Calling all legal boffins!! Need help urgent! (RESULT)! :D
 

Hi guys,

I made a mistake by way of using Motorlink services to sell my car.

After repeated phones calls, must have been about 11 or 12 and telling them I wasn't interested, I finally decided to give them a try:

During the signup over the phone here is was they said and promised.

They only contact a seller if they have people interested in their type of car
They do not contact anyone if they don't have a buyer for their type of car

They promised me that they had several buyers and that they would definitly contact me within 48 hours.

This was monday, haven't heard diddly squat from them since, not only that but the put the wrong price up on my car ad as well :@

I found out my rights and that under the Distant Selling Regulation (which covers telesales, fax, internet, TV etc)


Distance selling regulations - cancellation periods
The regulations give consumers an unconditional right to cancel an order.

This is to allow the consumer the opportunity to examine the goods or consider the nature of a service.
If a consumer cancels an order, written notice must be given to you by:
• goods – seven working days from the day after that on which the goods are received by the consumer;
• services – seven working days from the day after that on which the consumer agrees to go ahead with the contract.


I phoned them and they repeatedly tell me that I am not entitled to a refund :confused:

I eventually threatened legal action and they still did not seem willing to help.




I have typed up the following letter which I intend to send via both e-mail and postal mail.






MOTORLINK SERVICES LIMITED
CROWN HOUSE
TURNERS HILL
CHESHUNT
HERTFORDSHIRE EN8 8NN

FAO Managing Director

Dear Sir/Madam,

After many repeated calls from your company pestering me to buy your services and after repeatedly stating that I was not interested I reluctantly signed up on Monday 9th August 2004.

I was promised that at least one buyer was lined up for my car and also promised that I would receive a call from buyers within 48 hours to arrange seeing the car.

As of today, being Friday 13th August 2004 I have heard nothing from your company or apparent buyers in any form, I have not received ANY of the services. I also note that you are in breach of the Sales of Goods Act. Not only this but I also note that my Advert is incorrect with regards to the price.

After speaking to one of your customer service representatives I am now putting my request for a refund in writing to you that I expect you to honour.

Under the Distance Selling Regulations I am entitled to a FULL and UNCONDITIONAL refund by way of notifying you within 7 working days not including the day the services were purchased.

To Quote:
The regulations give consumers an unconditional right to cancel an order. This is to allow the consumer the opportunity to examine the goods or consider the nature of a service.
If a consumer cancels an order, written notice must be given to you by:
• goods – seven working days from the day after that on which the goods are received by the consumer;
• services – seven working days from the day after that on which the consumer agrees to go ahead with the contract.
And

You must refund the consumer's money as soon as possible and, at the latest, within 30 days of receiving the written notice of cancellation

I expect to have a FULL refund, if I do not I will be taking Legal Action against you in the small claims division of the County Court.

Regards





Looking for advice on where I stand and what to do next!!! HELP!

How did you pay? If Credit Card notify them that you have not recieved the services you paid for a require them to stop the payment and refund you.

Yeah by credit card, already notified bank and initiated a transaction dispute.

I don't want to sound harsh because I've been there before too but you should have known better :( I got tucked up like this about 6-7 years ago when it wasn't as well known :(

Yeah thanks paul, I feel bad enough as it is so please no more I told you so's or you should have known better's. Can't change whats happened.

Just need to do what I can to get my money back from them

The credit card company will give you your money back as a matter of course. It will then be up Motorlink to prove you had the goods promised.
However under the distance selling act they won't have a leg to stand on. Probably won't even contest the claim with the credit card company.

send the letter recorded delivery and send a copy to your card company with an explanation.

Good letter. Send it recorded delivery to make sure you can prove it was delivered. Also call them up and ask for their address for service of legal documents - it'll probably be a solicitor's address. They're legally obliged to provide this.

Personally I've always wanted to know who all these buyers are who are incapable of just reading a copy of Auto Trader for themselves like the rest of us... :rolleyes:

Sorry :( Like I said though I got caught too :o what you might also need to do is tell them that you are contacting watchdog because I believe they've featured a few of these companies and scams before and then copy them in on an email to watchdog ;) That should put the wind up 'em :D

Follow up your threat and take them to the small claims court!

**UPDATE**

Ok, Well I think i have finally gotten somewhere with this.

The letter I posted at first I sent via recorded delivery on sat and got a call from their customer services manager who gave me the usual waffle about looking into why i hadn't received the service that I had expected blah blah blah!!

He also seemed to think that as a company they were exempt from the distance selling regulations :confused:

Dunno how they worked that one out.

Anyway he was like blah blah blah sorry sorry sorry, no you can't have a refund blah blah blah.

now I was expecting this sort of bullsh*t from them so I had planned ahead! I had called my bank last week to dispute the transaction.

Got a few replies from them asking me to confirm that I had still not received the service, what the company was and the amount.

Did that, and today got a reply from my bank saying they were reversing the visa charge and that the money will be refunded back into my bank account :D

Result :D

Juts waiting for confirmation that this has been completed :)

Anyway thanks for your suggestions guys! Looks like i won't have to take them to court after all.

Nice one :D I only wish more people would do this so you can stop them trading :( I'd be tempted to phone them up and say "I got my money back thanks" :lol1:

Or don't use them in the first place. That WILL stop them trading! :)

There are far too many stoopid people for that to happen :(

Are you trying to tell me something? ;):D

:lol:

:iamwithst

Me :o I don't know what you mean ;):p:lol1:

Guess that makes two of us then huh paul? ;);) :D

Err.....yes :o:lol1:

put MOTORLINK in Goggle and the 2nd and 3rd link are about being conned...not to mention search on SN......No excuse to get stitched up by these idiots.

You don't even need Google. If you've already placed an ad for your car in Autotrader/local rag/supermarket, you've probably done some considered investigation into the best places to sell a car...

Yet when some muppet from "insert unknown company name here" phones up and offers you some amazing deal and a whizzy way to sell your car (and probably a method you've never heard of, even although you've done some investigation), so many people cough up cash! If it is so successful, why did you not find out about them in your intial investigation. ie, if you haven't heard of them, how do you think the rest of the car buying public have???? Seen them advertised on tv or in the press? Nope. Say no more.

It truly is amazing. Fair play to the companies doing this. They're not doing a huge amount wrong (apart from perhaps misrepresentation of their success). If people want to shell out on some phone speil, more fool them.

My rule is simple & foolproof. NEVER buy anything from unsolicited calls or door-to-door selling. NEVER!

And the moral of the story is....................

Never ever trust people who ring YOU up and say i can sell ur ......

when placing an ad always put NC at the end of it :D