My son as bought a car from Carcraft at Sheffield (while I was away) on my return I found out they had sorted finance out for him but at £298.00 per month over 5 years which adds up to £17,880

I have told him to take the car back and cancel the finance agreement.

Can he do this or can he in anyway cancel his finance agreements

He stated that he could afford £180.00 per month so they said no problem and came back after 9 hours waiting for him to sign the forms without telling him the real cost, not only that they have added on NAC at £1795.00 and PPI at £665.00 that he never asked for.

Can anyone help please

You should be able to cancel the argeement within usually 14 days even if he has signed a contract. Check the small print in order to see how long the "cooling off period" is. There is a requirement under law for a cooling of period. If you are not happy with the service etc consider complaining to the local trading standards where the garage is located they might not take direct action but they will log the complaint if they receive a certain amount this should trigger an investigation.

 If your going to return the vehicle i would suggest you take clear pictures of the condition of the vehicle inside and out before returning it just in case the claim damage whilst in your sons care. If possible with a camera that has date/time on the pics. Let the garage know you have done this and make clear that you have recorded the condition of the vehicle.

 If it is otuside the cooling off period then i would sugget that you complain to the company and seek legal advice via Citizen advice bureau or a solicitor if you can.

 

If your within the cooling of period act quickly inform the garage via, phone or even better email something that can be recorded. Speak to the sales manager and do not take no for an answer they will try and tell you can not cancel within the cooling off period. It is your sons right under law to cancel.

 

Hope this helps

You have heard you indicate your son's side of the story. Have you heard Carcraft's? Carcraft do not seem in any way to be 'a fly by night operation'...   From their website:-

"CARCRAFT established in 1951, is the Country´s leading independent group of used car hypermarkets. We currently operate from seven locations, Rochdale (Head Office), Newport (South Wales), Sheffield, Merseyside, West Midlands, Leeds & North East. Each site comprises an average 12 acre freehold complex with a 100,000 square foot showroom. With over 1500 cars displayed on each site, (400 of which are indoors), customer cafeteria and children´s play area, we offer unrivalled choice and customer facilities. This coupled with significant investment in advertising generates a huge number of customer visits per site per month."

If, as you indicate, you have only heard one side of the story, why does this posting contain the words "Rip Off"?

Just put "carcraft" into Google and look at all customer reviews.... mainly bad to absolutely horrendous, to make up your own mind on their service and get the feedback off other customers who have had good reason to complain. !!!!

 

redandwhite -- Did your Son sign the credit agreement on Carcraft's premises and how long is it since he signed the agreement, normally car credit agreements signed on the traders premises do not have a cooling off period, but you can stop it in the short time before the credit company actually receive the signed copy ??

You could also challenge the agreement if he was not made fully aware of the true costs in taking on the credit, the same applies to the PPI and the extended warranty if it was, "pressure sold" or misrepresented in any form. ?

I have read the seven odd reviews on Carcraft which are, in practice mediocre, and only one deals with the matter at hand in the opening thread. Also they sell thousands of cars per year. With Car Supermarkets and you can read What Car on the subject, I think, LET THE BUYER BEWARE applies more than average. To say a car is overpriced is not Carcraft's fault - find out the right price and take a line through that. Used car warranties are normally a waste of time because they are low cost and cars aren't when new - they need to be read through carefully or left well alone. The most valuable thing is to take along a reliable mechanic AND pay him appropriately to check the car over. Not just me talking, a friend of mine is a top flight engineer/mechanic and has had a garage for many years.

Here you go drumster there's 50 more for you to read, the majority are shocking.

http://www.reviewcentre.com/reviews13276.html

You are correct get the cars checked thoroughly by someone who is in the know, but the other main problem is their horrific misleading sales practices. !!!

How is it possible that someone old enough to drive a car does not know about PPI? The trouble is too many customers are happy to go along with this nonsense. They want expensive things. They don't care how much it costs.

If a rival seller opened a showroom without misleading pricing they would be bust within weeks as the foolish walk past the honest price tickets to shop with the sales sharks.

Dear conmankiller

You gave me the link to the '50' which I had missed so as a matter of good manners I scanned through them. They are not good overall but there are a reasonable number of positive ones.

The scan shows that virtually no one who is negative was committed in any legal way. They could have walked out the door rather than waited in a 'departure lounge' etc. If I went along there and found a car I would get it thoroughly checked over and if it was sound I would hand over the complete consideration in exchange for immediate title of the car and the keys and drive off in it or if it was delayed withhold payment. OR take a hike as our American friends say.

I was right in saying they are not fly by night and dad needs to know both sides of the story before he gets involved; on the basis of this posting.

You were right that they are not an example of good practice in a dubious field.

I have been at pains to respect your long and illustrious contribution to the forum. I hope that has come through.

 

Hi -- drumster -- Thanks for your opinion and respected views on the further feedback from Carcraft customers.

If that feedback had been available to prospective customers before contemplating a deal with Carcraft, similar to the obligatory feedback ratings required on such as ebay. I feel certain that the vast majority of those past customers who have already dealt with Carcraft, or indeed future customers would definitely never even enter their premises at all, let alone do a deal with them, forearmed with the existing bad reviews which would have swamped the relatively minor percentage of good experiences. !!!

What says you. ?

Knowing what I know now primarily as a result of your input I wouldn't even bother to go in for a 'tyre kicking' session if I was passing!

Yes I agree --- And I urge people especially when making a large purchase such as a car, to always do your homework and research the company you are dealing with, before you sign the line. !!!

I am a fan of ebay for cars. My view is in a dodgy industry ebay takes out some of the risk. Apart from the obvious a few pounds for a report is tremendous value. At the other end of the scale for almost everything else I think ebay increases the risk and I always build in a substantial "ebay discount". The saddest thing I ever saw was someone bidding for a new Sony DVD player and paying more than the in stock Argos price!

Indeed I have purchased two cars off ebay without problems, firstly always do a HPI check, and secondly take a mechanic with you or pay for a used car check such as the AA or RAC who offer a guarantee backed with insurance that the car is sound, thirdly compare the book price.

Your second point is very true, I have seen a personal bidding war fetch more for goods on ebay than could be reasonably bought at Argos, in fact on occasions I have seen used goods sell for more than the equivalent NEW goods could have been bought for. Laughable, when it's their money.

The old saying springs to mind, " A fool and his money are easily parted". !!!!

Care, caution and research are the key words.

Well we took a visit to carcraft and we was told as the agreement was signed on the premises there was no cooling off period so its your car its your problem. so i asked if they were part of the Ucan group of which he stated yes, well my answer was that they have a 7 day period in which if not totally happy with the purchase you can return the car and get a full refund, he once again said this did not apply as it was bought on the premises and not through Ucan web site.

he started to get very abrupt with us and told us the best thing to do is leave and just pay for the car, I asked him if I could see a list of finance companies that they used to get my son credit, he said no as only one would give him credit and they were the last choice as my son had a bad credit rating and thats why the APR was so high. I once again asked to see the list and was told just to leave as you are not getting anything back.

So I deceided to go to my local citizens advice centre, we told them all what had happened and if there was anyway we could check his credit, they said they would do one for us and surprise surprise it came up with a load of companies that would give him finance for 3/4 the APR that he was paying with carcraft. They said they would write to carcraft regarding the matter but in the mean time I should contact the trading standards office.

So I phoned the trading standards office up and gave them all the information and they have agreed that my son as been mis sold the car and they will be contacting carcraft too, they also said to phone the finance companies too and explain the situation to them.

I did this and told them that the APR was way over the top and that my son would struggle to make payments, they told me they would ring back later in the day. This they did and said that the agreement with them could be cancelled but would cost £825.00 to cancel fees etc. So I asked them why the APR was so high and they stated that it was due to my sons credit history, I said that I had been to the citizens advice centre and the trading standards and that on Monday i would be contacting the FSA, she then said wait a minute and put down thephone, after a minute or so she said she would phone me back on Monday and sort out a new finance package which would be between 11.7 and 13.0 %APR instead of the 29.1% APR it is now, this way carcraft still get the price of the car and my son gets a better deal on the finance. So we will wait till Monday and see what they come up with, I know its took most of the day to try and sort something out but it may be worth it. My advice to anyone else is dont let the carcraft people push you around and dont take no for an answer or better still dont even go to carshaft in the first place my son as learnt the hard way.

By the way my local citizens advice centre as had over 250 complaints regarding carcraft in the last 4 months so something must be wrong and the trading standards have had more.

Hope you get it sorted.

Am I the only person who see these adverts on TV offering finanace at over 10%. sometimes as high as 23% APR and laugh until I go blue?

£17,880 though? what car is it???? Surly its not a Punto.