Bad Treatment and *****ulent Activities From KIA Springfield

I will try to summarize a long story.

I stay in JHB and I saw a Grand i10 maroon advertised by KIA Springfield - Durban at R199 000 on their website and I was interested and proceeded to enquire. A salesman named Siphamandla was happy to assist me and during my inquiry, he promised to sell the car at R175 000 plus admin, totalling to R180 000. I was happy with that deal and we started the process of financing. My finance was approved on Tuesday the 6th of February 2024. The same day I booked a flight to Durban to collect my car. Just when I was about to head to the airport I got a call from Sphamandla (salesman) saying the maroon Grand i10 has an air condition problem so he would like to sell me a Silver one with the same deal. After considering all my options I agreed. When I got to Durban the same Tuesday Sphamandla came back to say Silver Grand i10 also had a gear mechanical problem, and he asked that we go back to the maroon Grand i10 car deal because fixing the aircon would be quicker than fixing the gear issue. I agreed and we spoke to his manager and his manager (Eugene) promised the delivery of the car on Wednesday the following day and they sent my OTP. On Wednesday Sphamandla told me the car was not ready and would be ready Thursday, Thursday the car was still not ready and I was promised that it would be ready by Friday. This was a huge inconvenience as I was incurring accommodation and transport costs due to this delay. On Friday 9am Sphamandla came to collect me for the delivery of the maroon Grand i10. I got there and went straight to their finance office and Farrah was assisting with the signing of my contract. At this point, no one has communicated anything to the extent of changes in the deal or price. I was given the finance contract to sign and before I could sign I checked the price and boom the price went up to now R195 000 incl. admin, R15k more than what was initially agreed between all parties involved in the sale. The problem started there as I told them this is not what we agreed on. I was called to the manager's office (Eugene) and he did not even apologize for inconveniencing me by keeping me in Durban for this long. He is now trying to change the deal and lying in the process that I was never given R180 000 on the maroon car (I have an OTP and WhatsApp conversations on this). I told him I had proof of the initial deal and the fact that no one told me about the change in our deal, which I had to find out when I was signing is *****ulent as it seems they were hoping I wouldn't notice this prior to signing. The dealership made it clear that they would not honor their deal so I escalated this issue to KIA SA head office - Customer Care www.kia.co.za I spoke to Queen Mothoane, whom I believe tried her best to help and I also spoke to Kefentse Molokoane. While I was in communication with these ladies, a salesman whose name I did not catch said I was wasting my time contacting Head Office because there was nothing they could do. KIA Springfield is apparently untouchable and even the Head Office has no power over them. At least after escalating to Head Office, they agreed to bring the deal back to R185 000, not the agreed deal of R180 000. I was still not happy because I could not understand why I needed to pay R5000 more when I had everything on paper showing what our deal was.

I was in that office from 9am Friday until 7pm. Around 4pm I spoke to Kefentse from Head Office and I told her that I would accept the R185 000 deal, she promised me to still push the issue to management and hopefully get me a refund for my R5000. I went back to the finance office to sign, and again when I was about to sign, the amount was now more than R195 000, which was the amount I was disputing all day. At this point, they had wasted my day and my time and it was becoming clear that they are not interested in selling me this car. Eugene went to fetch his boss (Mohamed) whom was very rude and condescending towards me, telling me there was nothing that Head Office could do. I started recording him and he started running and avoiding repeating his words. He left me there and went home. He told me he does not care how I survive in Durban and that is not his business. They called the police on me because I was there till 7pm and they wanted to go home.

Head office got back to me after following up the following week and they told me that KIA Springfield will not compensate me for the costs of food and accommodation incurred whilst I was in Durban, that they will only refund me my flight. Even today I do not have my refund. I have a # Case 0000003825 with KIA SA customer service.

My next step is to write to the RMI and Ombudsman. I do not believe people can treat clients like this with no consequences. If that does not help I am going to court because I have all the evidence, I have OTP's, I have WhatsApp conversations, and I have emails and recordings.