A friend has asked me the following. He saw a car on the internet and without looking at it he decided to put a deposit on it £1,000. Next day he changed his mind the dealer has said the deposit is non refindable.

What are his rights on this he paid by debit card his bank is Nationwide.

Thanks

I suppose you don't need me to tell you that he's an idiot! But anyway, I should start off by contacting the nationwide and invoke the chargeback procedure.

As to what his rights are, it could be a bit tricky. If we are going to be strict about it, if the deposit is a sum of money intended to reserve the car for him and the dealer did reserve it – then it might be possible to argue that he got what he paid for and he can't complain.

However, I think the best thing to say is that this is a distance contract, the deposit is a part payment – which of course it is and as such he is entitled to a 14 day cooling off period. It sounds to me as if the dealer isn't too cooperative or interested in people's consumer rights but anyway, he should certainly write to the dealer and tell him that he has changed his mind and he is invoking his rights to a 14 day cooling off period in relation to a distance contract and he therefore wants an immediate refund.

We should put this in writing – sent by email if possible and also by recorded delivery post. When he phones the bank and begins the chargeback procedure, they will want to know what steps he has taken and he should let them have the correspondence.

I suppose your friend contacted the dealer by telephone and the dealer's refusal to refund was also made in a telephone conversation – which of course was not recorded. Tell your friend to read our customer services guide, to implement the advice there, and have further conversations with the dealer – but this time get it all recorded..

Which dealer are we talking about?

distance selling applies here so dealer cant keep the deposit.