8:03 am, April 1, 2011
FOLLOWING news today that the OFT is taking action against webuyanycar.com, the firm’s chief has hit back.
Earlier today, it was announced that the Office of Fair Trading was taking enforcement action over concerns that the firm was giving customers misleading valuations for their cars.
Richard Harrison, chief operating officer of webuyanycar.com says: ‘We’ve implemented a huge amount of changes at webuyanycar.com over the past 12 months to improve our customer experience, and the feedback from the OFT has helped to shape some of the changes we’ve made.
‘Today, sellers come to us because we offer a valuable alternative to part exchange or private sale, a fast, safe and fair way to unlock the real value of their car.
‘As a young and dynamic business, we’ve grown very quickly to become the largest buyer of second hand cars and offer the nation a third way to sell their car. As the largest business in the market, we take our responsibility as customer champion incredibly seriously which is why we’ve invested so much in improving our online valuation tool, tightening up our procedures, investing in training and asking our customers how we can improve our service.
‘In the early days…we didn’t get it right for every single customer. This was a long time ago and isn’t reflective of the business we are today.’
‘In the early days, we were operating a new business and defining a new market sector and we didn’t get it right for every single customer. This was a long time ago and isn’t reflective of the business we are today.
‘Steps taken include launching a new, easier to navigate website with clearer explanations about our service and the choice of a faster approximate valuation or a more indepth accurate valuation. We’ve made it even clearer that the online valuation we give is subject to an onsite inspection by our team of qualified buyers.
‘We’re also investing £300k in a new Buyer Training Academy to make sure that our buyers can accurately assess the valuation of a vehicle and our sellers experience consistently high levels of service at every branch.
‘The free online valuation tool will only ever be as accurate as the description that the seller puts into the system, but by focusing our efforts on helping people to use the valuation tool as accurately as possible, we’re confident that sellers won’t be disappointed at the onsite valuation.”
‘Today, we know that the vast majority of our customers are happy with the fast, safe and fair service we offer and we’re committed to continue to improve our service in the future.’
