Ever been ripped off?

SCR Pedro

Hey there,

As the title asks, have you ever been totally ripped off?

I bought a car at auction. It looks great, seemed to run fine at the auction house, but in reality it's a complete piece. The engine has something terminaly wrong with it, and I don't have the cash to fix it because I had to buy the car to secure a job (which has fallen through, thanks to this afternoons breakdown). :roll:

Now I realise why cars are 'sold as seen' and without test drives at the auctions.

What's the most amount of money you've been conned out of? Mine comes in at just a tad over 700 quid all in.

A very skint Pedro

STEFANOS4784

What's the problem? My bro's a mechanic might be able to help!

Anyhoo worst ripoff was at phones4u, they sold me a contract 35 quid a month and the phone stopped working after 3 days :shock:

Took it back and they said it would have to go for reppair for 6-8 weeks, i walked out and said fine(i know they're rip-off merchants as i worked for Vodafone, anyhoo cancelled the direct debit didn't pay a penny and never heard a word
Didn't even show up on my experian credit report

(Wouldn't recommend this though, i was incredibly lucky)

SCR Pedro

I don't know where to start, but I'll try anyway.

The engine cuts out whenever the clutch goes in. The revs drop to zero even though it seems to idle fine. The handbrake doesn't work, so I have to hold the footbrake at junctions, which stalls it, because I can't hold the revs with the throttle. The engine also sounds like a bag of bolts.

It's going back to auction this week. So no trip to the alps for me in the spring.

Pedro

STEFANOS4784

Spoke to my bro, he said fook knows, only thing he could think of was it could be the crank sensor whatever that is :?
Any other info?

SCR Pedro

Hey there,

Unfortunately not. I don't know as much about cars as I used to, but I do know a hefty bill when I hear/see one.

It's going back to auction ASAP, anyway. Cars suck.

Thanks for the help though.

pedro

STEFANOS4784

No probs, good luck with the auction, ya never know ya might make profit

Simon Notley

I went into a bike shop the other day for a gear cable (just the inner) and they tried to charge me £5! I think I actually laughed out loud... then I told him you can get them for £1.50 online (in fact you can get them for 75p it turns out, or 95p for stainless) and walked out. If it had been a good shop, I might have bitten my tongue (although probably not) as it was it was a rubbish shop so I took my custom elsewhere.

k-dog

It's not a mkiii VW Golf is it?

I had one of those that did that after about 120k and I fixed it for about £2.

Then the crank position sensor went after a year or so and I traded it in... - that would have been expensive.

If it only stalls when you put the clutch in then it's more likely to be the throttle valve - basically open it up and give it a good squirt with carb cleaner (with someone keeping their foot down on the gas pedal to keep it open) and a scrub with a toothbrush and then it worked perfectly.

Won't fix the handbrake though.