Price change on website. - where do I stand?
Discussion
So was busy looking at a manufacturers Approved Used website and spot a vehicle I might be interested in.
Phone dealer and explain which vehicle (pretty sure the price was mentioned but can’t guarantee it). Explain we would like to make an appointment to view and salesman said someone would be in touch.
Guy gets in touch and after a bit of chat sends me the link from their “dealer group” website but price is £2,000 more!
Thought no more of it as the price on the manufacturers website was what we were interested in.
Luckily I had the presence of mind to take a photo shot of the original lower price shown on the manufacturers Approved Used website.
When I went back into the manufacturers Approved Used website later, the price had been increased by £2,000 to match the dealer group website price.
We’re going to view the car on Saturday and have put a deposit down.
Not wanting a battle over what the actual price is/was, where do we stand? I have proof that the price was shown at a lower figure but does that stand up in court?
Any advice appreciated.
Phone dealer and explain which vehicle (pretty sure the price was mentioned but can’t guarantee it). Explain we would like to make an appointment to view and salesman said someone would be in touch.
Guy gets in touch and after a bit of chat sends me the link from their “dealer group” website but price is £2,000 more!
Thought no more of it as the price on the manufacturers website was what we were interested in.
Luckily I had the presence of mind to take a photo shot of the original lower price shown on the manufacturers Approved Used website.
When I went back into the manufacturers Approved Used website later, the price had been increased by £2,000 to match the dealer group website price.
We’re going to view the car on Saturday and have put a deposit down.
Not wanting a battle over what the actual price is/was, where do we stand? I have proof that the price was shown at a lower figure but does that stand up in court?
Any advice appreciated.
If it's not too much hassle, go have a look, give them a whiff of a sale and then offer what the price was, pre-rise. If they say no point out that it was actually at that price and you have a screen shot. Walk away if they won't play ball.
Forget court, you don't have a leg to stand on there. It's not unusual for price changes to be displayed at different rates between the UK manufacturer search and the dealer's own site. They may have been running a promotion which ended, hence the rise. I had the same when I was watching a BMW. Approved Used search on BMW UK website and dealer's own site showed changes at different times - one of them was lagging the other, but I can't remember which way round it was. Also, the price went up by £1,000 at one point, I guess as they were responding to the prices of cars available across the UK at any given moment.
Forget court, you don't have a leg to stand on there. It's not unusual for price changes to be displayed at different rates between the UK manufacturer search and the dealer's own site. They may have been running a promotion which ended, hence the rise. I had the same when I was watching a BMW. Approved Used search on BMW UK website and dealer's own site showed changes at different times - one of them was lagging the other, but I can't remember which way round it was. Also, the price went up by £1,000 at one point, I guess as they were responding to the prices of cars available across the UK at any given moment.
MitchT said:
If it's not too much hassle, go have a look, give them a whiff of a sale and then offer what the price was, pre-rise. If they say no point out that it was actually at that price and you have a screen shot. Walk away if they won't play ball.
Forget court, you don't have a leg to stand on there. It's not unusual for price changes to be displayed at different rates between the UK manufacturer search and the dealer's own site. They may have been running a promotion which ended, hence the rise. I had the same when I was watching a BMW. Approved Used search on BMW UK website and dealer's own site showed changes at different times - one of them was lagging the other, but I can't remember which way round it was. Also, the price went up by £1,000 at one point, I guess as they were responding to the prices of cars available across the UK at any given moment.
Sorry taking them to court wasn’t really what I meant - just a legal perspective. I actually have a pretty good relationship with this dealer so hopefully it can be resolved without any bad feelings.Forget court, you don't have a leg to stand on there. It's not unusual for price changes to be displayed at different rates between the UK manufacturer search and the dealer's own site. They may have been running a promotion which ended, hence the rise. I had the same when I was watching a BMW. Approved Used search on BMW UK website and dealer's own site showed changes at different times - one of them was lagging the other, but I can't remember which way round it was. Also, the price went up by £1,000 at one point, I guess as they were responding to the prices of cars available across the UK at any given moment.
I've had this happen three times to me in recent weeks...
Saw a car on an approved used web site before going away for a week, came back and it was many thousands more expensive.
Saw similar car a few days later on the same web site so put a reservation deposit down on it, only to be told it was actually £7k more expensive (28%).
Apparently both of these were 'a glitch' in the web site software...
Last one was on a different (but related) manufacturers approved web site. I enquired about the mileage on a car and was sent an email confirming it late one evening, but when I looked the next morning it was £1500 more expensive.
Walked away and bought a VW, which didn't go up as soon as I looked at it!
Saw a car on an approved used web site before going away for a week, came back and it was many thousands more expensive.
Saw similar car a few days later on the same web site so put a reservation deposit down on it, only to be told it was actually £7k more expensive (28%).
Apparently both of these were 'a glitch' in the web site software...
Last one was on a different (but related) manufacturers approved web site. I enquired about the mileage on a car and was sent an email confirming it late one evening, but when I looked the next morning it was £1500 more expensive.
Walked away and bought a VW, which didn't go up as soon as I looked at it!
Boxster5 said:
Sorry taking them to court wasn’t really what I meant - just a legal perspective.
Same answer. Not a sausage.Boxster5 said:
I actually have a pretty good relationship with this dealer so hopefully it can be resolved without any bad feelings.
Have a friendly chat with them then. Tell them it caught your eye at the lower price and you wondered if they'd do it for that. Just be nice. They can say no and you can walk. No biggie. If you can't find a comparable car elsewhere at the lower price then maybe the higher price is right.MitchT said:
Boxster5 said:
Sorry taking them to court wasn’t really what I meant - just a legal perspective.
Same answer. Not a sausage.Boxster5 said:
I actually have a pretty good relationship with this dealer so hopefully it can be resolved without any bad feelings.
Have a friendly chat with them then. Tell them it caught your eye at the lower price and you wondered if they'd do it for that. Just be nice. They can say no and you can walk. No biggie. If you can't find a comparable car elsewhere at the lower price then maybe the higher price is right.Hopefully I’ll still get invited to their annual golf day!
Who did you put the deposit down with, the local dealer? If so, presumably it was based on the price on their website rather than BMW's Approved website.
Personally I'd ring them up and explain that you put the deposit down based on the BMW Approved Used website and you wanted to confirm that was the price offered. If they say no, just ask for your deposit back.
Will save a wasted trip unless they are very local.
Personally I'd ring them up and explain that you put the deposit down based on the BMW Approved Used website and you wanted to confirm that was the price offered. If they say no, just ask for your deposit back.
Will save a wasted trip unless they are very local.
timbo999 said:
I've had this happen three times to me in recent weeks...
Saw a car on an approved used web site before going away for a week, came back and it was many thousands more expensive.
Saw similar car a few days later on the same web site so put a reservation deposit down on it, only to be told it was actually £7k more expensive (28%).
Apparently both of these were 'a glitch' in the web site software...
Last one was on a different (but related) manufacturers approved web site. I enquired about the mileage on a car and was sent an email confirming it late one evening, but when I looked the next morning it was £1500 more expensive.
Walked away and bought a VW, which didn't go up as soon as I looked at it!
It's not a glitch. It is new software with dynamic pricing which automatically adjusts the price depending on a number of factors, such as the number of views/clicks on a given advert. It's basically the same way that Amazon's dynamic pricing works and is being rolled out to other sectors.Saw a car on an approved used web site before going away for a week, came back and it was many thousands more expensive.
Saw similar car a few days later on the same web site so put a reservation deposit down on it, only to be told it was actually £7k more expensive (28%).
Apparently both of these were 'a glitch' in the web site software...
Last one was on a different (but related) manufacturers approved web site. I enquired about the mileage on a car and was sent an email confirming it late one evening, but when I looked the next morning it was £1500 more expensive.
Walked away and bought a VW, which didn't go up as soon as I looked at it!
66HFM said:
Who did you put the deposit down with, the local dealer? If so, presumably it was based on the price on their website rather than BMW's Approved website.
Personally I'd ring them up and explain that you put the deposit down based on the BMW Approved Used website and you wanted to confirm that was the price offered. If they say no, just ask for your deposit back.
Will save a wasted trip unless they are very local.
I put the deposit down with the local dealer after they sent a link from the dealer group website and it was at that stage I realised that the dealer group price was different.Personally I'd ring them up and explain that you put the deposit down based on the BMW Approved Used website and you wanted to confirm that was the price offered. If they say no, just ask for your deposit back.
Will save a wasted trip unless they are very local.
My initial call to the dealer was made whilst viewing the manufacturer’s Approved Used website which showed the “lower” price.
I assumed that that was the price.
Around 3 hours later, the manufacturer’s Approved Used website then showed the higher price to match the dealer group!
It’s only 40 mile away so we’re going to view the car and see how it pans out.
Tisy said:
It's not a glitch. It is new software with dynamic pricing which automatically adjusts the price depending on a number of factors, such as the number of views/clicks on a given advert. It's basically the same way that Amazon's dynamic pricing works and is being rolled out to other sectors.
I always find that amusing...Them:
"We're getting loads of clicks on this car, loads of people must be interested, better bump the price up."
Me:
"I've checked the price of this car every two minutes all day to make sure I'm first to know if they drop the price, but the bloody thing's gone up now!"
Tisy said:
It's not a glitch. It is new software with dynamic pricing which automatically adjusts the price depending on a number of factors, such as the number of views/clicks on a given advert. It's basically the same way that Amazon's dynamic pricing works and is being rolled out to other sectors.
As above. I've had this recently.The dealer marked the car as sold once a deposit was placed. The dynamic pricing algorithm then bumps up the price even though it's not available to buy.
I paid a bit less than the original asking price and negotiations were based on the original pricing.
In my case there were about 15 of these cars available in the UK (GR86) and they are all virtually the same in terms of age/mileage/spec. When they marked mine as sold and bumped the price all the other dealers' followed and prices went up 2k in the next few days when the "computers" chased each other's pricing.
Tisy said:
It's not a glitch. It is new software with dynamic pricing which automatically adjusts the price depending on a number of factors, such as the number of views/clicks on a given advert. It's basically the same way that Amazon's dynamic pricing works and is being rolled out to other sectors.
I was at several dealers last weekend and all the cars in the lot had the standard signs in the windscreen, but with QR codes linking to the appropriate page on the website, I was thinking at the time that seems a bit of technology for technologies sake, but now it makes more sense. Just an update on this.
Glad to say they honoured the original lower price without any hassle.
They put it down to dynamic pricing.
I didn’t realise it was a “thing” in the motor trade - it was interesting that the car we were looking at had been viewed 5 times on the dealer website when I looked yesterday so clearly looks like dynamic pricing - I don’t like it.
Anyway we bought it after a bit of negotiation on “cost to change”.
Glad to say they honoured the original lower price without any hassle.
They put it down to dynamic pricing.
I didn’t realise it was a “thing” in the motor trade - it was interesting that the car we were looking at had been viewed 5 times on the dealer website when I looked yesterday so clearly looks like dynamic pricing - I don’t like it.
Anyway we bought it after a bit of negotiation on “cost to change”.
Boxster5 said:
So was busy looking at a manufacturers Approved Used website and spot a vehicle I might be interested in.
Phone dealer and explain which vehicle (pretty sure the price was mentioned but can’t guarantee it). Explain we would like to make an appointment to view and salesman said someone would be in touch.
Guy gets in touch and after a bit of chat sends me the link from their “dealer group” website but price is £2,000 more!
Thought no more of it as the price on the manufacturers website was what we were interested in.
Luckily I had the presence of mind to take a photo shot of the original lower price shown on the manufacturers Approved Used website.
When I went back into the manufacturers Approved Used website later, the price had been increased by £2,000 to match the dealer group website price.
We’re going to view the car on Saturday and have put a deposit down.
Not wanting a battle over what the actual price is/was, where do we stand? I have proof that the price was shown at a lower figure but does that stand up in court?
Any advice appreciated.
It's "an invitation to treat". Not normally - under English law - legally binding.Phone dealer and explain which vehicle (pretty sure the price was mentioned but can’t guarantee it). Explain we would like to make an appointment to view and salesman said someone would be in touch.
Guy gets in touch and after a bit of chat sends me the link from their “dealer group” website but price is £2,000 more!
Thought no more of it as the price on the manufacturers website was what we were interested in.
Luckily I had the presence of mind to take a photo shot of the original lower price shown on the manufacturers Approved Used website.
When I went back into the manufacturers Approved Used website later, the price had been increased by £2,000 to match the dealer group website price.
We’re going to view the car on Saturday and have put a deposit down.
Not wanting a battle over what the actual price is/was, where do we stand? I have proof that the price was shown at a lower figure but does that stand up in court?
Any advice appreciated.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invitation_to_treat
Boxster5 said:
Just an update on this.
Glad to say they honoured the original lower price without any hassle.
They put it down to dynamic pricing.
I didn’t realise it was a “thing” in the motor trade - it was interesting that the car we were looking at had been viewed 5 times on the dealer website when I looked yesterday so clearly looks like dynamic pricing - I don’t like it.
Anyway we bought it after a bit of negotiation on “cost to change”.
Excellent, I've had it the other way where the price is the price.Glad to say they honoured the original lower price without any hassle.
They put it down to dynamic pricing.
I didn’t realise it was a “thing” in the motor trade - it was interesting that the car we were looking at had been viewed 5 times on the dealer website when I looked yesterday so clearly looks like dynamic pricing - I don’t like it.
Anyway we bought it after a bit of negotiation on “cost to change”.
Didn't buy, 6 months later, car still at the dealer. That was an expensive £2k for them.
AllyBee said:
I was at several dealers last weekend and all the cars in the lot had the standard signs in the windscreen, but with QR codes linking to the appropriate page on the website, I was thinking at the time that seems a bit of technology for technologies sake, but now it makes more sense.
Not sure that's legal, as the retail price is supposed to be clearly displayed without having to ask (if you didn't have a smartphone, or bad connection, whatever). But jewelry shops have been ignoring that forever...Gassing Station | Car Buying | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff