Panelbeating to Electrical nightmare!!!

I recently had an unfortunate experience with Delta Panelbeaters that left me incredibly frustrated and disappointed with their service. My car was damaged by a brick in mid-December 2022, and my insurance company, Santam, referred me to Delta for repairs. When I handed my car over to them in mid-January 2023, there were no issues with the electronics in my car. However, a few days before they notified me that my car was ready to be picked up, my tracker alerted me that the battery had been disconnected or died. When I went to collect my car, I saw them jump-starting it from the front of their service center.

Upon inspection, I found numerous faults with the panelbeating repair work they had done and brought them to Delta's attention. They asked me to bring my car back to them the following week. However, after driving less than 1km from the service center, I realized that the electronics in my car were not working properly. My navigation/entertainment system was dead, and my charge points were not working either. I immediately returned to Delta, and they told me to bear in mind that the battery was drained and that I should drive the car to charge it. They agreed to have me bring it back to them the following week.

Unfortunately, even after driving 60km, nothing changed. In fact, I realized that the roof bar they had fitted back was not secured correctly and had fallen off somewhere along the way. By the end of the third day of having my car back, my battery had died again, and Delta had to come and jump-start the vehicle to take it back to their service center on January 31st.

Since then, Delta has had their own auto electrical partner inspect and evaluate my car, and as of March 3rd, 2023, more than a month later, I have not yet had my car returned to me. A few days ago, on February 28th, Netstar alerted me that my battery had been disconnected or died again. When I went to the address where my car was supposed to be being worked on, I found it diagonally across the road from the auto electrician's workshop, not near where he was working, with my bonnet still loosely open and in what appeared to be a very unsafe area.

I was extremely frustrated and confronted the auto electrician about the situation. We did not have a pleasant exchange, and I left even more upset by the fact that the auto electrician wanted me to believe that nothing could go wrong with a jump start, which I have since learned is not true. This led me to believe that Delta and Advanced Auto Electrical, their partner, were in cahoots and doing all they could to cover up their faults.

In the end, I contacted Delta's owner, Robin Gaffley, who did try to assist me and who bore the brunt of my frustration unfortunately. However, he ultimately came back to me saying that Advanced Auto Electrical places the blame of the faults on my nav/entertainment system installation, which had been arranged through Motus Nissan in Tygervalley when I purchased the vehicle in August 2020. To date, there had been no issues with the system, so I find it hard to believe that this could be the cause of the problems - 2 almost 3 years later.

Overall, my experience with Delta Panelbeaters has been extremely disappointing, and I would warn any potential customers to stay away from their services. STAY FAR FAR AWAY - they're not worth your time and hassle. If you're with Santam insist on a different repair centre!

In the photo... one arrow points to my car, the other to the loosely opened bonnet (hard to see in the photo, but I had to put pressure on it to close it), and finally the arrow at the back of the photo points to where Advanced Auto Electrical is situated - guess I'll never get my car back at this rate - and certainly not in the working condition it was in.

Next stop - Ombudsman.