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Service without a smile
| Date: |
16 November 2008 07:00 |
| Producer: |
Kate Barry
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| Presenter: |
Derek Watts
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| Researcher: |
Wynand Grobler
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| Show: | Carte Blanche |
Imagine taking your car in for a service, and the next time you see it is at the panel beaters looking like this? Perhaps you never realised it, but every time you leave your car at the dealers, you're actually taking a major risk.
Tim Bishop (Jeep owner): "These dealers make us sign indemnities when clearly they are abusing the vehicles and the chance of something happening is very high."
Last year Tim Bishop bought a Jeep Grand Cherokee SRT8, one of the fastest 4x4 in the world. In June he took his R600 000 vehicle in to Chrysler Jeep Century City in Cape Town for its first service, and got it back later that day.
Tim: "And I just wanted to check whether they'd done the road test, logged onto Tracker and to my horror saw the complete abuse of my car."
The mechanic took Tim's car for the ride of its life. The SRT8 has a 6.1 litre V8 engine that does nought to a hundred in under five seconds, with a top speed of 300 kilometres per hour.
Derek Watts (Carte Blanche presenter): "So while we might expect a mechanic to test his workmanship, we don't expect him to take the car out at 169km/h just around the corner from a dealership at Century City, then to open it up to 217km/h on Table Bay Boulevard. Not bad for a 4x4."
Tim: "It's a principle thing... the car wasn't damaged there - luckily - going round the roads here but at speed of up to 220km/h around here, it's very lucky they didn't kill a pedestrian - there's plenty around."
Chrysler Jeep wouldn't give us an interview, but in a written statement they regretted the incident and said the mechanic was given a disciplinary hearing.
Derek: "You've seen one, you've seen them all. To the untrained eye car workshops are all pretty much the same and, while you might get a little surprise when you get the bill, what you don't expect is to say goodbye to your car forever."
In March Joy Brady took her Golf 4 to VW Joburg City to have new brakes fitted.
Derek: "Expecting her car to be ready later that afternoon, Joy was shocked to get a call around midday, not from the dealership, but from the driver of a tow truck."
Joy Brady (Ex-Volkswagen owner): "He says, Can I tow your car?' (And I said), But why do you want to tow my car out of the garage?' He says, No, no, I'm looking at your car and I want to tow it.'"
The mechanic who took her Golf for a test drive had an accident two blocks away from the dealership, and the car was written off.
Joy: "First they told me I had to go to my insurers. I told them, I'm not going to my insurers, you smashed my car, I want my car."
Derek: "What would have happened if you had gone to your own insurance?"
Joy: "My insurance would probably have paid me out and given a hired car."
Derek: "So why didn't you go to them?"
Joy: "No. I don't see why my no claim bonus should be affected."
At first the dealer gave her a loan car, but after nine days he demanded she bring it back. She had to catch buses and taxis for four months while she waited for their insurance to pay out.
Derek: "Joy, eventually you did get a settlement from their insurers: retail value R77 000, excess R7700. Basically, you got about R69 000 back. Were you happy with this?"
Joy: "I wasn't very happy because I knew it couldn't buy me a car. I was really, really annoyed, because all [that] I wanted was my car back."
The dealership has since been sold and the new owners Hatfield VW have turned the Braamfontein branch around.
Brad Kaftel (General Manager: Hatfield VW): "We've been here five months. The general customer service ratings were poor, and last month we got an 85% rating for September. And that makes us one of the best in the country."
General Manager Brad Kaftel believes they would have handled Joy's case differently.
Brad: "You've got a duty to your customer - to see them right, absolutely."
Derek: "And you would give them a loan car?"
Brad: "No question. I mean you can't have a customer that brings their car in for service and be responsible for an accident and you leave them car-less. It's ridiculous. It's laughable!"
But Audi Braamfontein seem to have a far less generous attitude when it comes to loan cars. In June this year Leslie Williams bought his wife a new Audi A4. But it started giving problems almost immediately.
Leslie Williams (Audi owner): "There was a sound coming out by the steering. So we returned the car to Audi."
Brett Hudson (Dealer Principal - Audi Braamfontein): "They had a problem with the distance park control sensor. And there was a problem with the steering rack - it made a noise intermittently."
The car went back to the dealership four times. Each time they gave Leslie a loan car, according to dealer principal Brett Hudson. Eventually after four months Audi replaced the steering rack.
Leslie: "They claimed now the car was fixed - they did not say that I was awkward about things. But I said to him, Please put it in black and white that you will swap the car if there is a problem. Verbally is not going to suit me.'"
Derek: "Leslie why were you insisting on a swap?"
Leslie: "Because of my past experiences with a brand new vehicle."
In the last year Leslie has spent over R2.4-million with Audi. He also owns a Q7 and the new Audi R8 sports car.
Derek: "That wasn't good enough to stand you in good stead?"
Leslie: "No, it doesn't count for [anything] - you are just a business. Like I said before, it doesn't help, ja."
Brett: "His car had been ready for two weeks and he was refusing to return the car to us."
So Audi sent some armed heavies to Leslie's house at half-past-ten one night to force him to hand over the loan car.
Leslie: "And it was a policeman, a constable, and he was accompanied by - I don't know who these guys are but they are two big guys that Audi hired. No warrants - I requested to see some documentation; nothing was shown to me. Just arrogance, Give us the car, give us the car. That's all we want, we are not here to talk. Give us the car, we need to go back with the car.'"
Derek: "Leslie, did they threaten you at all?"
Leslie: "They tried to threaten me. The one guy said, We have hit people before, we defend ourselves, and it will be nothing to hit you.' So I said, You are not going to lift your hands for me. While they were holding their guns, my little boy was standing right next to me at the gate as well."
Derek: "Would you agree it was heavy-handed?"
Brett: "I wouldn't agree it was heavy-handed. If somebody doesn't want to return something of yours, he point-blank refused - he said, I am keeping this car until you replace the car.'"
Leslie: "The worst part is that Audi handed out my address - which is supposed to be confidential. How do you give my address to people?"
But it's Audi Fourways that has really messed up in the customer relations department. In September Ted Patterson's Audi RS4 Limited Edition was taken in for the third time to have a door rattle fixed.
Ted Patterson (Ex-Audi owner): "It cost me R685 000. That was brand new. It was off the showroom floor. Nought to 100km in 5.3 seconds. Governed at 250. 390 kilowatts, 4.2 V8 Motor. A beautiful, beautiful vehicle - nicely finished, and a pleasure to drive."
That's exactly what the 22-year-old apprentice mechanic thought when he took it for a test drive.
Derek: "Two performance cars being serviced on the same day - one from Audi Fourways, one from Lindsay Saker. It's not impossible that the two mechanics arranged to have a little dice."
Ted: "Apparently they started dicing down Leslie Avenue. He overtook the Polo, came into the right lane, didn't stop for the T-Junction and went straight through the wall."
Derek: "Through the wall and into the yard of a house."
Ted: "Went through the wall and was stopped by a tree on the other side of the wall - thank God - and went through so quickly that the lintel of that wall actually came to rest on the roof of the vehicle."
The apprentice had less than two years driving experience and was travelling at 140km/h in a 60 zone. When Ted went to see Audi Fourways, the dealer principal, Greg Parfitt, dropped the bombshell - they weren't insured.
Ted: "I asked him three times, I was so shocked. I couldn't believe it. And I said to him, If you are not insured, how do we deal with this?' And he said, This is the norm for the motor industry.'"
Derek: "Ted was eventually offered a second-hand RS4 same year, similar condition and mileage, but he decided to decline the offer."
Ted's insurance company [have] settled his claim, but because of the driver's age and his lack of driving experience, the excess is 15%.
Ted: "I'm probably looking at personal expenses in excess of about R100 000."
Derek: "We had an interview confirmed with Greg Parfitt of Audi Centre Fourways. Then we were told that the only people that could speak to us [was] head office PR. That was changed when they said they don't want to speak to us and all we would get was a written statement."
In their statement Audi Fourways apologised for the incident. They have fired the apprentice and undertaken to pay Ted's excess and shortfall. But Ted is still unhappy.
Ted: "They are in the service industry. They do not sell motor cars - they sell service. When you buy a vehicle, they give you a service plan. And then they hide behind a little sign that they say is there and after the fact. Then, trash your car - negligently trash it. And then expect me to sit back and say, Great, no problem, I'll accept the second-hand vehicle. You know what? I'll accept that you are going to pay.' But it is Kippie here who has to run around and get their job done for them. And that's not what I paid for."
IMPORTANT DISCLAIMER:While every attempt has been made to ensure this transcript or summary is accurate, Carte Blanche or its agents cannot be held liable for any claims arising out of inaccuracies caused by human error or electronic fault. This transcript was typed from a transcription recording unit and not from an original script, so due to the possibility of mishearing and the difficulty, in some cases, of identifying individual speakers, errors cannot be ruled out.
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