Reservations are changing for Deal Builder

As part of our continuous improvement during the Beta phase of Deal Builder, we have been working with retailers to understand how we can make the reservations process slicker and easier to manage.

We know that consumers are looking for assurance when it comes to doing more of the buying process online. Having consistency in the process is key to winning buyers’ trust and giving them the confidence to complete a deal online.

What’s changing?

From 30th May, the reservation fee (£99) will always be returned to the customer, no matter the outcome of the deal:

The reservation fee will be held by Auto Trader via Stripe until the status of the deal changes to ‘complete’ or ‘cancelled’.

Once confirmation of the deal status has been given by the retailer or buyer via email, an automatic fee refund will be issued to the buyer from the date this confirmation is given. The fee will be returned to the bank account it was paid from in approximately 5-7 days*.

*dependent upon the trigger date and the buyer’s bank provider

If there is no confirmation from the dealer or the buyer, the automatic refund will be issued at 21 days to the buyer.

This change will be reflected in the terms and conditions for Reservations and Seller Promise.
The new terms and conditions for Reservations can be found here.
The updated terms and conditions for Seller Promise can be found here.

We expect that keeping the reservation fee separate from the vehicles’ sale price will remove any confusion for the buyer and for the retailer, especially in the case that finance options have been added to the deal.

As always, we are seeking continued feedback on this update and other components of Deal Builder. Please reach out to your account manager if you have any thoughts on the changes.