RegTransfers.co.uk

[H.7]

Does anyone have any experience of Regtransfers.co.uk? I had always regarded them as the top firm in their business, but my experience with them recently makes me think differently.

I had made an enquiry about a dateless plate on their website; one of their guys phoned me late on Wednesday afternoon to ask if I was interested; he offered a small discount (£90) and I agreed to buy the plate. He said he'd call me back on a secure line, but didn't. He didn't call on Thursday so I called him yesterday to ask what was happening. He said their system had gone down on Wednesday afternoon and he'd been off on Thursday. Fair enough.

He checked the system and said the price had gone up, by £1,390! He then offered me a £590 discount on the new price, which still meant the plate would be £800 + VAT more than we initially agreed. I declined to buy the plate at the new price.

Not very happy with them but I know complaining to them wouldn't achieve anything. Still leaves me thinking they're a shower of sharks and out to fleece the buyer with a low offer price that's suddenly hiked up when someone offers cash.

I might be prepared to give them the benefit of the small doubt I have if others' experience of them has been generally good.

Thanks in advance,
Brian

[R32 GTR R32 GTR]

I've found that DVLA sites has the cheapest prices. The other companies display the price which might look cheaper but once everything is added on it shoots up.

[Chopchopsee]

Hi

Had a similar experience with them a few years ago

Worth looking for the same plate on other sites as they are often advertised on more than one - and at different prices.

I saved almost 50% by looking on different sites and then negotiating the price

[H.7]

Originally Posted by R32 GTR R32 GTR

I've found that DVLA sites has the cheapest prices. The other companies display the price which might look cheaper but once everything is added on it shoots up.

Yes, I've used DVLA in the past and you know what you're getting. They only sell dateless plates through their auctions, though, and these are generally held about 400 miles from me, which could mean a few days away.

[H.7]

Originally Posted by Chopchopsee

Hi

Had a similar experience with them a few years ago

Worth looking for the same plate on other sites as they are often advertised on more than one - and at different prices.

I saved almost 50% by looking on different sites and then negotiating the price

Thanks, I'll have a look. I guess quite a few of these sites are selling some plates on commission (certainly where the same plate appears on multiple sites). This may be he case on the plate I wanted - maybe it was the owner who put the price up ...

[james1]

Half of these sites sell plates they don't even own, take your money and then when the actual owner doesn't want to sell it, your left fighting for your money back,

Or they advertise plates from the Dvla and add their mark up....

Stick to DVLA for less hassle I d say.

J

[CT17]

Originally Posted by james1

Half of these sites sell plates they don't even own, take your money and then when the actual owner doesn't want to sell it, your left fighting for your money back,

Or they advertise plates from the Dvla and add their mark up....

Stick to DVLA for less hassle I d say.

J

Exactly.

I've used them to buy a plate and immediately the seller backed out. PITA.

On plates that are on the open market they are usually one of th most expensive resellers. Shop around.

[H.7]

Thanks guys. Caveat emptor, I guess ...

[goldgtr35]

Dont trust them as far as you can see,,
They have listed at least 3 of my number plate for sale that i have
owned for many years , when i rang them up to complain,
They really wasnt bothered, saying the dater base is old,
Yer right 10 years out of date,
YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED,,,,LOL

[Regtransfers]

Hi all,

Probably setting myself up as a target here, but I'll risk it. My name is Rick and I work for Regtransfers.co.uk.

Part of my role is to offer customer service to people who raise issues on forums and social network sites. Sometimes we do make mistakes and, as with all businesses, there will be some people who leave us feeling less than satisfied. We don't want that to happen. We are in business and a bad reputation is not good for business. For that reason alone I hope you'll give me the benefit of the doubt when I say that we genuinely want to give people a good experience. We want referrals from satisfied customers, not complaints from people who feel that we have let them down.

Reading some of your comments above, I feel that a little clarification may help. After that, if any of you have specific problems then you're very welcome to email me personally at rick(at) the company domain (sorry, I can't post email addresses yet). I, or our customer service manager, will do our best to resolve your issues.

First point of clarification is the nature of the registrations we sell. We do have a core stock of many thousands of registrations that we have purchased over the years. Basically, when we locate outstanding numbers we often buy them for stock. These are available only from us, and we tend not to advertise them through other dealers.

For a large proportion of the numbers listed on our website and in our adverts we are acting as an agent for the owner. This is the category which has the most potential problems as, obviously, the price is set by the owner/seller and people do occasionally try to change prices or pull out of sales. We do our best to manage such situations but, in a very few cases, we cannot persuade the seller to continue with the sale at the agreed price. If the sale price is increased by a small amount we can sometimes absorb the change by sacrificing some of our fee/commission - hence the discounts we can offer. Sometimes, however, the increase is substantial and we have no choice but to pass it on to the prospective purchaser. Unfortunately, in such cases, we and the prospective buyer are left frustrated. We apologise to anyone who may have experienced such a situation, but the cliche of "circumstances beyond our control" usually does genuinely apply here. where a seller pulls out we will always refund anything the prospective purchaser has paid.

As a reseller, we provide DVLA registration numbers. As has been noted, it may be a little cheaper to purchase these direct from DVLA, but then the purchaser is left to fend for him/herself. The transfer procedure is not overly complicated (in most cases) but there are pitfalls and exceptional circumstances that can mess things up for the inexperienced. We try our best to add appropriate value with our transfer service, dealing with all the bureaucracy.

Yes, certainly we are in business to make a profit, just like any high street shop, but we do our very best to give value for the money our customers spend with us. If you feel that we have failed to do that in your case, please contact me and give us the chance to put things right.

Thanks for your time. Flame-proof undies on...



PS: goldgtr35, I'll address your point in a separate post if I may. Typing it now.

[CT17]

Hi Rick, welcome to the forum.

Just for info when ever I've looked around carreg are around 5-10% cheaper than regtransfers, but obviously only on ones on general open sale rather than specific ones you own and market exclusively. But as you are in the industry I'm sure you are aware that there are a few smaller firms running on a smaller commission. It's not unusual and is the same in my industry.

I have used regtransfers two times. Both times the plate was a good price, bit of a bargain actually.
But both times the seller has immediately gone on the missing list as soon as a deposit was taken. No mention of them wanting a better price or anything.
As you say, very frustrating.

Can't fault the service other than that. Deposit has always been returned.

[Regtransfers]

Originally Posted by goldgtr35

Dont trust them as far as you can see,,
They have listed at least 3 of my number plate for sale that i have
owned for many years , when i rang them up to complain,
They really wasnt bothered, saying the dater base is old,
Yer right 10 years out of date,
YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED,,,,LOL

I suspect your experience was the result of a situation that we encounter time and time again. To be honest, not all of our sales people are aware of it, especially newer staff, so they may not be equipped to explain.

Regtransfers has pretty sophisticated IT systems in place. Our database is generally well maintained to ensure that it is current. Some of the smaller dealers do not have equivalent systems and may find it harder to keep records up-to-date. Most of those dealers send us their lists of registrations for sale and ask us to advertise them on their behalf.

I'll give an example of the kind of muddle this can lead to.

When a customer buys a registration from some source other than Regtransfers.co.uk, we only know to remove the registration from our list of number for sale when someone informs us. Once we are informed then we amend our records immediately and the number is removed from listings. Quite often, another dealer will not get around to removing the number so quickly, so when we next receive their list of numbers for sale, that number is still on it, and so it gets added back onto our database.

We cannot easily filter this out, as many people buy plates for resale, and quite often the number really has been put back on the market. We have no way of knowing which numbers are on the list by error and which are there because the new owner has placed it for resale.

We understand how frustrating this is, and we are genuinely sorry, but until everyone updates their records thoroughly before sharing their lists with us, we are likely to see this problem sometimes.

[Regtransfers]

Originally Posted by CT17

Hi Rick, welcome to the forum.

Just for info when ever I've looked around carreg are around 5-10% cheaper than regtransfers, but obviously only on ones on general open sale rather than specific ones you own and market exclusively. But as you are in the industry I'm sure you are aware that there are a few smaller firms running on a smaller commission. It's not unusual and is the same in my industry.

I have used regtransfers two times. Both times the plate was a good price, bit of a bargain actually.
But both times the seller has immediately gone on the missing list as soon as a deposit was taken. No mention of them wanting a better price or anything.
As you say, very frustrating.

Can't fault the service other than that. Deposit has always been returned.

Thanks very much for your welcome.

The AWOL seller thing is another thing that sometimes happens. Sometimes they go away without leaving contact details. Just as often (but still quite rare) is a kind of "cold feet" thing. Some people put numbers up for sale, but when they get an offer and are faced with actually parting with the plate, or perhaps with doing some paperwork, then they seem to take fright and withdraw.

As I say, we do our best to manage situations like that, but sometimes there is simply no way to reassure the seller.

EDIT: Oops, sorry, didn't mean to gloss over the price difference point. Yes, certainly there are differences in prices between dealers. These sometimes balance out in a "swings and roundabouts" way. In other situations we endeavour to make sure that we give enough value added service to justify a small difference.

[goldgtr35]

Just to put thing right what i posted a couple of days ago.
My private plate's have now been removed as far as i can tell.
Not that straight forward as i have about 12 of the things,
Im in Business myself & like the way you have come on here fighting your corner,
Well done that company,

[R32 GTR R32 GTR]

Congratulations for coming on board and answering our points. Now can you get my plate cheaper