A quick 'IMHO' on these imbeciles. I have an old Corolla, though well past its 'sell-by-date', runs and is in good nick generally - though sitting idle for over a year now, so surplus to requirements.
Similarly, I had a Peugeot 306 a couple of years ago, also sitting idle, and generally, in good condition, but being too lazy to search out Buyers, ended up just selling it to a local scrap-merchant for a €40 - this may be of interest later!
Anyway, a few weeks ago, I came across 'cartakeback.ie' on the internet, opted for their 'Instant Quote' for the Corolla, and was pleasantly surprised to be offered €309 for my 00 reg. Corolla, which included the collection-fee. Were I to deliver it to their premises, relatively close-by, the Quote increased by just €5-€7. I also asked for a Peugeot-Quote - a car long since sold and broken for parts - fully expecting to be told that the car had already been scrapped. Didn't happen, they actually Quoted me even more for it - €320 & change - which made no sense! So I emailed them about it, only to be told that I'd need to get onto the Department Of Transport for further information.
Never mind, the Corolla I still owned, and I presumed the offer was legit, so I thought, bye-bye Corolla. As its battery was flat and a rear brake-caliper was sticking, I felt it didn't qualify as being "accessible" (cartakeback.ie's term) enough for ease of collection. It took a week or so to rectify the situation and in the interim, the "Guaranteed" quote had expired - the Quotes given are valid for just 7 days.
No problem, I just applied for another Quote, same car details etc. This time however, the amount offered had nose-dived to €200 for the same car, collection included. Miffed, I emailed 'cartakeback' about the huge price variation, only to be told that their current offer was a reflection of market prices, plus Christmas was almost upon us etc...
Jaded but undaunted, one week later & mostly for a laugh, I requested another Quote for both cars, opting to have the Quote emailed to me. This time the offer for both cars was the same, €300. However, below the emails "Guaranteed" money offer, was a "Retrieve Quote" button, which when clicked, saw both quoted prices plummet to €200.
One email to 'cartakeback' later, I learned two things, first, the "Guaranteed" €300 should in fact be read as "up to €300", and second, the €300 offer applied only to cars that were being dropped off at their facility by the Seller. This ad-hoc policy shift is clearly horseshit, as the first quote I got from them, had a price differential of just a few Euro for cars collected versus being dropped off by the seller.
It would appear that cartakeback's Quoted offers are meaningless. They just quote a figure that they feel potential punters will find attractive - despite stating that their Quotes are "Guaranteed" prices - then low-ball them, by any & all means necessary. I raised this in my email to them but it was just ignored.
Edit.
Six months on, I requested yet another quote for the same old Corolla car a week or two ago and was 'Guaranteed' €250 this time round. Seeing as I had to get rid of it as there's a move in the offing, I accepted.
The First agreed Collection-date came & went. The Collection-time had been vague - between 11:00am and 4:00pm - and I had spent 6 hours waiting, before losing patience & phoning them. "No, it won't be collected today, sorry!" Exasperated, I arranged another date, set for a few days later. That date also came & went without them making an appearance. I did however get a phone-call this time, at around 3:00pm, apologising for the inconvenience. A third date for collection was offered & agreed upon - and third-time proved the charm!
Their Collection-Driver was an amiable individual and had the car hooked up & spirited off in a few minutes - quite professional. He paid in cash as well, so no complaints there either. For a car that I had paid €6,000 for back in 2006, that had only 120,000 genuine miles on it, and never had broken down & was still running perfectly, €250 seemed way too little. That said, I had tried selling it on DoneDeal a couple of years ago, for a measly €400 and failed, so maybe I should be thankful it's gone.
While it never broke down, it suffered from Toyota's infamous oil-ring problem from the get-go, requiring that the engine-oil level be monitored & topped-up frequently - doing that for 14 years proved a real bummer! After two years of driving my current car, it's still a novelty to find, come an oil/filter change, the oil-level, reading 'Max' on the dip-stick.
