We buy any car ..FOR LESS!

A dealer for booming online car firm webuyanycar.com has blown the whistle on
its outrageous tactics... which have fleeced customers out of hundreds of
thousands of pounds.

Car-owners, attracted by the company's irritatingly catchy TV ad boasting it
will buy any car, no matter how old or new, go online for an instant quote of
how much their vehicle is worth. But little do they know that before driving to
one of its 200 centres to make the deal, the purchaser there is under strict
instructions to offer the lowest price they can - up to 30 per cent LESS than
the website price.

Our whistleblower, who we are not naming to protect his identity, has handed
the Sunday Mirror emails from a company executive showing how they demand that
customers are offered the lowest price to maximise webuyanycar. com profits.

One message tells staff that an average mark-down of 16 per cent is "not
enough!". Another reads: "28 per cent. This is the bare minimum! Guys, you need
to pull your fingers out."

The employee came forward because he was racked with guilt over being forced
to con often-vulnerable customers desperate for cash. He said: "It's a rip off,
plain and simple. Customers think they're going to get a fair price for their
car but they end up being offered hundreds of pounds less. The pressure on
vehicle purchasers to lie to customers is immense because earnings are based on
commission. The whole business is based on persuading the customer into thinking
their car is worth a lot less than it actually is. The customer loses out while
the company makes massive profits.

"I had a two-day induction course when I joined and was told how to play down
a car's positive features and how to accentuate its negatives. I was told to
sound as if I knew what I was talking about and people would believe me."

Adding to the pressure on the more than 150 vehicle purchasers to force the
price they pay for cars down, they get just s100 a week basic pay plus
commission. They can earn s3,200 a month commission if they are in the company's
top 15 performers - but get none if they are in the bottom 10.

The haggling starts when customers enter the registration number of their car
into the company's website. Seconds later, they are offered a cash figure - at
the low end of the car industry's recognised valuations - based on the vehicle
age, condition and mileage. The company is not legally obliged to actually pay
that until after an inspection at one of the firm's branches.

In many cases at the inspection, the vehicle purchaser finds reasons to
reduce the offer to what is called inside the company the "chip value". In some
cases, tiny stone-chips and slightly worn tyres result in cars being devalued by
hundreds of pounds. Missing service records or handbooks, not having two keys
and dents have led to falls of up to s1,500. Customers are also charged an
"admin" fee between s49.99 and s74.99.

Sales records show that in the first week of this month the firm's
topperforming purchaser, based at one of its branches on the East Coast, paid
sellers an average 47 per cent less for their cars than the online quote. Even
the poorest performer got reductions averaging 15 per cent, while the average
was around 18 per cent. In one week the firm bought 3,043 cars, paying on
average s590 less for each than their initial offer. If they were sold on for
the online valuation, the profit would be nearly s1.8m.

Despite that, another email to staff from an area manager on March 20 raged:
"Most of you have gone backwards on chip! The message is obviously not getting
through!"

Our whistleblower added: "The sad part is that some customers are desperate
because they've lost their jobs. That kind of vulnerability is music to the
firm's ears because it knows they will take whatever they are offered. I
remember a really nice guy who brought in his Toyota. His business was about to
go bust, his marriage was in trouble and the car was the last thing he had. He
was in tears. I think I offered s750 less than the car was worth. When I got
home I couldn't stop thinking about him." The firm's parent company UK Car
Group, owned by Rochdale-based multi-millionaires Noel and Darren McKee, posted
a s5.56m pre-tax profit in the year to September 30. The brothers, both in their
30s, bought the business, which incorporates used car giant Carcraft, from their
father after starting work as trainees at 16.

Last night a webuyanycar.com spokeswoman denied there was a culture of fleecing
customers. She said: "We purchase thousands of cars every week from many happy
customers. All our staff are fully trained, but you appear to have highlighted
an example of a vehicle purchaser and area manager where they are not following
the process."

The company insisted that their onsite appraisals were carried out correctly
and we hadn't given full details about the condition of our cars on the website.