The problem
A buyer emails three weeks after collection: a warning light is on and they want their money back. A rushed, defensive reply turns a repair into a small claims case or a one-star review. A dealer handling 4 complaints a month, spending an hour writing and rewriting each reply, spends 4 hours a month on it.
What the AI does
Write down the facts first: what the buyer says, the sale date, the mileage, what your technician found and what you're offering. Paste them into ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini with names, contact details and registrations removed, and ask for a short, polite reply that sets out the next step. Then check it yourself against the Consumer Rights Act 2015: within 30 days a buyer can usually reject a faulty car for a refund; after that you normally get one chance to repair or replace it; and a fault that appears within 6 months is presumed to have been there at the sale unless you can show otherwise. If the case is unclear, take advice before you send. The assistant drafts; you decide.
A worked example
A two-person used car business in Swansea gets 3 or 4 complaints a month, mostly about minor faults in the first weeks. The owner pastes anonymised notes into an assistant, edits the draft and sends it from the business email.
Before
About an hour per reply, 4 a month: 4 hours, and replies that sometimes read as defensive
After
About 20 minutes per reply including checking: about 1.3 hours a month
What it's worth
About $106£80€95A$154C$150 a month in time, at an assumed $40£30€36A$58C$56 an hour for 2.7 hours saved, against free to about $27£20€24A$38C$38 a month for the assistant.
How to set it up
- Write the facts down: dates, mileage, the fault, what your technician found and what you're offering.
- Remove the buyer's name, address, phone number and registration before pasting anything into the assistant.
- Ask for a short, polite reply in plain English that states the next step and a date.
- Check the draft against the Consumer Rights Act 2015 rules for the buyer's position and against your own warranty terms.
- Add the buyer's name back in your own email, read it once as they would, and keep a copy on file.
What goes wrong
- An assistant can state the law wrongly and sound sure of itself. Check the rules on GOV.UK or Citizens Advice, and ask a solicitor if the claim is large.
- If the car was bought on finance you arranged, the lender may share liability and the complaint may fall under FCA complaint-handling rules with set time limits. Use your FCA complaints process.
- Free assistant plans may use what you paste to improve their models unless you turn that off. Keep personal details out.
- A polite reply doesn't fix the car. Offer the inspection or repair promptly; delay weakens your position.