6:54 am, January 30, 2024
British Car Auctions has refunded a used car dealer more than £39,000 for a car that was ‘damaged and repaired’ after the hammer came down, following a Car Dealer investigation.
Martin Miller, co-founder of specialist used car dealership EV Experts, contacted Car Dealer for help to resolve a dispute with BCA after the auction house ‘refused to back down’.
He bought a 72-plate BMW iX3 in an online auction from BCA that had been listed with some minor damage, all of which he allowed for in his bidding.
But when Miller went to collect the BMW, pictured, he said it was clear the driver’s door had been damaged and ‘poorly repaired’ after the hammer had gone down.
He said the pictures and condition report he bid on showed the car had none of the damage it had when he went to collect the car.
‘It never left BCA Blackbushe, as when we went to collect it we noticed the damage and put a claim into BCA customer services on the same day,’ said Miller.
He paid £38,600 for the car plus a buyer’s fee of £935.40. In total, he was out of pocket by £39,535.40.
Miller said the claim was refused as BCA did not believe the repair had ‘changed the grade’ of the car. He disagreed and escalated the case.
‘The driver’s door had been resprayed but the wrong colour and there was also damage to the front of the car that had not been described on the appraisal,’ said Miller.
But he hit a brick wall with BCA, which he says wanted to ‘even charge for storage’ for not taking the car away and wouldn’t allow him to take photos of the car on the site to prove the damage.
He added: ‘We have bought hundreds of cars from BCA since 2017, have a partner finance facility with them and would like to think of them as a critical business partner, but behaviour like this suggests that they don’t see independent dealers as important.’
Car Dealer contacted BCA and asked the firm to investigate last Tuesday. However, despite repeated requests, it did not respond with a comment.
However, Miller said that following our investigation, he had been contacted and refunded the money in full.
He added: ‘Thank you. Up until the point you started prodding them, BCA refused to do anything to help.
‘After you investigated I had a phone call from the ops director who apologised and refunded our money in full. It’s a shame it took you to get involved, but we’re very glad you did.’
A spokesperson for Constellation Automotive Group, the ultimate owner of BCA, said: ‘No comment.’
Estelle Miller, the joint co-founder of EV Experts, is set to speak at Car Dealer Live on March 7 on our independent car dealer panel.
She’ll join Alex Jones from Carbase, and James McConville from Solo Car Sales to discuss the used car market and the latest trends.
Tickets for the event are available now at CarDealerLive.co.uk.
