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Hi all,
I recently went with my girlfriend to purchase a 2006 Clio for just under £4,000 from Evan Halshaw on finance. As expected he went throughout the usual add ons, all of which we declined.
He then came to Vehicle Status Check - £98. I told him we did not want this but was told it was compulsory. I responded saying surely you need to do the check when you buy the car and not add it on to the listed price when someone wants to buy it? To which he responded: Oh its compulsory for us you to pay this and it's not included in the listed price as we need to show all individual charges.
Somewhat confused, I left it for a few minuets, until i noticed on their little Key Performance Indicator chart on the wall that VSC was marked down as a % for each salesman.. Some lower than 50%. I questioned this and asked if it was compulsory, why were they being targeted on it? He then said that was because it's only compulsory on cars older than one year...
I left it at that. We're going in tomorrow to sign the finance agreement, but I am not happy about this charge, purely out of principal. Ive seen people writing on forums that it IS in fact optional and a few forums (albeit from 2011) even stated that the cars had tiny stickers on mentioning that this check was optional. ( I will check this tomorrow).
I know you can get these checks done for a few quid on your mobile or for £15-£20 via Experian (which I believe someone mentioned is what Evan Halshaw use?!).
UPDATE
I've just decided to phone a few other Evan Halshaw branches to ask about this and as it turns out, it IS completely optional and we should have been in no way obliged to purchase it.
We are going back in this afternoon to sign the finance agreement, but my question is... Where do we stand legally here? We have been directly lied to by the sales man after asking on three separate occasions if this was optional and as a result the cost of this check was added on to our finance agreement?
We want to go ahead with the deal as we're tired of looking now and the finance application has been accepted, but I want to know where we stand legally in regards to the mis selling of it, and what we should do?
Best regards and many thanks!
I recently went with my girlfriend to purchase a 2006 Clio for just under £4,000 from Evan Halshaw on finance. As expected he went throughout the usual add ons, all of which we declined.
He then came to Vehicle Status Check - £98. I told him we did not want this but was told it was compulsory. I responded saying surely you need to do the check when you buy the car and not add it on to the listed price when someone wants to buy it? To which he responded: Oh its compulsory for us you to pay this and it's not included in the listed price as we need to show all individual charges.
Somewhat confused, I left it for a few minuets, until i noticed on their little Key Performance Indicator chart on the wall that VSC was marked down as a % for each salesman.. Some lower than 50%. I questioned this and asked if it was compulsory, why were they being targeted on it? He then said that was because it's only compulsory on cars older than one year...
I left it at that. We're going in tomorrow to sign the finance agreement, but I am not happy about this charge, purely out of principal. Ive seen people writing on forums that it IS in fact optional and a few forums (albeit from 2011) even stated that the cars had tiny stickers on mentioning that this check was optional. ( I will check this tomorrow).
I know you can get these checks done for a few quid on your mobile or for £15-£20 via Experian (which I believe someone mentioned is what Evan Halshaw use?!).
UPDATE
I've just decided to phone a few other Evan Halshaw branches to ask about this and as it turns out, it IS completely optional and we should have been in no way obliged to purchase it.
We are going back in this afternoon to sign the finance agreement, but my question is... Where do we stand legally here? We have been directly lied to by the sales man after asking on three separate occasions if this was optional and as a result the cost of this check was added on to our finance agreement?
We want to go ahead with the deal as we're tired of looking now and the finance application has been accepted, but I want to know where we stand legally in regards to the mis selling of it, and what we should do?
Best regards and many thanks!
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