Ordered new car - arrived in wrong colour

P

Polo-Boy

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Hi,

I ordered a new car to the value of €40,000 from a well known Dublin dealership in mid January. I paid a €2,000 deposit at the time. The car arrived yesterday, only to discover the salesman had ordered it in the wrong colour - silver instead of blue!

Basically, he apologised for his error and then went on to ask if I wanted to take the wrong colour instead! He told me I would have to wait until mid May if I wanted one in the colour I originally requested. I asked would I be compensated for the now 16 week wait and he said no.

I know one of my options is to walk away from the deal, but I do like the car I ordered and I am happy with the finance deal I had worked out (which the salesman is going to confirm today if it will still stand for a car for delivery in May!).

I really feel I am being treated badly for someone elses error, and would like to know if anyone else has been in this situation? I feel the garage are being very rigid in their refusal of any compensation (not even an offer to upgrade the alloys or cd player).

Any opinions welcome.

Thanks, Polo.
 
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This happened to me in 1995 after a wait of 6 weeks. The salesperson adopted a "take it or wait until the right colour comes in" attitude so I went to the distributor who confirmed that the car had been ordered in the correct colour. It seemed the salesperson wanted my car for another customer and tried to fob me off with another car that was in stock. Mysteriously my car turned up in the yard where the garage stored their cars. They gave me a few extras as an apology.

Might be worth going to the distributor just to see...
 
What car did you buy? How does it look in silver? if you have aggred to trade in your existing car I would grt him to agree to give you the same trade in value in may. I'm sure the finance deal will still stand in mid may.
 
Here's what you need to do.

Ask to speak to the Owner/ Manager of the garage. Don't be fobbed off by a salesperson.

Be polite...but indignant. Explain that you are paying good money to buy a brand new car from this dealership and they have messed you about big time. Don't be interrupted...go on to explain that unless they are going to help you out in your present situation you are going to walk away and never do business with them again.

If the manager refuses to help you out or offer any sort of goodwill gesture...walk away!!! Do not do business with a retailer who doesn't give a monkeys about your business. Order it somewhere else.

By the way...the only talk that car dealers understand is no nonsense get me this or else kind of talk. That's a rule for Irish dealers. You can be nice about it...but basically they will walk all over you if they like. If that had happened to me I would have roared so much abuse at them they would have given me the car for free :D
 
Wouldn't be surprised if the salesman always knew the car he could get was the wrong colour and hoped to fob you off.
 
A friend of mine ordered a Toyota Landcruiser with leather seats and when he went to collect it it had cloth seats.
They gave him that one to use until the one with the leather seats arrived in almost 4 months later.

It was the Dealers mistake so I think they should give you the silver model until your one arrives. Don't let it go.
 
Aren't CDs old hat by now? - I would have thought the technology would be here by now where you can just upload music to your car.
 
If I remember correctly when you order a new car there is a lot of documentation and that states the colour. I would ask for a look at the order form and see what it says. Then if it is a clear error by the garage just hold your ground. Personally I would walk and buy it elsewhere. The guy who made the mistake should be sacked, I betthey ordered a job lot and got a better deal. If its a well known brand ring their head office and say you are going to talk to joe.

noah
 
I had a similar situation and when I got no free extras, I eventually told 'em sticket & got the car I wanted from another dealer. I had to wait a number of weeks, but it was the same wait regardless.
 
I ordered a car a few years ago from a Dealer who told me he had never seen the colour I was ordering before as it was fairly new & I asked him if anyone else had ordered it and they hadn't. When there was no sign of my car coming, I gave him a ring to find out when he'd be expecting it and he told me that he had one coming in that colour the following week but it was for another customer. I saw red and told him that that car was mine and there was no way he was giving it to anyone else (don't mess with a woman!). He tried to tell me that the other guy ordered his first but being female, we never forgetting anything, I told him that he made the mistake of telling me that no-one else had ordered that colour when I put in my order! I got the car the following week!

I know from this garage as I bought a few new cars from him, that they have a live link to all the cars coming in to the country within their Dealership and they can swop cars amongst themselves if they need a certain colour sooner. Some garages order for instance 10 black cars with a certain spec and hope to shift them without having the chance of losing a customer who won't wait 14 weeks for the order. If they need to get their hands on a Silver in the meantime, they can swop with another garage that have Silver on order.

I would definitely demand that I get the car I ordered and would walk away if they don't rectify it unless you really like the Silver and you should definitely get some freebies thrown in for the stress, maybe nicer tyres and first service free. Be firm!
 
This is your €40,000. Get the colour you want.
You will only regret being fobbed off otherwise
 
NOAH said:
If I remember correctly when you order a new car there is a lot of documentation and that states the colour. I would ask for a look at the order form and see what it says.
Click to expand...
The cutomer always gets a copy of the original order form when they put down the deposit

Seems to me you have a choice, take the silver one or wait, or like others have said and ask the distributor or talk to the manager but I can guess the manager will just stick up for the salesperson
 
Your receipt will have what you ordered including colour. Probably don't take the silver car (you will always have it in the back of your mind that its not what you ordered!). The only way I would accept the silver one would be at a discount or as a short term replacement.

As for waiting , I would either want a price drop (unlikely) , or a few free extras seeing the car has to be reordered (i.e kitted out with the extras originally ordered)!

I think on the back of the dealer forms are some SIMI T&C wrt delivery times - I recall they are very (very,very,very) generous to the dealerships.

If you walk away what happens the deposit would be my worry!
 
Why not ask them to paint the car the colour you wanted?
 
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