I saw an advert on CarPartsConnexion for a pair of front springs for Signum/Vectra 2.0T, for £26.01 (plus p&p). The part number was shown as 93190494, which EPC confirms is a pair of springs, and the description of the part in the advert is lifted straight from EPC and says "Front springs set". Here's a screenshot of the advert:




I emailed the dealer to ask how much p&p would be, and he replied with "Oh, by the way, you only get 1 spring at that price, if you want both then it's twice the price".

Right, so you're advertising 2 springs, referring to them as a "set", using the Vauxhall part number for 2 springs, and only when the buyer asks for p&p details do you mention that the advert is a lie?

There's no part number anywhere in EPC for a single spring, because they come packaged as a pair and are supposed to be sold as such, so this dealer thinks it's ok to split the packet into two and still advertise it as the complete item. That's like Tesco advertising a packet of Kelloggs cornflakes at a bargain price and only when you go to buy them do you find that Tesco have split the packet into two and were only going to give you half of it.

Rather p333d off, I contacted CarPartsConnexion and asked for their opinion on this scam. Their first email said "The advert looks fine to us", to which I pointed out that the advert had the part number of 2 springs and called them a set, so how was it fine to only be selling 1 spring? They then replied back to say that "Yes, we can see how it is rather misleading, but it's a matter between you and the dealer". Err, no it isn't - the misleading advert is on YOUR website, so it's for YOU to sort out. They agreed to contact the dealer to discuss it. The dealer has now emailed me saying he's been contacted by the website but that he sold the spring yesterday. Yea, sure you did....