Sole motor trader

Nov 30, 2023

Jon wanted to purchase something from me.

I have a cheap and cheerful vehicle for sale. I am a sole trader after leaving my full time employment the year before post heart attack. I now sell the odd car from home. On this occasion I bought a vehicle at trade value, a very high mileage 13 year old Skoda. It had an abs light on, I figured out costs to get the repair and a couple of other things to tidy it up. So I proceeded to advertise at £1,800 and being open and honest as always put on the ad that an abs sensor needed replacing, and I would do it over the coming days. Jon popped up offering me £1,000… so thinking a little cheeky, however god loves a tryer. So I worked it out making it very clear he would be buying it as it is without me carrying out the further work on the abs etc. said he would have an issue getting a lift, so I offered to deliver it. We agreed £1,150 delivered as is. To be honest the weather wasn’t on my side and I didn’t want to work out in the bad conditions anyway. Jon then said to send my bank details and he would drop me a deposit. So everything cool so far. Didn’t hear anything for about 5 days and no deposit yet, to which I presumed life is getting in the way. I messaged Jon asking if he was still interested. He replied with “deffo!” He’s scraping the money together and he’s up to £900. Which I thought was odd due to his bragging. The following week we are organising the delivery of said car. I had to ask my Wife to see if she was free to come and help. Prior to me leaving to Jon’s house, I wanted to have a telephone call with him to check him out and suggest getting it taxed. So we did, he was swearing his head off and bragging about how cheap everything was as he used to have a Rangerover before and the tyres were really expensive, and he hadn’t driven for 3 years due to a drink driving ban and his insurance was really expensive now. So whatever.. I transfer the Skoda into Jon’s name purely on trust alone, no money involved at this point. And proceed to take a pic of the car warming up on the driveway before setting off, (nice thing to do.) to send to Jon. I drove out of my village and the dash lights up and the car goes into limp mode I had used it a few times that week too. I was gutted. So I got it back on my driveway and rang Jon explaining what had happened and that I would fix it for him before bringing it up to him. He asked how long and I said I would hopefully get it done that day. My heart was racing at this point, feeling stressed and worrying due to having transferred everything. He agreed at that point, then messaged me 10 mins later saying..” I’m gonna leave it”. I thought fair enough, I get it. Then gave him some instructions about sending the new V5 back to me asap when he receives it so I can make dvla aware and when it is fixed I can move it on. Left it until the following week and sent him a couple of messages as a reminder. Nothing… so I emailed him today asking extremely politely for him to forward me the new V5. His response was, only if I pay him the £113 deposit he lost for his insurance. I responded asking him not to be awkward as it wasn’t my fault he had trouble getting insurance with his predicament and had to pay that before he gets the car. (Since he has admitted he got his deposit back minus an admin charge!) He has been very awkward which has left me trying to get a replacement V5. And the problem is getting sorted now at a cost of £500, so I can sell again at the higher price to cover it. He is a massive narcissist saying how he runs this big company and how he has had a Bentley before etc. full of it! And in one email he suggested if I wanted a ride up the road, I could have it out with him. What an absolute xxxxx of a man! I fully agree he triggered my ego and we had a childish slagging match via email. Said he would make it as awkward as possible for me now and said that was karma for selling dodgy cars. I’ve been nothing but honest and fair. I didn’t want to do this, however.. since being on here, himself and his business have taken a bit of a hammering on reviews and he is generally not a nice individual. So good riddance!