Motor Network??? Are they to be trusted

[sparkyspost]

I've been looking to shift my girlfriends car recently and its been advertised in a number of places, and today I got a call from someone claiming to be from Motor Network and that they had some people interested in the car.

The conversation went well until he mentioned a 89.99 warranty charge that may be refunded if the buyer uses their finance option.
When it came to registering the car he wanted my credit / debit card to take the 89.99, but I wasn't too keen on giving it there and then.

I do want to sell the car but I'm suspicious of the call given recent credit card scammers.

Anyone heard of these people? Or is this a scam?

I've tried a google search for them and there is a fairly recent motor company registered on Companies house with that name (Motor Network UK Ltd) There is another without the UK which has been going for a while.

What should I do?
I got their phone number and tried a search on that with no luck.

Should I risk it for a biscuit (selling the car)?

Thanks for any help/advice

Cheers

Mark.

 

[richard]

I wouldnt - theres lots of these type of people who look through adverts and then call up sellers and claim they can sell the car better for them (i.e they have a number of buyers) ..

Why not use EBAY ?? It seems to be well biased towards sellers on cars since most people don't bother to look at the car ..

Cheers

Richard

 

[janner]

Scam written all over it.

 

[Sp!ke]

Scam - was on watchdog IIRC - they have no real buyers interested & will just take your money and you will not sell your car any faster.

 

[Mambo]

Stay away from them IMHO, sounds dodgy.

 

[sparkyspost]

thanks all - thought it started to sound like free money to them with no buyers However willing there to have been some positive experiences to allow me to sell the car.

I would go the ebay route but think I'd get less money than I'd want for it after spending quite a bit on servicing and keeping it reliable for my girlfriend.



PS See my thread for car being sold
http://mbclub.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=24913

 

[richard]

I would go the ebay route but think I'd get less money than I'd want for it after spending quite a bit on servicing and keeping it reliable for my girlfriend.

Sparkyspost - just set the reserve at what you want for the car ...

I dont think you'd get any more money selling it to a person who responds to a magazine advert to one who responds to an ebay auction !! (i.e its the same end customer) - but I guess it depends on how many people look at ebay when they want to buy a car, vs some other particular magazine - it will cost you well under a £5 to try though and under £75 if you actually sell the car

I think the sad fact is that you will always get less for your car than you'd want. Its happened to me every time :-(

Richard

(ps, maybee worth doing a MOT so you have 1 year's MOT not 6 months)

 

[imadoofus]

I don't know if its a scam as such...

What they do is sell finance, to those that can't get it anywhere else (except the billion other places that advertise everywhere ). They offer their customers 'special' car finance deals if they buy a car 'from them', and then they put the punter in touch with you.

If the punter agrees to buy your car, the finance company pay you, and sting the punter for the cost of the car, plus profit, plus warranty, plus arrangement fee, plus repayment protection insurance plus interst on all that lot, plus administration charges.

Somebody called me when I had a car for sale, and I made him explain exactly how it worked. the above is a summarised, embellished version of what he told me.

PJ

 

[sparkyspost]

It just didn't sit right and the saying that the greedy are easily parted from their money (Not that I'm greedy mind, just that I want to sell the car)
Also sounded familiar about the selling thing, and as someone mentioned Watchdog I checked them out. There was a similar company reported on there called Vehiclematch Services Ltd:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/consumer/tv_and_radio/watchdog/reports/transport/transport_20050913.shtml

Think I'm going to leave it and get it mot'd etc then sell via autotrader and maybe ebay.

Thanks again.

Cheers

Mark