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Hello, I've been lurking here for many years but never posted. Following a business failure I ended up significantly in debt and always end up taking on occasional odd jobs and tasks.
My 9 - 5 job is working in an office and we recently closed down our company and merged into a new company with a new office location. One of my colleagues had two cars that had belonged to his brother and wife who moved back abroad, and had left them with him for him to dispose of. Nothing happened with them and they sat in our office carpark for about 6 months until we moved office, at which point the landlord wanted them gone.
I foolishly became involved and lost out big time. The cautionary tale is never get involved in other people problems. I have been laid up at home for the past few days because of the stress that this ended up causing, so just looking to get this off my chest.
Car number 1 was a diesel Vauxhall Astra that we believed was worth about £2,500 and the other was a Ford Ka that we believed was worth about £600.
I spent an entire weekend cleaning them up and getting them ready for sale. Both cars were in perfect running order and drove about our carpark perfectly. I agreed with the owner that I could have £100 for each car that was sold, which I was happy with.
Vauxhall Astra, the guy came and totally haggled me on the price. He stated that the car was having all sorts of problems that were not described in the advert. He ended up offering £1000 which after speaking with my colleague, he agreed with as we just wanted the car gone. He then took the car for a test drive and found out many additional problems and reduced his offer to £850 telling me "the engine could blow up at any moment", it's only worth £850. I had no way of getting hold of my colleague at that point, and foolishly agreed to this. He paid the cash, and then left. I even gave him a receipt clearly stating sold as seen, but I had no doubt at all that the car was perfect and suspected that he was making up all of the problems.
I spoke with my colleague who was really upset that I'd taken so little for the car. I ended up giving him an extra £150 out of my own pocket. So at this stage I was down £150.
A day or so later, the guy who bought the car messaged me and was very upset. Despite the fact I had sold the car as seen, and the fact that it was meant to be in great condition, he said that other problems had occurred and the engine had blown up, meaning it would cost him £500 to repair. He wanted to know what I was going to do about it. I apologised but said to him that it wasn't my car and there was nothing I could do, but he would need to speak with the owner. My colleague promptly told him that it was his problem and that he'd paid much less than he wanted for the car and that he was probably trying to scam him. He never contacted my colleague again. But instead he started messaging me wanting me to send him money for repairs. In the end I ended up giving him £100 as full and final settlement. I have not heard from him since. So I somehow ended up £250 down (Actually £270 as I had put some diesel in the tank) and had nothing to show for it.
I since discovered when checking the MOT online that the mileage on the car is wrong. About two years before my colleagues brother had bought it, the mileage was showing around 100,000 higher than what it was sold to him as. So I look forward to this guy calling me and trying to get further money out of me for this.
Meanwhile I had received no calls on the Ford Ka. We reduced the price to £300 (it was listed for sale on my account, but I asked that my colleague dealt with the sale as I didn't want to be involved any more. But he was not around for a few days so I ended up becoming involved again.
I agreed with the new guy that he could have it for £200. He came, paid cash, and took the car, I gave the cash to my colleague and he gave me £25. A few days later he then messaged me and said that the car was unsafe and had a fraudulent MOT. Seemingly there was lots of rust on the car that would have to have been there for many years. Not wanting to fall for another scam, I spoke to my colleague and he said the guy was again trying to scam me. So I said no. He then stated that he was going to report the MOT testing station for issuing a fake MOT. He seems to have the view that the car needs £500 worth of work on it.
By this stage I was just fed up. My colleague told him that the car was sold as seen and that it was his problem. I told him to just bring the car back and that I would refund him the £200 myself as I did not want to deal with him any more.
So I am now left with a car that is worth absolutely nothing as there is no longer any MOT remaining and allegedly has rust issues.
I'm almost £500 out of pocket in total for cars that were nothing to do with me. How can people buy cars that are sold as seen and then claim that there are problems, have buyers remorse and then try to get money back from the seller. It just seems totally unethical. If I bought a car and then discovered problems with it (Especially after getting them at such low prices), to go back to the seller and try to get money out of them would never cross my mind.
My own car needs to be sold in a few months as I am going to work in central London. Despite the fact that it has full service history and is in perfect running order I am just going to scrap it as this has been a major eye opener at just how dishonest and scheming people are. On both occasions they seemed fine, it was only after they'd taken the car that mysterious problems started to appear.
How did I end up becoming liable. I was advised to use a pay as you go SIM card and use a fake name at the start of this. But I didn't want to be dishonest. Clearly honesty doesn't pay when it comes to selling a car.
Very frustrated, happy to get this off my chest!
Peace to all,
John.
My 9 - 5 job is working in an office and we recently closed down our company and merged into a new company with a new office location. One of my colleagues had two cars that had belonged to his brother and wife who moved back abroad, and had left them with him for him to dispose of. Nothing happened with them and they sat in our office carpark for about 6 months until we moved office, at which point the landlord wanted them gone.
I foolishly became involved and lost out big time. The cautionary tale is never get involved in other people problems. I have been laid up at home for the past few days because of the stress that this ended up causing, so just looking to get this off my chest.
Car number 1 was a diesel Vauxhall Astra that we believed was worth about £2,500 and the other was a Ford Ka that we believed was worth about £600.
I spent an entire weekend cleaning them up and getting them ready for sale. Both cars were in perfect running order and drove about our carpark perfectly. I agreed with the owner that I could have £100 for each car that was sold, which I was happy with.
Vauxhall Astra, the guy came and totally haggled me on the price. He stated that the car was having all sorts of problems that were not described in the advert. He ended up offering £1000 which after speaking with my colleague, he agreed with as we just wanted the car gone. He then took the car for a test drive and found out many additional problems and reduced his offer to £850 telling me "the engine could blow up at any moment", it's only worth £850. I had no way of getting hold of my colleague at that point, and foolishly agreed to this. He paid the cash, and then left. I even gave him a receipt clearly stating sold as seen, but I had no doubt at all that the car was perfect and suspected that he was making up all of the problems.
I spoke with my colleague who was really upset that I'd taken so little for the car. I ended up giving him an extra £150 out of my own pocket. So at this stage I was down £150.
A day or so later, the guy who bought the car messaged me and was very upset. Despite the fact I had sold the car as seen, and the fact that it was meant to be in great condition, he said that other problems had occurred and the engine had blown up, meaning it would cost him £500 to repair. He wanted to know what I was going to do about it. I apologised but said to him that it wasn't my car and there was nothing I could do, but he would need to speak with the owner. My colleague promptly told him that it was his problem and that he'd paid much less than he wanted for the car and that he was probably trying to scam him. He never contacted my colleague again. But instead he started messaging me wanting me to send him money for repairs. In the end I ended up giving him £100 as full and final settlement. I have not heard from him since. So I somehow ended up £250 down (Actually £270 as I had put some diesel in the tank) and had nothing to show for it.
I since discovered when checking the MOT online that the mileage on the car is wrong. About two years before my colleagues brother had bought it, the mileage was showing around 100,000 higher than what it was sold to him as. So I look forward to this guy calling me and trying to get further money out of me for this.
Meanwhile I had received no calls on the Ford Ka. We reduced the price to £300 (it was listed for sale on my account, but I asked that my colleague dealt with the sale as I didn't want to be involved any more. But he was not around for a few days so I ended up becoming involved again.
I agreed with the new guy that he could have it for £200. He came, paid cash, and took the car, I gave the cash to my colleague and he gave me £25. A few days later he then messaged me and said that the car was unsafe and had a fraudulent MOT. Seemingly there was lots of rust on the car that would have to have been there for many years. Not wanting to fall for another scam, I spoke to my colleague and he said the guy was again trying to scam me. So I said no. He then stated that he was going to report the MOT testing station for issuing a fake MOT. He seems to have the view that the car needs £500 worth of work on it.
By this stage I was just fed up. My colleague told him that the car was sold as seen and that it was his problem. I told him to just bring the car back and that I would refund him the £200 myself as I did not want to deal with him any more.
So I am now left with a car that is worth absolutely nothing as there is no longer any MOT remaining and allegedly has rust issues.
I'm almost £500 out of pocket in total for cars that were nothing to do with me. How can people buy cars that are sold as seen and then claim that there are problems, have buyers remorse and then try to get money back from the seller. It just seems totally unethical. If I bought a car and then discovered problems with it (Especially after getting them at such low prices), to go back to the seller and try to get money out of them would never cross my mind.
My own car needs to be sold in a few months as I am going to work in central London. Despite the fact that it has full service history and is in perfect running order I am just going to scrap it as this has been a major eye opener at just how dishonest and scheming people are. On both occasions they seemed fine, it was only after they'd taken the car that mysterious problems started to appear.
How did I end up becoming liable. I was advised to use a pay as you go SIM card and use a fake name at the start of this. But I didn't want to be dishonest. Clearly honesty doesn't pay when it comes to selling a car.
Very frustrated, happy to get this off my chest!
Peace to all,
John.
