Change of mind, want money back

I AM writing to you to get advice as to how to go on with this matter. My fiancée paid cash for a car on Saturday, October 26, 2019. The transaction was not yet finalised at the end of the day because the funds were not reflecting on the bank on the same day.

On Monday morning, she decided not to go ahead with the purchase because in the 1st place she didn’t want a manual transmission, but an automatic. She gave it a good thought on Sunday and took that decision. She then contacted the sales person to inform him before making any further progress with the purchase.

We were given a run-around with the dealership offering her another car (Toyota Corolla Quest), which is something she wasn’t interested in. The other cars they offered were far beyond our budget. So we asked for a refund from the purchase and the owner is refusing to refund us.

He tells us he has been in business for a while and he knows the law. He says he has the right to withhold our money and we can go to the Motoring Industry Ombudsman to lay a complaint.

We haven’t taken the car nor had any paperwork done.

The owner is using bullying tactics to get us to take the car as he is not giving us a choice. He said he won’t even offer us a cancellation fee. The more we state our rights the more he gets agitated and denies us our money.

Please advise on how to get our money back as we cancelled the transaction before seven days lapsed.

Georgie: The Consumer Protection Act does not grant consumers an automatic right of return. This qualifies as a case of buyer’s remorse. There’s nothing wrong with the car. Unfortunately, you can’t force the dealership to refund the money and it gets to make the rules. So if the owner says she must choose another car on his floor, you can’t argue with it.