| Viewing Single Post From: Carcraft Of Sheffield | |
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| martin | Jan 15 2006, 12:34 PM |
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I thought I'd just let you know about my experience with Carcraft of Sheffield a few years ago. I was looking to buy my first car after passing my test and upon seeing the glossy Carcraft ads in various motoring magazines & local newspapers, I decided to venture down to their flashy showroom at Sheffield Airport to have a look round. At first glance, the whole place looked pretty impressive. A large flash aircraft hangar with signs everywhere saying 'Over 1500 Cars in Stock'. I parked up and proceeded to enter the building with the intention of just looking and definitely not to buy there and then. As soon as you walk up the ramp, a slick sales person homes in onto you like a cruise missile. I was told that before my unforgettable Carcraft experience could begin, I need to sit down and listen to his 'all about Carcraft' presentation. In fact this was more on the lines of 'look how good our finance deals are type of pitch. The first questions were: Do you think you would be driving a car away today? How much can you afford etc. My answer to all of these was NO. We then proceeded to look around the showroom (with sales person in tow). I looked at the cars and ummed and ahhed at most of them. What confused me the most was the various weekly payment options and the various APR amounts quoted giving you no idea whatsoever as to how much the car really was going to cost. We must have spent half an hour looking at all the cars and I said a few times that I liked a certain car. As time went by his sales pitch was becoming ever more desperate. We eventually came to a little red Rover hatchback that I really fancied and he suggested I take it for a test drive. I thought why not seeing that I had nothing to loose. We duly took it on a test drive and the car seemed OK. We got back to the showroom and he invited me into the 'finance' area where we could discuss a few finance options. Again I thought, OK lets see what deal they could do. I told him what my current budget situation was and he worked out a few calculations and came up with a weekly figure of around £150. I asked him whether this could be lowered any further. He ummed and ahhed and said that he must talk to the finance manager about it. The finance manager duly came across and said yes they could do me a much lower deal but it would only be valid for the rest of the day. He then shook my hand and said 'pleasure to do business with you'. This should have sent the alarm bells ringing. The sales rep then asked me to fill in a 'provisional' order form so that the car could be secured. I'm pretty sure it had the words provisional stamped across the top of the form even though I found out later that it was a legally binding contract. Stupidly enough I asked the sales rep for confirmation that it was just provisional before signing the form. He said 'Yes' even though he knew it was a bare faced lie. What I had in fact signed was a contract finance agreement. I won't make that mistake again. He then asked me for a £100 deposit to fully secure the car for the rest of the day should I decide to purchase. I asked him whether I would get a full refund if I later decided that I didn't want the car. He said 'YES'. This, of course was another bare faced lie. He also asked me whether they could run a credit check to see if I could be approved. It would make purchasing the car much quicker if I came back later that day. I duly waited over an hour before they told me that having credit though one of their partners was OK. I only realised later that what they had done was get the formal finance agreement from their credit company. By this time I just wanted to get out of the place because I had had enough of their behaviour. I got home and started to make some enquiries on the net. Sure enough, I found the same make and model much cheaper else where. I then phoned Carcraft to say that I wasn't interested in their 'top deal' anymore and that I wanted my £100 refunded. I got a shock when they said that the car was currently being valeted and that it would be available for collection tonight. I tried to argue that I had only entered into a 'provisional' agreement and that I was promised my money back if I didn't want the car. This, of course was to no avail. I decided to then go back down to Carcraft and have it out with the manager. The manager then pointed out the small print on my 'provisional order form' which said that any deposits would be forfeit if I cancelled the agreement. I explained to him that I had been blatantly deceived, but he didn't listen. I was so pi$$ed off that I just stormed out of the building thinking I'd lost my £100 for ever. The following day I did some research on the Internet surrounding the 1974 Consumer Credit Act. It's true that if you go in person to the sellers premises and enter into a contract with them, then there is no redress for a return of the refund. However, I noticed that by law if they ask you to sign a credit agreement (dressed up as a 'provisional order' in my case), then by law they have to give you a carbon copy of the agreement. I then realised that in my hurry to leave the building (when I went down to complain), I had forgotten to take the paperwork with me. Gottcha. The following week I wrote an email to the Sheffield Trading Standards Office complaining about my treatment by Carcraft and explained to then exactly what had happened. Why didn't it surprise me when I found out from them that they have had 100s of complaints about Carcraft since it came to Sheffield? They said they'd look into the matter and hey presto, the following week I was rewarded with a check for £100 with compliments from Carcraft. Trading Standards had contacted them and Carcraft couldn't prove that they had given me a carbon copy of their credit agreement when I left the building following my first visit. I must, however, admit that I was naive in thinking that I had signed a 'provisional order'. I've never had anything on credit before and just didn't know how the system worked or how the law operated. That certainly won't happen again. I will never ever go to Carcraft again in my lifetime. I would advise everyone out there tempted by the glossy adverts to think again because they: 1. Will use any and all means to get you to drive a car away within an hour of you stepping foot onto their property. 2. Will use lies and deceitful tactics to hoodwink you into signing their credit agreements 3. Are stupendously overpriced and use financial wizardry to make deals look better than they should 4. Will use very high pressure selling tactics to grind you down until you get so fed up with them that you will sign up for anything just to get them off your back. 5. They are a bunch of gangsters and con artists who think they are above the law Carcraft are in serious need of investigation by the Office of Fair Trading and should be shut down if they are found guilty of malpractices. At the very least they should have their credit broking license terminated and leave for people to sort out their own finance arrangements. There also needs to be a cooling off period for goods purchased on the premised and not just via phone / internet.I honestly don't know how their directors can sleep at night. I hope you have found this info useful. |
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| Carcraft Of Sheffield · Carcraft - Ucan Car Credit | |
12:33 PM Nov 26
