LeoTheLad
Free Member
Hi All,
At the beginning of this year, having recently retired and my wife about to retire, we decided to put a good chunk of our hard earned savings into a motorhome. It would have to be pre-owned as our savings do not stretch to a new one.
After viewing many, we found one at a local motorhome dealer just outside Hereford. It was bigger and more expensive than we had originally budgeted for but it was very tidy so we took the plunge.
The agreed deal included a service with a cambelt change undertaken by a nearby garage together with the associated copy invoice plus a copy of the recent habitation certificate to be made available at the time of collection of the vehicle.
Upon collection, neither of these two documents was available but we took the vehicle after receiving assurances that they would be available within a matter of days.
After almost a month of repeated phone calls chasing these documents, nothing materialised so on the advice of the C.A.B., I returned the vehicle within 30 days due to breach of contract under the Consumer Rights Act, requesting a full refund. This resulted in an altercation with the dealer.
Within days, these documents suddenly materialised so we felt there was no longer any justification for rejecting the vehicle which was subsequently collected together with a copy invoice and a habitation certificate.
Later, close scrutiny of the copy invoice raised our suspicions. Our local mechanic confirmed that the cambelt had not been changed nor had the fuel filter – both these items appear on the copy invoice as being replaced. The invoice was a fake.
If I wanted to pursue this matter through the courts then, according to the C.A.B., we would have to stop using the vehicle until the judicial process had run its course otherwise we would be deemed to have accepted the vehicle. Also, we would need a report by an expert witness to substantiate our claim as local garage reports are not admissible in court and the AA are not allowed to get their hands dirty.
So, our options were:
1. To leave our motorhome parked on the drive for the foreseeable future and engage an expert witness at a cost of just under £500 with no guarantee that any costs would be awarded in our favour should we win, or
2. Get the work done by my local garage for £350 and have use of the vehicle.
We chose the latter.
The bounder (language considerably moderated) who sold us the vehicle knows the system well and gets away with it – probably not for the first time and almost certainly not the last. Is there such a thing as an honest second-hand vehicle dealer?
Now the work has been done and I’ve hopefully made prospective buyers aware that there are dishonest dealers out there, we can start to enjoy our acquisition and also MotorhomeFun.
Leo.
At the beginning of this year, having recently retired and my wife about to retire, we decided to put a good chunk of our hard earned savings into a motorhome. It would have to be pre-owned as our savings do not stretch to a new one.
After viewing many, we found one at a local motorhome dealer just outside Hereford. It was bigger and more expensive than we had originally budgeted for but it was very tidy so we took the plunge.
The agreed deal included a service with a cambelt change undertaken by a nearby garage together with the associated copy invoice plus a copy of the recent habitation certificate to be made available at the time of collection of the vehicle.
Upon collection, neither of these two documents was available but we took the vehicle after receiving assurances that they would be available within a matter of days.
After almost a month of repeated phone calls chasing these documents, nothing materialised so on the advice of the C.A.B., I returned the vehicle within 30 days due to breach of contract under the Consumer Rights Act, requesting a full refund. This resulted in an altercation with the dealer.
Within days, these documents suddenly materialised so we felt there was no longer any justification for rejecting the vehicle which was subsequently collected together with a copy invoice and a habitation certificate.
Later, close scrutiny of the copy invoice raised our suspicions. Our local mechanic confirmed that the cambelt had not been changed nor had the fuel filter – both these items appear on the copy invoice as being replaced. The invoice was a fake.
If I wanted to pursue this matter through the courts then, according to the C.A.B., we would have to stop using the vehicle until the judicial process had run its course otherwise we would be deemed to have accepted the vehicle. Also, we would need a report by an expert witness to substantiate our claim as local garage reports are not admissible in court and the AA are not allowed to get their hands dirty.
So, our options were:
1. To leave our motorhome parked on the drive for the foreseeable future and engage an expert witness at a cost of just under £500 with no guarantee that any costs would be awarded in our favour should we win, or
2. Get the work done by my local garage for £350 and have use of the vehicle.
We chose the latter.
The bounder (language considerably moderated) who sold us the vehicle knows the system well and gets away with it – probably not for the first time and almost certainly not the last. Is there such a thing as an honest second-hand vehicle dealer?
Now the work has been done and I’ve hopefully made prospective buyers aware that there are dishonest dealers out there, we can start to enjoy our acquisition and also MotorhomeFun.
Leo.