Misadventures in Car Sales....

[Gwilo]

Clearly, i must have a big sort of homing beacon for cheapskates and chancers....

Put the car into autotrader, and the calls have started.

Caller 1 - asked lots and lots of questions, bodywork, glass, tyre tread depth....each accompanied by the clatter of keys and shuffle of paper. I half jokingly passed the comment he sounded like a broker or agent...he spluttered and explained he was part of a company that buys and sells cars on clients behalf...so the use of a telesafe number and the sentence "no canvassers or agencies", obviously beyond his grasp of english....

Caller 2 - deserves some sort of prize for idiocy. Aside from immediately referring to me as "pal" at the end of every sentence. He then feeds me a line about having sold his car and lost quite a bit of money on it. Nobody, aside from a dealer, makes money on a sale, unless they've got a rare, in demand model, so i ignored this and waited..."What's the lowest you'll let it go for? I don't want to pay too much"

Beg pardon? Come again? Here's how it works : I have an asking price, which i consider pretty damned good, so far under any forecourt version, it's practically a crime. You come in and, if interested, make a serious offer, and we negotiate from there. his response to the car buying process being gently explained to him in far more professional terms? "I can offer you £5400".For pities sake, I'm not given the car away.

Caller 3 - Another one trying it on. I'm not actually that bothered how far away you are from me, if you're interested, make me a serious offer and we can talk. And "if pay cash, you give cheaper?" isn't the best way to go...IF we agree a price, THEN we talk how to pay it, not before. Cash is fine, as long as it's paid into my bank first, but a bundle of notes shoved in my hand on a street? No thanks.

Maybe I'm going about this all wrong. I expect a degree of "haggle" (though I believe the price is already incredibly competitive). I don't expect to be low-balled and jerked around.

[lfc958]

Its interesting that your tales are proving that certain parts of mankind are regressing instead of progressing

Maybe science should be looking at the intelligence genes to see where some of these are going wrong, instead of trying to cure all know illnesses at once

[BossFox]

It happens a lot. I see it all the time.

There are too many dreamers out there that want to ask about the car and think about buying it, when in reality it's out of what they can afford. SO you get emails and telephone calls that are just wasting both of your time.

That's why when I got my VRS SE on this very forum I said exactly what I'd pay and if the seller could get a better offer great. But my price was still there if he couldn't.

[UncleRic]

I'm selling my other car at the moment and one of the calls went something like this..

"Yeah, I'm well interested in your car mate."

"Good for you."

"I can pay you half now and half next month when I get paid. You can trust me to come back."

"This is a wind up isn't it?"

"No, I'm serious mate."

"Bye".

Why waste my time and yours, Pleb.

[Leodhasach]

I'm selling my other car at the moment and one of the calls went something like this..

"Yeah, I'm well interested in your car mate."

"Good for you."

"I can pay you half now and half next month when I get paid. You can trust me to come back."

"This is a wind up isn't it?"

"No, I'm serious mate."

"Bye".

Why waste my time and yours, Pleb.

That might work, if you hung onto the car till it was all paid Eejits!

[Phil_Fabia]

That might work, if you hung onto the car till it was all paid Eejits!

Perhaps you could give him half of the car and half a V5 taxbook until he comes good with the other half of the cash!!

[Allams Skoda]

You do get some amusing people now and again...

I think you just got unlucky with your 3 callers.

[VRS Mike]

that's why I normally run cars till they die or my missus writes them off

[Gwilo]

Or, the lepton that was Caller No.4, who's just rung and asked 'are you sleeping?'....wonder what gave him that idea? My one- word answers?

They said they would call tomorrow and I will give them the address so they can come see the car....

Now, without pre-judging, if they ring tomorrow, before I give out my address, we will have a full and frank discussion about price and payment, because I get the impression from the tone this could be another chancer trying it on. Seriously, who rings a complete stranger at 11:30pm to try and view a car?!!

[Kandy]

Probably someone very lonely and dangerous.

[Republic]

It's no wonder people trade in their cars at dealerships.

[Wardy]

Ah the joys of car selling! I must say I've fared well, especially if that's the standard I can expect from the buying public...

That said, 3 of my previous cars have sold through this forum - which helps I think.

Most impact will be the make and model you're selling, and the price level really. The most amount of 'hassle' I had was a Mk4 Golf GTi, in the 3-4k category. Got a few strange calls and the guy that eventually bought it wasn't the best bloke I've ever dealt with.

Best of luck. Is it advertised on here?