Mini Cooper - Trade sale gone sour

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Tue 12 Oct 2021 23:45
Mini Cooper - Trade sale gone sour - Sophie_1990
Hi all,

Hoping I’m posting in the correct place. For context, I have taken over a family motor trade business and looking for some advice on the following:

Recently sold a 55 plate Mini Cooper - trade sale - and customer informed me 2 weeks after purchase that the breaks had failed. Car had recently passed MOT, and customer had fully inspected vehicle and signed to acknowledge there were no mechanical faults present at time of sale. I had no knowledge of the fault otherwise I would never have had the car on sale. I offered the customer a full refund or as an alternative, to recover the car and have the repairs carried out for her. As she was a distance from me, she took the car to a private garage who ran up a £350 bill. Knowing this had voided her warranty but not wishing to leave her dissatisfied, I offered to help the customer by making a contribution towards the cost of said repairs as a gesture of goodwill. Thank Customer has now asked for a full refund which I have agreed to but she also wants me to cover the £350 repair bill which I have refused to do.

Am I in the wrong here? Any advice hugely appreciated.

Sophie
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Wed 13 Oct 2021 05:34
Mini Cooper - Trade sale gone sour - Falkirk Bairn

You have sold the car. If a fault develops soon after sale - you have a duty to repair.

The customer did not give you the opportunity to fix the car - they decided to get it done by a 3rd party garage local to the buyer. I am assuming you did not authorise the repair by the 3rd party.

If you are taking the car back you are giving the customer the full price paid, you are not obliged to pay the £350 as you could have fixed matters for a lot less - the customer paid a retail price for parts and paid customer labour rates.

You would pay trade price for parts and the cost of labour would be considerably less. The fact that the customer did not give you the chance to fix the brakes was the customer decision and the customer has to bare the cost of the disks/pads etc

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Wed 13 Oct 2021 07:39
Mini Cooper - Trade sale gone sour - nellyjak

You have sold the car. If a fault develops soon after sale - you have a duty to repair.

The customer did not give you the opportunity to fix the car - they decided to get it done by a 3rd party garage local to the buyer. I am assuming you did not authorise the repair by the 3rd party.

If you are taking the car back you are giving the customer the full price paid, you are not obliged to pay the £350 as you could have fixed matters for a lot less - the customer paid a retail price for parts and paid customer labour rates.

You would pay trade price for parts and the cost of labour would be considerably less. The fact that the customer did not give you the chance to fix the brakes was the customer decision and the customer has to bare the cost of the disks/pads etc

Agree...the OP has been very right and fair in her dealings with her customer...but receiving a full refund and then asking for the "unauthorised" £350 as well is taking the wee wee.

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Wed 13 Oct 2021 08:18
Mini Cooper - Trade sale gone sour - Sophie_1990
Thank you so much. I am heartened that you think I’ve been fair as I would never want to deliberately mislead anyone. Really appreciate you taking the time to reply - thank you.
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Wed 13 Oct 2021 08:16
Mini Cooper - Trade sale gone sour - Sophie_1990
Thank you so much for taking the time to send such a thorough and informative reply - I really appreciate it.
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Wed 13 Oct 2021 09:26
Mini Cooper - Trade sale gone sour - elekie&a/c doctor
I think you have been very fair and followed correct procedure. However, for future reference, you can’t sell to the public as a “trade sale “ . The only way to get round this is to sell as spares or repair , no comeback . Trade sales are for people in the trade , sold as seen .
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Wed 13 Oct 2021 09:49
Mini Cooper - Trade sale gone sour - Sophie_1990
Hi apologies - it was a retail sale and sold as such but I put trade sale so you’d know I’m in the trade - my mistake. Thanks for clarifying though as this is all new to me!
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Wed 13 Oct 2021 10:38
Mini Cooper - Trade sale gone sour - joegrundy

You might find this 'official' guide useful - it covers all this sort of stuff:

www.businesscompanion.info/sites/default/files/Car...f

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Wed 13 Oct 2021 11:28
Mini Cooper - Trade sale gone sour - Sophie_1990
Thank you so much Joe I’m just printing it now - it looks so useful!
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Wed 13 Oct 2021 11:39
Mini Cooper - Trade sale gone sour - Cris_on_the_gas

Sophie I think you have bent over backwards to try and help this customer. I wish there were more traders like you.

Edited by Cris_on_the_gas on 13/10/2021 at 11:39

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Wed 13 Oct 2021 12:53
Mini Cooper - Trade sale gone sour - Sophie_1990
Thank you so much for the kind words - I really do appreciate it and always try to be as fair as I can!
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Sun 17 Oct 2021 18:47
Mini Cooper - Trade sale gone sour - Andrew-T
Thank you so much for the kind words - I really do appreciate it and always try to be as fair as I can!

I'm sure there are some others with your principles, but we usually hear about the rest. Your difficulty may be competing successfully with them all :-)

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