Fiat could easily sell that car to someone else for full price with 17.5% VAT. It's in their interests to get full price for it.
General Vat increase
- Thread starter stinkyparp
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General Vat increase
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stinkyparp
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Blimey! Strongarm customer service? i've paid a deposit how can thet sell it to someone else?
What I'm saying is that if you don't want to pay full price and cancel your order then there's likely to be someone else happy to take your place in the queue. If you were ordering something which wasn't in such demand you might be able to say "Well if I pull out who are you going to sell it to?" but not with the 500....
and they all lived happily ever after
If you read it properly, I said about £100, so it wasn't 100% fixed, which happens a lot with services of any kind. You made exactly the mistake you say the OP shouldn't have made, you assumed I said it was fixed £100 !!!!
Your talking nonsense about the dealer, it makes no difference if it cost him more of less, if you agree to buy based on a forecast of 12 weeks and it takes almost double that, it is a dealer/Fiat issue not a customer issue. I know deliveries can take longer, but 8 weeks on a 12 week delivery is down to the dealer/fiat I am afraid, there is no argument over that. They should swallow the difference from their profit.
The economies of scale Fiat are enjoying from this full order book, means there is margin to spare for the small number of cars affected.
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OP
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stinkyparp
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TBO i'm almost ready to tell them to shove it, anyone would think i'm buying a packet of biscuits not an eleven grand car (I'd get better service with the biscuits )
That would be very short sighted for a business, for the sake of £200 they loose a customer. If they paid the £200 they have the potential to get the original (happy) customer and a new one, so even from a financial perspective chucking a customer away would not be worth it.
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stinkyparp
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That's right, i mean if it's like this before i buy the car, what the hell is the aftersales gonna be like? Doesn't fill me with confidence.
I'd happily lose a customer who doesn't understand that law is law and gain a customer who thought their car was going to take 16 weeks but only takes half that or something
At the end of the day it's an unfortunate occurrence that VAT is going up but as Pearcejj pointed out at the start of the thread, did people complain when cars were delivered @ 2.5% less VAT? Sadly this slice of bread can't be buttered on both sides and for every person that got a nice surprise earlier this year there'll be one person next year who gets a nasty surprise. If it were me I'd be asking the dealer if they could invoice the car early, if not I'd accept that that's life and that the dealer is in the stronger position whereby he can sell my slot easily to someone else @ full price or perhaps even more if Fiat put their prices up.
The usual "The customer is always right even when they're being unreasonable" types will come on here and try and batter me down but as always I've merely stated the facts and you can either like it or lump it :shrug:
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stinkyparp
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Blimey! You don't work for fiat customer service do you?
I think you're being very unreasonable. I don't know what the margins will be for the dealers on the 500 but I suspect a ~£200 is a significant hit for them and like I said someone else will happily step into your place and take delivery of your shiny new car and pay full whack or perhaps more if Fiat put the price up. Fiat have got you over a barrel, they're in the stronger position. You have three choices.
1. Sit on the forum saying that they should be a charity and give you a discount on a car which they could resell at a higher price because there's been a £200 price rise since you placed your order.
2. Stomach it.
or my personal favourite and what i'd do.....
3 Talk to your dealer and try and pay the VAT @ 15% and get your dream car
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stinkyparp
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You missed out option 4. cancel
Nope! Don't even work in customer service anything anymore
Never worked for Fiat in any way shape or form. It's admirable that you'd pay the VAT increase for one of your customers, it really is but Fiat are in the fortunate position (well for them, not you) of being able to basically name their price with the 500. I mean what price did the Pop start at? And now almost 2 years later AND with a cut in VAT of 2.5% it's £800 more which equates to Fiat raising the price by about a grand.
In an ideal world it would be the other way round, Fiat would be struggling to sell their cars and you not buying the car would mean it would sit at the docks for months and months losing value.
True. Cancel and then Fiat will be in the unfortunate position of being able to sell you car for £200 MORE and possibly keep your deposit.
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stinkyparp
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Would be no question in this circumstance. I've only ever been used to motorcycle sales and we'd do it to keep the customer happy and coming back.
I guess car dealers don't need repeat business, lucky them.
Supply, demand and the fall of the pound. Simple really.
The dealer can't deliver before the car arrives from Poland, and if it comes after the VAT has increased that cost unfortunately has to be borne by the customer. Unless the customer and dealer come to some arrangement and the dealer takes the hit, but the dealer isn't obliged to, and in all honesty why should he?
The dealer can't deliver before the car arrives from Poland, and if it comes after the VAT has increased that cost unfortunately has to be borne by the customer. Unless the customer and dealer come to some arrangement and the dealer takes the hit, but the dealer isn't obliged to, and in all honesty why should he?
I'd happily lose a customer who doesn't understand that law is law and gain a customer who thought their car was going to take 16 weeks but only takes half that or something
At the end of the day it's an unfortunate occurrence that VAT is going up but as Pearcejj pointed out at the start of the thread, did people complain when cars were delivered @ 2.5% less VAT?
Just as well your not in business then !. You loose a customer and then gain one, nett result is that you have gained nothing and lost the opportunity to get two customers for what amounts to £200 less gross profit. Not a great business plan, as on average it costs a significant amount of money to get a customer in marketing, overheads etc etc.
You also clearly don't understand VAT, the 2.5% less VAT for customers who had a unexpected reduction at the beginning of the year had no impact on Fiat or the customer in terms of cost, so it was a win win situation for both parties.
The 2.5% increase however impacts the customer and not Fiat, so the comparison is not the same. And the increase in VAT is a result of Fiat not meeting quoted delivery times. It's also not an unfortunate occurance that VAT is going up, it was planned as you previously stated. The customer ordered the car based on the sellers delivery schedule and the seller doesn't deliver on this, that was also planned. So you say that it should be no surprise that VAT is going up, but by the same token the orders were placed (with advice from Fiat) in time for it not to affect the customer.
So let me get this right, your saying that customers are unreasonable to expect a car to be delivered within the timescale the "seller" quotes. And that a customer is being unreasonable if that increases by +60%. Yet you contradict this by saying Fiat is in a strong position, so they can do what they want and if their sales were not as strong you would be able to probably get them to pay the additional amount.
So which is it, are customers unreasonable or are Fiat using their strong position to force customers.
As for you placing your order in May so you could be sure you would get it before the VAT went up, that is a load of rubbish. You ordered in May because you wanted the car, not to give yourself sufficient time to get lower VAT in case lead times went up.
I don't often argue with people, but when your so quick to be critical of people raising reasonable issue's with silly comments which don't hold true, I feel the need to counter your comments.
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I'll ask you the same question, why should the customer in all honesty pay ?
Because they agreed to purchase said product at stated price. VAT is law and as such gets added onto the price you pay.
I agree, but they also agreed to buy with a leadtime of 12 weeks. I'll ask the question you failed to answer before. What is an acceptable delay on a forecast, 15 weeks, 20 weeks, 25 weeks 30 weeks etc.
Your argument falls apart and is weak when you fail to take into account other area's of the agreement.
You quote the law, but contract law also applies and that means you can't just ignore delivery times as part of the contract, it is of no relevance whether these are written down or not as it then becomes a question of reasonable timescales.
Regardless of the law, the right thing for a company to do is make up for their mistakes and help the customer who is supporting their product.
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