Congratulations on your victory Brian, I'm glad some people are able to give these companies a bloody nose. I forgot to update our story. The FOS apparently decided that my sister-in-law had enough information in her contract for her to know that what she was told verbally was nonsense, so ruled in Carcraft's favour. Mind-boggling stuff, especially when you consider hers was exactly the same situation as others who have beaten them.

We have also just gone down the FOS route, the letter was sent off today. Just re-read the 'final response' letter and the arrogance of these companies is breathtaking.

Update (sort of) My sister in law was given the expected fob off from Carcraft which responded to none of the points raised but instead basically said "A contract's a contract!" - which is interesting, as a verbal contract is also a contract, so I'm looking forward to them hanging themselves by their own bent words. She has been contacted by Trading Standards - hopefully anyone who has been ripped off by this sham of a company will also get in touch with Trading Standards also. With a bit of luck they can be shut down and a more reputable car firm can take their place. Pigs might also one day fly.

I'm not going to pretend to understand the legal ins and outs of consumer legislation, and it may indeed turn out that Carcraft are on a sound legal footing with regards to a customer signing a contract on site. However, the OP does say that they were told by the sales staff that they had a cooling off period when in fact it appears that this is not the case. It is this point that needs addressing IMO, not whether the legislation has been followed, as there appears to be a very common theme running through several of these Carcraft threads - that of sales staff promising customers deals and clauses that they can't (or won't) back up. In this particular case, why wouldn't the punter try to reject after finding a cheaper deal? According to them, that is what they were told they could do. Having done nothing wrong 'from a legal perspective' after being told this seems to be a moot point. I've never personally used Carcraft myself, and I can't have any complaints about how quickly Linzi responds to people's complaints and the courteous manner in which she does so. Unfortunately it seems to me that the company is being let down by sales staff using some very questionable methods. I know I will never use Carcraft in the future having read some of the threads on this site, and from having dealt with them first hand. Until their sales staff are reigned in, I can see plenty of other people thinking the same way.

The problem with this analogy is that not only has the customer not moved in yet - they don't don't even have the keys. There seems to be an easy solution to this particular problem - the finance company are willing to cancel, it appears the customer may even be willing to still use Carcraft to get a similar vehicle....but Carcraft's attitude seems to be "We've got your signature so tough luck". It seems odd that Carcraft are willing to attract such bad publicity over the sake of circa £7k.

I will let you know the outcome whatever it may be......

Hi Linzi I have replied to your PM, please let me know if you haven't received it. Many thanks

Thanks Linzi. I have PM'd you her name, but I will have to wait until I am home from work before going through the issue. Cheers

I've tried again Linzi - please let me know if it hasn't worked Cheers

Hi Linzi, did you get my PM's? I replied twice but I'm not sure if you got them?

Update. We went to see the people at Carcraft earlier. We were informed that it was in fact Creation that have pulled the deal, not Carcraft, so they say there is absolutely nothing they can do. When they were informed that their salesman had responded to the specific question regarding the finance ie; would it be rolled over and any outstanding balnce added to the new offer? - with the answer "no", the staff member went away and brought the Big Boss to talk to us. When we asked for the address and phone number of the department we needed to contact to complain about the process, he explained that every member of staff that was working there when my sister-on-law was sold this offer were no longer employed by him, and he had only taken over in February. I almost asked if this was because they'd been caught mis-selling to their customers but for some reason chose not to. So we are now going to get Creation's side of the story, contact Trading Standards and write in our complaint. If we take Carcraft's explanation at face value, at the very worst their staff have been guilty of mis-selling the deal that Creation were offering. I am also still struggling to understand why customers who have signed a contract to buy a car for £99 per month on the basis that they can keep renewing this deal every 12 months should be forced to increase their repayments by £180 per month when the finance company decide to breach that contract - in this case only 11 months into the contract?! If they are going to do this, surely the fair thing to do would be to allow the customer to hand back the car and cancel the finance agreement?

Did you ever contact Trading Standards? We have been advised that may be an option

Hi This was the Carcraft at Sheffield. She was trading in her car that she had also got on finance from Carcraft as she wanted something bigger as she was expecting another child. She still had finance outstanding on this, I believe. She was offered £99 per month for 12 months with the option to then go onto £280 per month for the same vehicle for 4 years, or trade in again for 12 months @ £99 per month and to 'scrap that finance agreement'. Apparently she wasn't offered the option of just handing the car back - I assume this is because of the outstanding finance from her previous car? It's my thinking that this is preventing her from cancelling her Direct Debit? I believe the finance is through Creation also. Basically there is no option of her being able to afford the increase to £280 as she is still off work on Statutory Maternity Leave, so her only hope is to trade in for another 12 months @£99. I'm hoping she can then start trading in for cheaper cars to enable the end-of-offer increase to be more manageable - but I know next to nothing about car finance so I don't know if this is viable. Cheers

Hi, I was wondering if you got anywhere with your situation? My sister-in-law took out the same offer with Carcraft and has just been told over the phone that the offer is no longer available and that she should come in to the store so they could tell her what they can or can't do for her. We are going to go with her and wondered if anyone had any advice for us? Thanks