UK deposit to order checkout to delivery process

[Tonygcar]

Going through checkout now

 

[action_turtle]

Going through checkout now

Thought it would be cheaper to not have it delivered. So it’s a grand plus the money for factory tour?

 

[frazzer]

Just went through the checkout again (yes Lotus lets you do this?) and can see the Road Tax was included. Just paid the insurance and now waiting to pick it up in April!

 

[action_turtle]

Just went through the checkout again (yes Lotus lets you do this?) and can see the Road Tax was included. Just paid the insurance and now waiting to pick it up in April!

Nice. Type approved then? Or are you manual?

 

[frazzer]

Nice. Type approved then? Or are you manual?

manual

 

[vantager]

I am new to Lotus - put a deposit down after a test drive in February.
My question is, I sent an email to customercare a week ago and still no response. Is this normal?!

 

[TomE]

Sadly that’s fairly common with Lotus CC on emails. They’ll respond to web chat quickly.

Phoning can be a lottery, sometimes you get straight through but more recently there have been long queues and asking for a callback doesn’t work.

With the ramp up in checkout and delivery, more cancellations since the price increase and Lotus bulk emailing UK deposit holders about early config they’ve had a big jump in inbound traffic.

 

[Emirahep]

Just tried to pay the invoice. I had read all the earlier posts about limits and lack of CHAPS etc but didn’t pay a huge amount of attention until my call with my bank (First Direct).

There is indeed a limit to amount of cash that Lotus can receive through the Stripe payment system of £49,999 per day. So two payments needed over two days.

Plus the system they are using is not registered for the ID check of the name, sort code and account number to prevent fraud !

I shouldn’t be surprised that Lotus is using a payment system that can’t actually receive the value of the car they are selling…but the lack of ability to match details with the sending bank is really poor in this day and age.

Hopefully my first installment will arrive ok ! Collection from Hethel 13th.

 

[vision]

Just tried to pay the invoice. I had read all the earlier posts about limits and lack of CHAPS etc but didn’t pay a huge amount of attention until my call with my bank (First Direct).

There is indeed a limit to amount of cash that Lotus can receive through the Stripe payment system of £49,999 per day. So two payments needed over two days.

Plus the system they are using is not registered for the ID check of the name, sort code and account number to prevent fraud !

I shouldn’t be surprised that Lotus is using a payment system that can’t actually receive the value of the car they are selling…but the lack of ability to match details with the sending bank is really poor in this day and age.

Hopefully my first installment will arrive ok ! Collection from Hethel 13th.

Its a bit weird but does work, just had photos of mine being loaded by the transport company then a text and call, very efficient, its going to be here in a hour!!

 

[Pugwash]

Just tried to pay the invoice. I had read all the earlier posts about limits and lack of CHAPS etc but didn’t pay a huge amount of attention until my call with my bank (First Direct).

There is indeed a limit to amount of cash that Lotus can receive through the Stripe payment system of £49,999 per day. So two payments needed over two days.

Plus the system they are using is not registered for the ID check of the name, sort code and account number to prevent fraud !

I shouldn’t be surprised that Lotus is using a payment system that can’t actually receive the value of the car they are selling…but the lack of ability to match details with the sending bank is really poor in this day and age.

Hopefully my first installment will arrive ok ! Collection from Hethel 13th.

You can pay both instalments on the same day one after the other. I use the same bank as you and that’s what I did. It’s not a limit per day, it’s just a limit.

 

[JimH]

The bank account details don't match/can't be matched using the usual method for online payments as the Stripe platform creates an individual pseudo-account number and (possibly) sort code for each Lotus customer so that they can automatically identify and reconcile incoming payments by customer.....

 

[Raspuk]

The dealer has had my car for nearly two weeks now and lotus still haven’t sent me an invoice
so near so far!!

 

[JohnHoward]

For UK buyers – a long one, but hopefully of use/interest

I have just paid for my V6 auto FE Emira and I thought it would be useful to share the detail of the payment process, so future buyers know what to expect.

The last part of checkout is your invoice and this will arrive by email. The invoice contains all the information you need. It will show the deposit(s) that you have paid previously (probably a long time ago for most people!).

The invoice contains some copy to clipboard elements so that you can copy the sort code, account number, payee & reference into your clipboard and paste into online banking. This saves any ‘fat finger’ errors and I thought this a nice touch.

Lotus provides you with 4 key pieces of information.

• A sort code for the receiving bank (I will not state the code here), but you can verify the sort code by checking it on sortcodes.co.uk You will find that the sort code does not match the primary payee name, but your email gives you a secondary name that does match. You can use either the primary or secondary name.
• An account number – this is unique to you and is permanent. It allows you to make future Lotus purchases without having to set everything up again. I guess that this is aimed at future mods, perhaps merchandise etc., future Lotus cars.
• Account holder name – there are two choices and will make sense when you see your email (also refer to point 1).
• Your reference code – again specific to you and should be quoted exactly.

Bank limits – this is what I found.

Sending bank (your bank) – there will be limits on how much you can transfer via online banking and these are defined by your bank and account type. These vary from bank to bank. It should be very easy to find these through your online banking or by contacting your bank. For example, Lloyds has a maximum of £25K per day (resets at midnight) for online banking through a PC. Note this payment limit applies to the total of all transactions, so if you have paid someone else that day, that will use part of your allowed transfer for that day.

In branch transfers are much more generous. For example, with Lloyds (a standard bank account) the limit is £250K through the Faster Payment service. Again banks will vary for in branch transactions, check with your bank to find out.

Receiving bank (Lotus) – Lotus use a third party to handle transactions and even though you may have not heard of them (unlesss you work in the tech/web industry), the name is on your invoice and they are a very large company that specialise in online transactions worldwide.
There is no limit on how much they can receive and I can verify that with my experience, I transferred my balance in one transaction. I also confirmed this with Lotus directly that there is no receiving limit.

This next step helps the process enormously.

When I got my invoice last week, I made a very small payment through my online banking which added all the payment details to my bank payment address book and then via online chat with Lotus I asked them to tell me the amount I paid. I did this deliberately, rather than ask did you receive the £x that I sent you, I asked them to tell me what I sent. This changes it from a yes/no answer to having to be able to see exactly what it was.

They are clearly very well set up for this and answered straight away. My whole online chat last about 30 seconds and I had confirmation that all was well. This is an important step when you come to the bank transfer, if you use the in-bank transfer option.

At the bank, I was able to tell them that I had verified the payment using the very small transfer. The bank simply used my now verified address book entry to make the whole transfer. The whole thing was done in a couple of minutes. Having the payee verified greatly helped as one of the antifraud questions is about how you received the payment instructions as getting them by email is a red flag for fraud, but verifying in this way stops any further suspicion.

Once I had made the transfer, I got an email from Lotus with a receipt for payment, this was less than an hour after I made the transfer.

I do hope that this helps some future buyers. I think the above is perhaps more useful for those paying all cash or a big lump of cash plus some finance. I have no idea what the process is if you buy on finance. Perhaps someone who has purchased on finance may reply to this to report of anything noteworthy for anyone purchasing on finance.

 

[richbrown]

For UK buyers – a long one, but hopefully of use/interest

I have just paid for my V6 auto FE Emira and I thought it would be useful to share the detail of the payment process, so future buyers know what to expect.

The last part of checkout is your invoice and this will arrive by email. The invoice contains all the information you need. It will show the deposit(s) that you have paid previously (probably a long time ago for most people!).

The invoice contains some copy to clipboard elements so that you can copy the sort code, account number, payee & reference into your clipboard and paste into online banking. This saves any ‘fat finger’ errors and I thought this a nice touch.

Lotus provides you with 4 key pieces of information.

• A sort code for the receiving bank (I will not state the code here), but you can verify the sort code by checking it on sortcodes.co.uk You will find that the sort code does not match the primary payee name, but your email gives you a secondary name that does match. You can use either the primary or secondary name.
• An account number – this is unique to you and is permanent. It allows you to make future Lotus purchases without having to set everything up again. I guess that this is aimed at future mods, perhaps merchandise etc., future Lotus cars.
• Account holder name – there are two choices and will make sense when you see your email (also refer to point 1).
• Your reference code – again specific to you and should be quoted exactly.

Bank limits – this is what I found.

Sending bank (your bank) – there will be limits on how much you can transfer via online banking and these are defined by your bank and account type. These vary from bank to bank. It should be very easy to find these through your online banking or by contacting your bank. For example, Lloyds has a maximum of £25K per day (resets at midnight) for online banking through a PC. Note this payment limit applies to the total of all transactions, so if you have paid someone else that day, that will use part of your allowed transfer for that day.

In branch transfers are much more generous. For example, with Lloyds (a standard bank account) the limit is £250K through the Faster Payment service. Again banks will vary for in branch transactions, check with your bank to find out.

Receiving bank (Lotus) – Lotus use a third party to handle transactions and even though you may have not heard of them (unlesss you work in the tech/web industry), the name is on your invoice and they are a very large company that specialise in online transactions worldwide.
There is no limit on how much they can receive and I can verify that with my experience, I transferred my balance in one transaction. I also confirmed this with Lotus directly that there is no receiving limit.

This next step helps the process enormously.

When I got my invoice last week, I made a very small payment through my online banking which added all the payment details to my bank payment address book and then via online chat with Lotus I asked them to tell me the amount I paid. I did this deliberately, rather than ask did you receive the £x that I sent you, I asked them to tell me what I sent. This changes it from a yes/no answer to having to be able to see exactly what it was.

They are clearly very well set up for this and answered straight away. My whole online chat last about 30 seconds and I had confirmation that all was well. This is an important step when you come to the bank transfer, if you use the in-bank transfer option.

At the bank, I was able to tell them that I had verified the payment using the very small transfer. The bank simply used my now verified address book entry to make the whole transfer. The whole thing was done in a couple of minutes. Having the payee verified greatly helped as one of the antifraud questions is about how you received the payment instructions as getting them by email is a red flag for fraud, but verifying in this way stops any further suspicion.

Once I had made the transfer, I got an email from Lotus with a receipt for payment, this was less than an hour after I made the transfer.

I do hope that this helps some future buyers. I think the above is perhaps more useful for those paying all cash or a big lump of cash plus some finance. I have no idea what the process is if you buy on finance. Perhaps someone who has purchased on finance may reply to this to report of anything noteworthy for anyone purchasing on finance.

Thanks for this and very helpful.
I’m finance free so knowing the process and steps is really useful. I think I’ll do a test £1 to set their details up with my bank (Natwest) and then will make the larger balance hopefully more straightforward. Thanks again for taking time to write this up.

 

[JohnHoward]

Thanks for this and very helpful.
I’m finance free so knowing the process and steps is really useful. I think I’ll do a test £1 to set their details up with my bank (Natwest) and then will make the larger balance hopefully more straightforward. Thanks again for taking time to write this up.

Yes it makes a massive difference at the bank if you have verified the recipient in this way. Payment details received by email is a very big red flag for the banks as the email can be spoofed, but this method avoids this.

 

[770K]

Yes it makes a massive difference at the bank if you have verified the recipient in this way. Payment details received by email is a very big red flag for the banks as the email can be spoofed, but this method avoids this.

Thanks, really helpful just need the call now

 

[Speedluvver]

I can confirm what John says above as that's exactly how I did it...

 

[JasonR]

After you get the call with date confirmed for collection did you get anything in writing? I’ve had nothing so hoping it’s actually confirmed!

 

[Griggsy]

After you get the call with date confirmed for collection did you get anything in writing? I’ve had nothing so hoping it’s actually confirmed!

I’m expecting my delivery on 28th. Not received anything in writing but I have seen on this forum that this is normal and I should be contacted the day before delivery.

 

[JohnHoward]

After you get the call with date confirmed for collection did you get anything in writing? I’ve had nothing so hoping it’s actually confirmed!

I was home delivery, but nothing confirmed in writing. Once you have paid the invoice, you get a receipt and that is the last step from Lotus. The day before delivery, I got a text message from the delivery guy with a 1 hour time window. He then sent me pictures of the car via WhatsApp. On the morning of delivery, he sent another text when he was about an hour away to confirm the delivery time. It all went very smoothly.
I guess that if you are factory pickup, you already have an appointment, so have to get yourself there for that time. Not sure about dealer pickup, I would imagine that you would confirm time and arrangements with your local dealer? I am sure that someone who has done this will be along to confirm.