To wonder if I can cancel this online car purchase?

[phoneybaloney]

I'm tearing my hair out. I bought a car online last week from a well known online dealership. It was booked to be delivered on Friday. On Friday morning I was told it would not be delivered.

There was then Fri/Sat/Sun of them faffing about and it's now Monday and I'm STILL car less and yet again another day where I've called and said "we'll chase this up and call you back".

This is the biggest purchase I've ever made. It's scary for me to spend so much money. I paid for insurance from last Friday. I scrapped my old car. I talked autistic ds through our new car, what it looked like, when it would come, etc.

I have a busy life, two kids with different needs in different places and I'm so stressed and annoyed! I also feel like it doesn't bode well in terms of customer service or reliability and I'm worried if I do eventually take delivery of the car I'll regret it.

Can I get this refunded?? I paid in full with my bank card.

We cannot see the small print on whatever it is you have signed. Perhaps start with that? Nobody here can tell you as we don't know what terms you agreed to.

You're entitled to a refund on all online purchases within 14 days, I believe.

You have rights when you buy online.

You have rights when you pay by debit card, although it would have been better to pay at least some of the cost by credit card.

Plus there's the company's T&Cs. So you could investigate all of those.

Is this whichever one has been in the news as doing badly? Cazoo?

A lot of the car supermarkets are also doing a similar deal now, Evans Halshaw, Motorpoint, Car People etc, plus all the main dealers. I got mine from Available Car and it was cheaper than the same car from Cazoo. I went and looked at it, but I think they'd deliver if that's what you want.

You could tell them you'll bill them for taxis until your car turns up.

You can cancel from the moment you place your order up to 14 days after receiving the car. You should get a full refund.

So you are well within your rights to cancel now for no reason other than you've simply changed your mind.

Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation, and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013 is the key bit of legislation.

Don't bother looking at the T&Cs. The law will always prevail.

www.themotorombudsman.org/distance-sales-faqs

Out of interest, OP, is the car being personalised in any way for you? That can affect your rights.

Is it no longer available or just delayed? Did you pay on bank card or credit card?

Your post comes across as snarky which is funny seeing as your comment is irrelevant 😅

OP, previous posters are correct that you can cancel your order within 14 days of it being delivered. I assume you didn't visit the dealership or have the car customised.

The car isn't customised in any way.

It was viewed and bought online. Not Cazoo, it was Cinch.

It's a used car (but newish so still £££) rather than a brand new model.

It is still available they just seem to be having issues with the delivery side of the company. And the customer service side also. 🙄

I am leaning to calling and saying refund me. It's left a bad feeling and I've no confidence in them.

I also have the faff of that I had put car insurance in place for last Friday when I should have received the car. So if I cancel the order for the car and get a refund I will have to cancel the insurance too and get new when I choose a new car. The car insurance is paid monthly, again it was done online.

Taxis at the moment isn't a simple solve even if they did reimburse. Eldest is autistic, youngest needs a big heavy car seat. And taxis in my town are just awful, since covid they've a shortage of taxi drivers.

Distance selling regulations cover you for this. We sell vehicles online all the time and you have 14 days to cancel regardless of the reason. We dont even bother getting into a conversation about it. Immediate refund.

Phone them up, tell them you wish to cancel the sale and expect a refund within 48hrs (Got to be reasonable). If they try to be anything other than helpful google distance selling regulations and they should jump to your tune straight away.

In fact, quick google shows

What's your cancellation policy? When you get cinchCare, you've got 14 days from delivery to change your mind and cancel for free. You'll be refunded any payments you've made. After 14 days, you can still cancel for free, but you won't be refunded any payments.
cinchCare - cinch

Ignore that, i was too quick. Will find you the correct info

Law is on your side, OP. Cancel with impunity if you want. But do it quickly for everyone's sake. It's better to do it before they deliver isn't it?

There you go. Section 12 of their terms and conditions

Our 14-day money back guarantee
12.1 You may return the Car to us within 14 days from the day after the date of Delivery or Collection without giving us any reason using our 14-day money back guarantee (the Guarantee). If you paid for the Car using a Finance Agreement, you may use the Guarantee provided that the Car meets the Return Conditions set out in section 12.13 below.

Only cancel if you can easily get a replacement elsewhere, used cars and used car prices are all a bit crazy at the moment due to the chip and parts issue.

they should be able to get it to you, even if they out source the transport. I would be more inclined to believe it’s having work, E.g they found a fault or they’ve scratched it and it’s having bodywork.

if you’ve a bad feeling and can easily get an alternative cancel it. There’s no point starting off badly and paying for that privilege.

Thank you everyone. I've phoned them and requested a refund. They've said it will be done by Bacs after the delivery team have seen it and the finance team have actioned it "so probably tomorrow" it will be actioned.

I've never known such awful customer service. I've spent the last four days back and forth with emails and phone calls and got no where. 😡

I really hope I have a confirmation of refund email in the morning.

I will then have to try and go to somewhere local and see them in person. Which I was trying to avoid doing for various reasons, mainly related to being a single parent carer and the whole "new car" thing being tricky for us as change isn't welcomed.

I'm gutted. This was a huge amount of money for me to spend. I never spend on myself either and I was wanting to be excited but couldn't until it was here. 😔 Nothing ever goes smoothly for me! I should have known this wouldn't either.

The bad feeling was enough for me. I've no confidence in them in terms of honesty/transparency/ reliability/ customer service. To me spending this amount I want it to be pleasant and problem free!

The car ticked all the boxes for me so I'm gutted on that front BUT I just have zero faith in them and don't want to put this amount of my money in their hands.

So it's back to the drawing board. When I have to money back that is!

And now I've car insurance to cancel too. 😭

You are entitled to get your money back for your car insurance too. They may try and charge an admin fee but they can't really. They can charge you for the days of insurance on a daily pro rata basis. Basically it will cost you bigger all!

Thank you all for your advice.

The car insurance company were great and will refund in full.

Cinch have sent me an email showing a credit note of the full amount. It says in the email that if you've paid in full it will be refunded to that card. But the guy on the phone yesterday said it would be by Bacs and took my bank info?!

I just hope I don't also have to chase up the refund. 😔

Honestly OP given your need for a car and inability to go look in person, I think asking for a refund was a bit premature.

Just to say that I'm really surprised. I got a car recently from Cinch and the customer service, and the car were absolutely fantastic. So hopefully the refund will go smoothly and this was just a one-off. It sounds like a complete pain for you though.

I think you've cut your nose off to spite your face. Yes the service may have been poor, but your car would have turned up and under their terms you can return with 14 days.

Now you need a car and have all the aggravation of finding one. IME the delivery date for a car is rarely set in stone , whichever dealer you buy from.

I'm sorry you had a bad experience OP but like a pp, I found Cinch's service excellent from start to finish. I hope you get this sorted soon.

I'd give a shout out to that insurance company - that's really good of them - they deserve the business. (wasn't Swinton was it? I always had good experiences with them)

better than the broker I've been using, who whilst previously was excellent, with my awkward to insure self/car, now that I have a normal car and no-claims etc. and renewal came up was very snotty when I used a comparison site and found a similar quote, but with half the excess, and he was all "you're going to go with them for a 3 Euro difference" and I pointed out it was 3 Euros and 300 Euro Excess difference, and he all but hung up on me! If he'd been polite like other agents I might have been persuadable (I might have missed some difference on the benefits for instance)

The insurance was with the AA. Happy with them and how they were on the phone this morning.

I'm glad others have had good experiences with cinch, but given how poor their communication and customer service were over a four day period I had no faith in them if I had needed to deal with them again after receiving the car.

The refund is already back in my account thankfully, and I have a plan to go to some local dealerships instead. I have had a think about how and when is best to do this in terms of my kid's needs. Not easy logistically but hopefully sorted.. Fingers crossed I can find something and actually feel happy and like a valued customer instead of the feeling I got from the first company.