luckystar

Hi Folks,


You may recall I posted a thread around this time last month requesting anyone to point me in the direction of a SLK55 in the UK I could test drive before proceeding with my order.

I have been telling my dealer since placing the order that I wanted to have an extended test drive of this car before I would firm up the spec.

At the end of last month I was pressurised in to specing up the car, else the delivery would be delayed.
Reluctantly I gave him the spec and repeated I still needed the test drive before I would go any further.

He said ok and he would get on to this and get back to me.

Several phone calls to DC UK/DEALER and email/web requests have proved fruitless so I went in today to find out what is happening and he tells me that is a no goer and I will have to take delivery of the car without being able to test drive it and if not they will have to cancel the order!

So gun to head I said to cancel it...now comes the interesting bit, the dealership are now saying they may not be able to return my £1000 deposit even though the car is not even due to be built until late next month or early June..!!

Can they do this ???

The stock MB order form says deposits are non refundable...if any one has any views or experience of this I would be most grateful..

Thanking you all in anticipation..

Luckystar....

silk32

i would say try calling mb customer care. the dealerships are rated by end of each sale with a satisfaction Survey. Well at least in the US they are

Deuce

They are not allowed to hold your money. First of all ask them what product you revieced for that 1000 euros you gave. They will say you got nothing, so in return you should say "give me my money, cause you are getting nothing too." I smell a law suit coming if they don't give the money back to you. I cancled my order for the SLK 350 and went to another dealership to get my SLK 55 AMG and I did get my $1000 U.S. back. Mention law suits and stuff like that, they will then give it back to you.

AMGgirl

I'm not sure about Mercedes Benz but I had a large deposit on a Murcielago roadster that was non refundable and after the delivery date was pushed back quite a few times, I asked for the money back. It took a while but I got the dealership to write me a check...Good luck!

BTW - I bought my SLK55 without ever test driving one. I love it!

waldis

i think you should be getting your money back because they simply did not provide any kind of service or product. however, if the order form does say that the deposit is non refundable then.....i dont know. let us know how it went.

DinDin

in the states they give you back the deposit...that was what i was told as i ordered the car sight unseen. I would make a big stink and contact MB directly.

reallife

Word to the wise. Contracts are legal, enforceable documents. Don't ever simply accept the dealership's 'standard' contract. Read every word extremely carefully. Then reread it. Finally, cross out any disagreable items, such as "you lose your refund, we get to keep all your money, no matter what."

Feel free to write in other specifics such as: "vehicle is to be received in condition acceptable to the buyer within (xxx) days of this order. Deposit, is to be fully refunded to buyer if vehicle does not meet buyer's inspection or is not received by (date specified)." Initial the changes and have the sales manager, not the salesman, co-sign the document and initial all changes. They might not like this approach, but we got the cash and they want it.

Finally, when your vehicle does arrive, go over it very thoroughly, using a checklist so that you don't miss anything. Don't sign anything until your have done a test drive, examined every surface, detail, mechanism, etc. Once you sign for it you own it and all the problems you didn't notice earlier.

Good luck, I hope you get your money back but it sounds like you might have signed away your right to a refund when you placed your order.

luckystar

Dear All...many thanks to those of you who replied to my post in relation to getting my deposit back after my dealer could not get me a car to test drive before taking delivery...well good news for once, my cheque came today.!.after a week of delays etc..quite a relief actually...as the agreement did say "Non Refundable" but MB UK did do the decent thing and allow a full refund as there were no demonstrators slk55's in the uk (not sure what has happended to the slk55 that was doing the rounds!)...a lesson learnt anyway..cheers...folks...