Thread: give me back my deposit

What did you give them a deposit for?

Did you have any kind of written contract / agreement as to what your deposit was getting you, what it binds you to and what it binds them to?

I'm not a lawyer, but in order to have a valid contract there has to be consideration on both sides. If not, as far as I can tell, the law is on your side, as any contract would be null and void.

Even if you had a verbal agreement, it is very difficult to prove, and given they are a dealership, they presumably take deposits all the time so you'd have a strong case for your money back.

Having said all that, the legal procedure is unpleasant - I went through a similar situation a couple of years ago when a **(insert your choice of expelative here)** mechanic **(another expelative)** up my engine. The legal procedure was just too time consuming that I gave up in the end. Sadly I cant publically rubbish the shop in question (as much as I'm itching to) as it leaves this great forum liable to a lawsuit.

Let us know how you go.

With all legal matters ... there is 2 sides to a story

Take all your paperwork and your story and ring Consumer Protection .. They will be able to make sense of the issue at hand


Mike

it was a deposit for a freelander 2 (and I did buy one and I LOVE IT to bits). I didnt sign a contract or anything legal and i have a receipt for the deposit. I will ring consumer affairs or maybe vcat and see where i stand.

thanks for your suppport im glad im not the only one out there who has gone through this process. I guess im struggling to see the reason as to why the first dealership never returned my calls when my finance was approved as they missed a sale.

Ill keep you all posted and thanks for the speedy responses

Not sure what the Govt. organisation is called in Victoria but approach the equivalent of "Consumer Affairs" / "Department of Fair Trading" and ask for advice on how to proceed. Generally these types of dispute can be handled by a "Small Claims Tribunal".

Regards

Actually I think you would have been better off if you had signed a contract and made it subject to Finance being satisfactorily received. Even if you do get finance it's your decision as to whether it's satisfactory. But I've been through this before - I just kept ringing them and eventually it was refunded.

How far up the chain have you pushed this? Have you spoken to the Dealer Principal, or just the sales people?

Go sit in the dealership ask to see the sales manager, on a saturday( in NSW that is the bussiest day) and very vocally, in front off as many customers as possible, demand your deposit be refunded as their customer service and care are useless.(Make sure you speak as though you just walked out off a heavy metal concert where you stood next to the speakers and where partially deafened )
Make it clear to the sales manager you will be back next saturday etc, but also make sure you take along 1-2 friends with mobiles/camera's/ video camera's as sales managers/ staff can be aggressive.

I agree with frantic - be a pest, I'd be embarassed but it's a thousand bucks!

Be careful with the video/recording stuff. There are laws (Listening Devices Act) that makes it an offence to record audio and or video of a person or conversation without their knowledge and or consent....

Good luck with it

Matt.