Riddermark bil is the largest in Sweden for used cars. It has 14 facilities around the country and, according to its own statement, sells around 50,000 cars each year.
According to a review by We Car Owners from August, the company is also the car dealer chain that has been reported to the General Complaints Board in the highest number of cases.
Now Riddermark car has once again found itself in bad weather after The evening paper revealed that there is widespread cheating with used cars within the company.
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Hiding mistakes to blow customers
The accusations come from both current and former employees at Riddermark bil, who believe that the company cheats with the used cars it buys and sells.
Among other things, it is mentioned that sellers have actively hidden faults and turned off engine lights on cars without fixing the underlying problems at a workshop. This on cars that should have been sold and delivered to blissfully unaware customers.
In internal chats that Aftonbladet took part in, phrases such as “sell the piss” are used. There are also examples where people have pointed to the importance of removing “sensitive papers” from the cars, for example to hide a previous collision damage.
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Bargaining by deceiving the elderly and ignorant
Aftonbladet has also spoken to a former employee who worked as a driver at Riddermark bil, and thus was involved in the transport of the cars that the company buys and sells.
She describes how the drivers were asked to invent faults with the cars they bought in, especially from elderly or ignorant car owners, in order to haggle on the price.
The same driver tells of occasions when wheels have fallen off cars on their way to be delivered to customers, and that these cars were delivered without a thorough check for possible damage at a workshop.
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So answers the company’s CEO
The company’s founder and CEO Alexander Riddermark has responded to the allegations, claiming that it has no ambitions to defraud its customers.
He also believes that it would have been impossible for the company to become so large without satisfied customers.
– I’m not saying that everything works perfectly with us. But I would argue that it works very well for being in an industry that is complex. We sell cars that contain approximately 100,000 moving parts, he tells Aftonbladet.
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