
quotequote all
Complete scam

I actually had to listen to my old boss on the phone saying something along the lines of ' so you've definitely got people who want a car just like mine, thats good the last people just took my money and I never heard from them again' wanted to rip the phone out of his hand and throw it out the window.

Gruber

6,313 posts

231 months

Thursday 3rd March 2011
quotequote all
They really are just hoping you're stupid. And I guess they must suck in a lot of punters or else the scam would have ended long ago.

I first came across one of these about 5 years ago, when I was trying to sell my first 635csi. It was tidy but by no means pristine and I was advertising it for about £3k on autotrader.

Chappy phones up to tell me he has a list of people waiting with cash ready to buy my car - I just have to give him £99 and he can guarantee a buyer no questions, full asking price, quick sale. I say I doubt that very much. He asks why I doubt him. I point out its a 20 year old car, one of only about 20 for sale in the country at that point in time, only really of interest to enthusiasts who will want to inspect / drive / ask questions, who will be trawling the classifieds for the right example and who know how to use a telephone. The call didn't last much longer.

Its amazing (though sadly not suprising) that we have police out to catch people smoking in company cars, yet companies like this can scam the less savvy amongst us with impunity.

2 Wycked

Original Poster:

2,335 posts

248 months

Thursday 3rd March 2011
quotequote all
Cheers folks. I'm glad my inkling was right, I'll waste a bit more of their time next time with some alternative deals.