So the meeting today went well. They have refunded the deposit. Thanks for the help everyone.

Well, i've since had another Email from Mini group who are unwilling to get involved, despite the fact that I am still buying a Mini (you'd think they would want to look after their paying customers). And I have a meeting booked in with the Sales Director of Halliwell Jones this Thursday so we shall see what they have to say then. I've got the LBA ready and will present it to him when we meet if he still refuses to listen to me. I will update the tread after the meeting

Ooh thanks great idea.

That was my thought too. I've had a more amicable response today from the director and he wants to meet up to discuss it. This sounds promising so I will hold off with sending the Letter Before Action. I'll let you know how I get on too.

Thank you once again for your help with this. Just to be clear, the initial agreement was made on their premises. It was only after they had breached the terms of the original agreement that the second agreement was made over the phone. So the list for MoneyClaim would look more like this: The claimant agreed to buy a car from the defendant on XXX date The claimant placed a deposit on the car of £500 The defendant broke the terms of the contract and was no longer able to provide the agreed vehicle at the agreed price The claimant agreed, over the telephone, to take a different car for a different price and with different equipment the agreement was entered into over the telephone and therefore is subject to the distance selling regulations in place at that time under the Consumer Contracts Regulations 2014 The claimant withdrew from the contract XX days later the defendant has refused to accept the cancellation of the contract and refuses to return the deposit the claimant seeks the refund of £XXX + interest pursuant to section 69 County Courts act 1984 I have drafted the letter before action. Should i be asking them to provide any documents or the recordings of the phone calls that they have?

Thanks for your response. I have written to them on numerous occasions and their sales director has basically told me to go away and that he isn't honouring the refund because 'I have just changed my mind' (in his words). I just wanted to ensure that I was definitely in the right before sending a 'Letter Before Action'. Thanks for the consumer rights link, they definitely didn't inform me of my right to cancel or of anything else apart from the details of the car. I think what they are trying to do is to insinuate that the second car is covered by the original agreement. I am so glad i stumbled upon this forum. Thanks for your help.

Hello, Sorry for the long wordy post. I recently paid a £500 deposit and signed a new vehicle hire contract for a Mini with Chilli Pack from Halliwell Jones. 3 days later they contacted me via phone to say that Mini had increased the price of the Chilli Pack and it's now roughly £1000 more expensive (this wasn't advertised on the Mini website). The sales rep said that there was nothing that they could do apart from try to find another car that's already been built with the old chilli pack. They managed to find one that had everything I wanted but was more expensive because it had heated seats. After some hesitation I agreed to this car but called back about 20 mins later to say that i was unsure about what to do. I tried to negotiate a better deal but they wouldn't budge and made out that I had already had as much discount as I was going to get etc. and i said that i needed to think about it. By this time they had already bought this car from another dealership. I told them over the phone that i was going to try and get a better deal from another dealer because i wasn't happy with it at all and that evening that's what I did. When I then asked Halliwell Jones for my deposit back they have refused on the grounds that i agreed to order the second car however, according to their terms and conditions the original agreement was cancelled when they could not fulfil it and the second agreement is classed as a distance selling one and because of this I have the right to cancel within 14 days and don't have to give a reason. Am I in the right here? Any help you can give will be very much appreciated.