Hello all. I believe I have been scammed on the second-hand van that I purchased a little while ago.
Purchased from a chap in Bradford, the service history appears to have been falsified with a fake garage up in Carlisle, and there's probably a safe bet that the mileage has been tampered with too, but I have no substantiated evidence of this.
The van doesn't seem all too bad, apart from paint and some bits of damaged exterior trim etc. It drives well, although it does rumble a bit more than I'd expect under engine braking - is this normal for the Crafter/TGE/any van with RWD? My 2011 Transit doesn't seem to do this).
The VIN, Reg and V5C all match up, the only thing is that the van clearly has some sort of paint repairs, and the sump cover is a strange mis-match (despite being a VW part, it doesn't quite match up). SO, there's a chance it has been in an accident, but I really cannot be certain. The garage that did the MOT said it had been well looked after, with new bushings and parts in various places.
Now here's the kick in the teeth. The police/action fraud weren't able to actually do anything about it. I was advised that because I went and looked at the vans history fully enough (checking that the stamps are of a real garage), then it doesn't count as a fraud.
I feel like an idiot. I should have heeded some of the warning signs, but hindsight is 20:20 and sometimes when we've got a lot going on in life, we let our guard down - not to mention trust in other human beings. Yes, I was a mug, but lets just accept that and try do something constructive with all this, please refrain from trolling.
In a turn of events, fortunately I do have proof that this guy is selling multiple vehicles with the same fake service book stamps. I happened to discuss this van with another chap who happened looked at buying a different VW Crafter from the seller, and that van had the same stamps in the book.
So, what I want to do is work out WHAT NOW CAN I DO?
I could keep the van, and see what happens, but that feels unsatisfying, and it's not actually the spec of van I actually want (but stupidly rushed into anyway because it was a good price - yes, I'm the first person ever to ignore a price being slightly too good to be true and go for it anyway). I thought perhaps if I don't want to keep this one, I'll sell it on - perhaps even for a cheeky profit seeing as I got a good price in the first place - but it became apparent that the good price was actually probably not. Now I cannot legally sell this van without disclosing information about it that will only serve to sting me considerably, unless I somehow manage to find exactly what its history actually is.
I could try and sell it on as a van without service history, but I'll likely not be able to recoup the money I spent on it - who's gonna buy a van they not have every reason to question?
I could try and take the guy to court, as Action Fraud suggested would be the only course to get my money back. But he knows my address and it's not that far away. What if he's more criminal than I'm currently aware of? What If he decides to escalate to less pleasant engagement? The guy has blocked me repeatedly on multiple phone numbers I took out to try and politely discuss with him before calling the police.
How can I go about perhaps finding out if the mileage is indeed false? It's a 21 plate so this was its first MOT, so I'm not aware of another paper trail of its previous mileage.
I also want to find out if anyone else bought their Crafter/TGE in Bradford from this same private seller, and perhaps we can get a few of us together to build some sort of case. If you bought your van from a private seller in Bradford, perhaps just drop me a message and we can discuss.
I just want people to contribute ideas, suggestions and just general discussion, as I would love to walk away from this with some sort of positive - whether that's justice, renumeration, or just peace of mind of the thing I've bought - rather than just rolling over and taking the hit.
Thanks for anyone who has good input here. It's really bummed me out as this was a huge purchase and supposed to be my new home. Now I just have a van that brings me feelings of shame and resent!
Purchased from a chap in Bradford, the service history appears to have been falsified with a fake garage up in Carlisle, and there's probably a safe bet that the mileage has been tampered with too, but I have no substantiated evidence of this.
The van doesn't seem all too bad, apart from paint and some bits of damaged exterior trim etc. It drives well, although it does rumble a bit more than I'd expect under engine braking - is this normal for the Crafter/TGE/any van with RWD? My 2011 Transit doesn't seem to do this).
The VIN, Reg and V5C all match up, the only thing is that the van clearly has some sort of paint repairs, and the sump cover is a strange mis-match (despite being a VW part, it doesn't quite match up). SO, there's a chance it has been in an accident, but I really cannot be certain. The garage that did the MOT said it had been well looked after, with new bushings and parts in various places.
Now here's the kick in the teeth. The police/action fraud weren't able to actually do anything about it. I was advised that because I went and looked at the vans history fully enough (checking that the stamps are of a real garage), then it doesn't count as a fraud.
I feel like an idiot. I should have heeded some of the warning signs, but hindsight is 20:20 and sometimes when we've got a lot going on in life, we let our guard down - not to mention trust in other human beings. Yes, I was a mug, but lets just accept that and try do something constructive with all this, please refrain from trolling.
In a turn of events, fortunately I do have proof that this guy is selling multiple vehicles with the same fake service book stamps. I happened to discuss this van with another chap who happened looked at buying a different VW Crafter from the seller, and that van had the same stamps in the book.
So, what I want to do is work out WHAT NOW CAN I DO?
I could keep the van, and see what happens, but that feels unsatisfying, and it's not actually the spec of van I actually want (but stupidly rushed into anyway because it was a good price - yes, I'm the first person ever to ignore a price being slightly too good to be true and go for it anyway). I thought perhaps if I don't want to keep this one, I'll sell it on - perhaps even for a cheeky profit seeing as I got a good price in the first place - but it became apparent that the good price was actually probably not. Now I cannot legally sell this van without disclosing information about it that will only serve to sting me considerably, unless I somehow manage to find exactly what its history actually is.
I could try and sell it on as a van without service history, but I'll likely not be able to recoup the money I spent on it - who's gonna buy a van they not have every reason to question?
I could try and take the guy to court, as Action Fraud suggested would be the only course to get my money back. But he knows my address and it's not that far away. What if he's more criminal than I'm currently aware of? What If he decides to escalate to less pleasant engagement? The guy has blocked me repeatedly on multiple phone numbers I took out to try and politely discuss with him before calling the police.
How can I go about perhaps finding out if the mileage is indeed false? It's a 21 plate so this was its first MOT, so I'm not aware of another paper trail of its previous mileage.
I also want to find out if anyone else bought their Crafter/TGE in Bradford from this same private seller, and perhaps we can get a few of us together to build some sort of case. If you bought your van from a private seller in Bradford, perhaps just drop me a message and we can discuss.
I just want people to contribute ideas, suggestions and just general discussion, as I would love to walk away from this with some sort of positive - whether that's justice, renumeration, or just peace of mind of the thing I've bought - rather than just rolling over and taking the hit.
Thanks for anyone who has good input here. It's really bummed me out as this was a huge purchase and supposed to be my new home. Now I just have a van that brings me feelings of shame and resent!
