Following a dispute with a Ferrari owner and a subsequent claim with the Motor Vehicle Disputes Tribunal, Continental Car Services has been found to have breached the Fair Trading Act and ordered to pay back a sum to the owner.
The misleading and deceptive conduct breach centred around the Ferrari owner being "mislead" into thinking that the sale price of his vehicle, sold by the dealership, was $10,000 less than what had actually transpired. Tribunal Barrister Jason McHerron has ordered Continental Car Services to pay $5000 to the victim's company, Vision Developments, to reflect its losses.
In late 2018, Edward Fernley confirmed to the dealership that he would sell his car with them — a white 2015 Ferrari 458 Spider. By January, Fernley had been notified that a buyer had been located in a cordial email from the firm.
"Morning Ed, Trust all is well and you are enjoying life in Bali," read the email, according to Stuff. "Mate we have had a guy on our 458 Spider but would you believe he really wants a white one, at this stage we have not shown him your car as he is a mid to late 200's buyer. [...] Just asking the question if we were to quote him your car at 299,000.00 with a view to sell at $285,000.00 then to net $270,000.00 would this work."
Fernley eventually signed an agreement with Continental to sell the car with a $15,000 commission at a price of anything over $270,000. When Fernley later received communication from Continental salesman Robert Pegg saying that the dealership had a $280,000 offer ($265,000 for Fernley, and $15,000 commission), he accepted.
Pegg claimed that he said "280 real", which accounted Continental's expenses (Fernley didn't know what "280 real" meant, regardless). What these expenses entailed wasn't specified, but ended up totalling $7500, leading to a sale price on the Ferrari of $283,000 and a true sale price of $290,000 plus $740 in transport costs.
Continental has been ordered to pay the complainant the $5000 within 14 days of the decision.