Fee for buying your car?

[David H]

I have just come across the first ever example of something that both sounds like an oxymoron and a contractual impossibility. A company who guarantee to buy your car and then charge you up to £50 for doing so. The only other comparison I know is when you're asked to pay a release fee for your lottery win or hidden will money, but as we know they don't ever happen.

So rather than reduce the price they offer by £50 if that is the margin they require, I can't see a maths formula in any possible format that would make this viable, or possible at all. Does anyone know how it works in reality as I can't think of anything?

[boxtops]

There was an investigation into one company last year http://www.mirror.co....less-115875-22143643/

[Buenchico]

>>>"The only other comparison I know is . . . "

So you've not come across the firms who charge an upfront "broker's" fee for submitting a mortgage application (on behalf of people who'll never qualify for one anyway) then?

Or, for another example of wasted upfront fees, see my post from only a very short while ago, here:
http://www.theanswerb.../Question1023225.html

[Buenchico]

That sounds about right for that firm, Eddie!
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-12934140

With the current high value of scrap metal, I saw an ad yesterday for a firm which guarantees a minimum of £220 for any vehicle (and that includes collection!)

[boxtops]

They should have come to the banger racing today, there was a few bobs-worth of scrap there after the final race !

[R1Geezer]

It's like cash back in reverse, they just deduct the charge from what they give you. Same sort of thing as insurance excess. Sounds like WBAC .CON to me!

[ChuckFickens]

"they just deduct the charge from what they give you"

Not quite, It's an upfront fee and it's payable even if they decide not to buy the car! huge con!

[David H]

I think if it was a pure con the legal people would have advised against it from day one, but is definitely sharp practice, and certainly open to a test court case as I studied law and a little accounting, and there is not a single known example or precedent for charging someone to buy something, and neither should there be. Anyone dealing with such a firm should be very careful, as the apparent bottom line is the car buying is a sideline if they charge regardless. If as said they charge a flat fee for a valuation regardless then they can make a profit for doing nothing and actually do lot better if people don't sell them their cars.
I presume if this is the case then once it is exposed the firm won't last much longer as they'd have made their money and (like carbon trading) can't last forever as they don't actually produce or offer anything, and probably offer peanuts for every car as they can't lose either way.

[Buenchico]

>>>"there is not a single known example or precedent for charging someone to buy something".

Isn't that, in effect, what the major auction houses do when they advertise 'admission by catalogue (£50 each) only'?

[R1Geezer]

Then there's the buyers premium in auctions etc.

[Buenchico]

Good point, R1G.

'Up front' fees are in the news again today:
http://www.camagonline.co.uk/News/5447.aspx