My only experience of getting a deposit returned is when I ordered my last car and had to cancel due to the delivery date changing from 5 months to 9 months, though that sounds petty today with the delivery dates we have now.
I knew the car was going to be perfect for me and my disability so when the dealer asked about a deposit I thought nothing of it and was more than happy to pay £500 up front.
After 4 months pass I was hearing rumours of the delivery date being 9 months and could not wait that long so decided to cancel. After several calls to the dealer it seem like the dealer was avoiding me, like they do after signing on the dotted line, but he was always busy according to the receptionist and never returned my call after requesting it. I couldn’t appear in person because I too was on a £500 discount from the dealer and the dealer was 77 miles away.
End of story, rang Motability and told them and the very, very nice lady said “would you like me to ring the dealer and cancel your order and demand the refund” well you can guess the answer to that and within minutes the order was cancelled and a few days later I got a cheque for my £500.
Hopefully Motability will sort this for you Lou as quickly as they did for myself.