Ford Midrand Hatfield Motor Group will take your money as soon as you step in the door. BEWARE.

I went to this dealership to look at some cars. One of the sales reps assisted me. We proceeded to the demo section and there was a Mazda 2 that I liked. The mileage on the paper stuck on the car said 2500 km. I was quite surprised that the price was so good for an almost brand new demo vehicle especially Mazda so I was quite interested. Then when we actually checked it was closer to 11,000 km.

The sales rep told me to put down a holding deposit. First he said R5k then he said even R1k would work. So that no one else takes the car while I'm deciding. So I did transfer the money.

He tried to pressure me into financing through the dealership even after I told him that I wanted to finance through my own bank. He proceeded to add a bunch of items on my quote other than the most necessary things like tyre and dent repairs etc. I asked why these were added because he didn't ask me if I wanted it. While my bank was busy with the podium of approval etc. I did tell him that there were too many extras and I felt that it was a bit unreasonable and asked if the dealership could perhaps offer a discount. He said they could only offer discounts if I were to finance through them.

While I was waiting for my bank on the financing side, he sent me a bunch of revised quotes, taking things out - again without asking me if I wanted him to remove them. It was not a discount, he was just removing all the add ons.

He never asked my opinion on what I wanted. I felt like I was pressured into taking on all the add ons and when I mentioned that it felt like alot, then he didn't ask me again, just took things off.

Once I got feedback from my bank, I realised that I didn't want to take this car anymore, because of all the add ons, I was going to be paying alot more than I expected.

So I told the sales rep that I was no longer interested and would like to get my holding deposit back. But before I paid, no one told me to acknowledge that I would not get my money back. He went on about how there were other customers interested in the car and it was taken off the market for a week. It was literally taken off for 1 week. I only test drove it after I paid the R1K holding deposit.

He then tried to send me deals of other cars and I proceeded to tell him I am no longer interested and that he should refund me. He refused saying that it's company policy that I cannot get my money back since they had some invisible "losses" due to the car being off the market for a week.

I was quite upset and called multiple times regarding this. They did not get back to me and still held to this policy that I didn't sign up for. What if my holding deposit was more than this R1K ?Would I be forced to buy something that I realised I did not want because of that? I would be forced into buying a R400k car because of my R1K holding deposit. That's such a joke.

The service was terrible. The sales rep was obnoxious and I do not recommend anyone go visit this dealership and especially do not deal with this sales rep in particular.

They lure you in with incorrect information on the car and then everything keeps changing once you show them that you are a little bit interested. You'll end up paying double the price of the car that you thought was a "good" deal. I am very sour, not because I lost the R1K but because they really didn't treat me in a respectful, professional manner. It's been almost 2 months since this and everyone that I called said they would get back to me but they did not. Guess I paid R1k in school fees. I learnt my lesson. Never ever going back to this nonsense money hungry dealership that obviously really "needs" my R1K. Perhaps he can keep it for the sales that he will be losing out on. A small compensation from me.