Hi,
I will try to keep this short - I viewed a car at a second-hand dealer. A few things wrong with it: the engine was overheating, the air con didn't work, 1 tyeare was bald, and the exhaust was split. I kept looking around, but is was a nice looking little car, for my learner daughter. I then phoned up to enquire about the car.
The dealer stated they will fix all issues if I was committed to buy, so I paid a deposit of $250 over phone with credit card on Tuesday 29 June, with the agreement that the repairs would be fixed and car would be collected and balance paid in cash on 5 July.
I followed up with an email on 3 July, listed the faults to be rectified as discussed, and requested a confirmation that all was good for pick up. The salesman returned my call and confirmed yes. I called again on 4 July to confirm if it was ready to go, and Salesman said yes.
On 5 July, I drove the 3.5hrs to get there, and while inspecting the car, another salesman said that it was quicker and cheaper to put another motor in the car. When I asked the sales man, at first he said no. It's just like another one cause we did so much work to it. After a few more questions, he admitted that he put a second hand motor in the car.
We noticed that it was rough on idle and blew smoke on start up - the tyeare had not also been replaced, and the salesman said he would send out a fan to the air con when it arrived. He could not show paperwork for the engine that had been put in, although he said he had it.
For us, the car now no longer had genuine k's, the agreed repairs had not been done, we did not know how many the k's on the replacement motor, and we were not given any warning that this is what they were going to do. We decided not to proceed with the purchase and the dealer is refusing to return our deposit of $250.00.
NSW Fair Trading has advised us to attend the tribunal which I am prepared to do, but not sure I have a demonstrable case under Australian Consumer Law (their word against ours), or what part of the Act I should be taking them under. Can I also seek compensation for travels costs/waste of my time? Any advice would be much appreciated.
I will try to keep this short - I viewed a car at a second-hand dealer. A few things wrong with it: the engine was overheating, the air con didn't work, 1 tyeare was bald, and the exhaust was split. I kept looking around, but is was a nice looking little car, for my learner daughter. I then phoned up to enquire about the car.
The dealer stated they will fix all issues if I was committed to buy, so I paid a deposit of $250 over phone with credit card on Tuesday 29 June, with the agreement that the repairs would be fixed and car would be collected and balance paid in cash on 5 July.
I followed up with an email on 3 July, listed the faults to be rectified as discussed, and requested a confirmation that all was good for pick up. The salesman returned my call and confirmed yes. I called again on 4 July to confirm if it was ready to go, and Salesman said yes.
On 5 July, I drove the 3.5hrs to get there, and while inspecting the car, another salesman said that it was quicker and cheaper to put another motor in the car. When I asked the sales man, at first he said no. It's just like another one cause we did so much work to it. After a few more questions, he admitted that he put a second hand motor in the car.
We noticed that it was rough on idle and blew smoke on start up - the tyeare had not also been replaced, and the salesman said he would send out a fan to the air con when it arrived. He could not show paperwork for the engine that had been put in, although he said he had it.
For us, the car now no longer had genuine k's, the agreed repairs had not been done, we did not know how many the k's on the replacement motor, and we were not given any warning that this is what they were going to do. We decided not to proceed with the purchase and the dealer is refusing to return our deposit of $250.00.
NSW Fair Trading has advised us to attend the tribunal which I am prepared to do, but not sure I have a demonstrable case under Australian Consumer Law (their word against ours), or what part of the Act I should be taking them under. Can I also seek compensation for travels costs/waste of my time? Any advice would be much appreciated.
