My last mobility garage had my AP of £3000 for 12 months before i received the vehicle due to the shortage of chips is it right for a garage to ask for AP when ordering it plus there was NO comunication from the garage i was the one who had to contact them for updates ! Very poor service i thought
Here is the official line from the Motability website on paying a deposit on the AP and paying the actual full AP in advance of receiving your vehicle:
https://www.motability.co.uk/get-support/faqs/what-is-an-advance-payment/
Some dealers ask for a deposit at the time of ordering and some don’t. If you don’t want to pay any such deposit, try another dealership.
Unless the AP is very very small (in my view circa less than £100) any deposit on the AP is normally a very small percentage of the actual AP – i.e. £100/£150 on a £3k AP. With the balance of the AP being made either a day or so in advance of vehicle collection, or on collection day itself.
Dealers may ask for such a deposit to show commitment from the customer and discourage customers from cancelling a vehicle if they find something else or simply change their mind.
The dealer may also ask for the full cost of any ordered ‘Optional Extras’ to be paid at the time of order on top of, or instead of any deposit.
Paying the full AP of £3k at the time of ordering is both unusual and excessive. If the dealer demands you make such a large payment as a deposit, my view would be not to order, leave the dealership and make a complaint to Motability, as it is an excessive demand.
I believe you can also leave dealership feedback on the Motability website once you have collected your vehicle – don’t be frightened to highlight the poor contact from the dealership and give them an appropraite ‘star score’. Also you are free to also leave reviews on such as Google, Trustpilot, social media etc highlighting the poor service. Also put in a written complaint to the dealership principal or even group CEO.