"Admin fee on all transactions"

[Petrol Pete]

How about the big one ?..."stamp duty" on a house sale. Makes these admin fee's look like a bargain

 

[Deletedmember130310]

The so called Ryan Air charging model is partly to make accounting easier (as the respective amounts can be charged vat and posted up the relevant ledgers.

It also, coincidentally, results in a lower headline e price...much like using exVAT prices to the public

 

[Deletedmember130310]

I’m dying to know what £200k car is now £70k...​

 

[PXW]

How about the big one ?..."stamp duty" on a house sale. Makes these admin fee's look like a bargain

That at least is up front. The really obnoxious one is the land registry fee, which should just be about covering the admin cost of registering the title, but is now scaled relative to the value of the property.

 

[oldguy57]

I’ve never worried too much about how a dealer likes to come up their prices, but judge each car on its own merit.

In other words, whether on not they charge an ‘admin fee’ is far less important than the quality of the car and the overall price. A nice car priced competitively would be obviously be a far better buy with this fee than a poorer example that is priced less competitively with no fees.

A local MB main dealer I bought from charge £39 for this, but they allowed me to pay £10k via AMEX after we had agreed a final price (which I wasn’t expecting!) which netted me £100 in cashback. Aside from that in my opinion the car was well priced to begin with and I negotiated a small discount too. Swings and roundabouts really

This exactly. If the price you have negotiated is a good one and you know you're unable to beat it elsewhere, then I've quite happily coughed up a small admin fee. Dealers could quite easily include the extra £100 in the price and not charge an admin fee. Who would notice?

 

[Scott_F]

How about the big one ?..."stamp duty" on a house sale. Makes these admin fee's look like a bargain

That's a tax not an admin fee.

Meanwhile, ADT used to charge £35 (probably more now) for spending 30 seconds filling out and posting the V5 document on top of their weighty and opaque buyer's commission.

 

[Deletedmember130310]

This exactly. If the price you have negotiated is a good one and you know you're unable to beat it elsewhere, then I've quite happily coughed up a small admin fee. Dealers could quite easily include the extra £100 in the price and not charge an admin fee. Who would notice?

because it is misleading advertising - the price you see isn't the price you pay. I think it should be. But as you say, in the scheme of things, the amounts are usually negligible against the value of the car

 

[oldguy57]

because it is misleading advertising - the price you see isn't the price you pay. I think it should be. But as you say, in the scheme of things, the amounts are usually negligible against the value of the car

Agreed - but if you go in to any dealer with your eyes open, these things shouldn't come as a surprise. Dealers will always try and add on all sorts of garbage costs to the "final" agreed price.

 

[Alex]

I’m dying to know what £200k car is now £70k...​

S65.

Post #4.

 

[John]

I’m dying to know what £200k car is now £70k...​

This one - fairly normal depreciation on a 5 year old car, or coming up to:

S65

I've quite happily coughed up a small admin fee. Dealers could quite easily include the extra £100 in the price and not charge an admin fee. Who would notice?

So why charge it separately?

 

[Deleted member 37751]

Another off-putting thing, is dealerships that show images of their showrooms with Coffee and vending machines and crystal globes full of sweeties.
What can that be all about?

“Look at all this stuff we have to pay for, please come and buy a car from us so we can keep this tat”

 

[Deleted member 37751]

It seems a little odd when the trader is selling a £200k car new, for £70k but still trying to sting the customer for more.

It's obviously the buyer's choice whether they buy a car from these kind of traders but has anyone here bought from such a trader?

Only brand new vehicle I’ve ever been to buy was a £35k Hilux ten year ago, went through all the motions of a deal then, after we’d agreed the price the salesman whacked on a £495 “delivery charge” (it was built in South Africa) - I got up and walked out, he chased after me and said he’d see his boss but that wasn’t the point; he’d tried goosing me right on the vinegar stroke so he’d lost that sale.

I then went to Nissan to buy a brand new Navara, salesman there tried a similar trick putting paint protection on without my sayso - I then went and bought a 2 month old Navara from a car supermarket that was £12k less than I’d just been prepared to pay..

 

[Craig010]

We had an "Admin fee" on sales which was supposedly to cover HPI and background checks on cars, but it didn't last long and has since abolished it due to FCA regulations regarding treating customers fairly (which I completely agree with).

What surprised me was the amount of customers who just accepted the fee without a second thought. It simply illustrates that the majority of car buyers do not understand what thier rights really are as consumers.

 

[rf065]

Went to Florida once a few years ago & the hotel added a $10 per day "resort fee" on to the bill when we checked out. First time I'd ever heard of that but we refused to pay on the grounds that if we had known of this fee in advance, we would not have booked.

 

[oldguy57]

so why charge it separately?

Indeed- but car dealers have always operated a wholly unique economic system in my view.

 

[John]

Indeed- but car dealers have always operated a wholly unique economic system in my view.

Yes, it seems so.

I know as consumers we vote with our feet and I certainly do.

The second I see that bullsh on any advert, I ignore it and move on when I've been helping people buy cars of late.

I guess many people must just simply hand over the cash.

 

[ringway]

See below.

 

[ringway]

“Look at all this stuff we have to pay for, please come and buy a car from us so we can keep this tat”

It's as though they think people would be drawn in by the chance of a free coffee, or even bring their children along for the free sweets whilst Mum/Dad splurge on a motor.

I'm not saying it's wrong to have refreshments in a showroom, and these days I think most people would assume they can have a slurp whilst there, it's just the point of some showrooms publicising that they have such facilities that I don't quite understand.
I don't know, perhaps they are aiming at people with a different view on things to me?

 

[markjay]

I would argue that the the cost of the clever-coffee-machine-and-cake-selection at a main dealer as proportion of their revenue, is probably less that the cost of the kettle-tea-and-biscuit a small garage will have, again as proportion of revenue...... so the main dealer may actually be spending less on you, in relative terms.

 

[E55BOF]

All these niggling fees are charged because they can. If enough people refused to pay it, they'd not do it. It adds very little to the cost of a car, but it's irritating. If I wanted the car, though, I'd pay it if there was no alternative, and get over the irritation quite quickly.