Poor Customer Service and Substandard Work

I would like to lodge a complaint against one of your members, KwikFix Fitment Centre in Durban Road in Bellville.

My wife normally drives the car, but on Sunday the 29th of October I used the car and I was driving on the highway. Suddenly a large piece of plastic came loose and I drove over it, completely destroying it.

I pulled over and had a look. The front fender was loose, so I suspected it was something to do with the covers under the car. I then spent an hour next to the N1 trying to make sure that the covers that are left are properly *****ed on. I had to take the main engine cover off since there weren't enough *****s to make sure that it won't come off again.

I then also had to make makeshift washer by cutting up my chamois' plastic container to make sure that the cover right behind the engine cover does not come loose. I only had the meagre tools of the car available, such as a *****drive and a jack and had to improvise to ensure that there is no further damage.

On Monday morning as soon as I dropped my kids of at school I went to Kwikfix. After having greeted Jannie (which he seems to forget), I asked him how one changes the oil on my car. I did not want to accuse them of not properly *****ing the cover on before I was sure they had taken it off during the service of my car. He was evasive and instead of just answering my questions just wanted to know what the problem was. As he became agitated and more evasive, I became very angry completely lost my temper, also using foul language. He was not prepared to listen to anything I wanted to say and told me to ****** off. I was already annoyed when I got there, but his reluctance to listen to me and answer my questions made me blow a gasket.

After I '******ed off', I quickly stopped at another service centre across the road from KwikFix and just asked them to quickly confirm that an oil change was done and that the filters that were supposed to have been replaced were replaced. They confirmed that it had been done, but told me that the power steering fluid reservoir was completely empty and that is a standard item to check when servicing a car like mine. They also confirmed that the likely reason the covers blew off was because not all the *****s had been put in again when the covers were put back.

I just then also mentioned that I had asked another service centre (I did not mention KwikFix's name) to check on a creaking sound I heard when going over bumps and I suspected that it had something to do with the suspension. Kwikfix told me they could not find the problem and only sprayed all the joints with lubrication. The gentleman at the other service centre immediately identified the problem as being rubber bushes on the suspension arms which had cuts in them. We also noticed then that the large piece of plastic that had come loose, and which I had driven over, was the right front wheel well cover. Now that is is gone, there is a great deal of wiring that is exposed and poses a safety risk since some of the wiring is for the ABS brake system. If that had to malfunction I could easily be in a very serious collision. I don't even want to imagine that any of this could happen while my wife is driving or while I have my kids in the car with me.

The other fault I asked KwikFix to check out was that the front headlight also sometimes goes off and then when I switch the lights off and back on, then the globe works again. It is a fairly new globe, considering that he original globes lasted the better part of the 60000km that I had done after having bought the car and I only replaced that globe earlier this year. I would have suspected it may be a loose wire or something, but they could not find the fault. I am understandably sceptical about whether they did a proper check or just a once over visual check.

I just asked the other service centre out of curiosity what they would have charged me for the service and they quoted me approx. R2595. Kwikfix charged me in the region of R3600 (excluding the rear wiper that they replaced which was about R275 and the total was R3950).

I then went back to Kwikfix to apologise for losing my temper and swearing. Jannie proceeded to lecture me on not being rude and said I must apologise to his staff. The more I tried to reason with him and asked him to put himself in my shoes, the more he told me how rude I was. He was not prepared to listen to anything I wanted to say and it seemed that himself and his staff were more important than me, the customer, and that he couldn't care less whether my car was properly serviced and fixed or not. He told me a second time to ****** off because I am too rude. It does not seem he has a customer focus and that he clearly has not learnt how to calm an irate customer down and try to deal with the real issues.

Jannie also told me he could not test drive my vehicle since the tank was empty. Surely he could have put in some diesel and put it on my invoice. I asked him why he did not phone me, and he just said it is my responsibility to make sure there is enough diesel in the vehicle for him to test drive it. I can almost not believe the lack of customer service in that regard. My vehicle was also not washed. I may have been happy to with that because we need to save water, but Jannie also sells second hand cars and I've seen his staff wash other cars, so I am not sure why mine was not washed. The interior was cleaner, but they used so much silicone that some of the surfaces were still wet and grease. They obviously only did a rushed job and It was certainly not to my satisfaction.

Jannie's promise to me was that they are very thorough and do a 'bumper-to-bumper' check and that they charge reasonable rates. I have certainly been let down, not only by the fact that they did a poor job checking on the faults I mentioned, but also because it seems the covers under my car came loose because of their negligence in properly *****ing them back on. When I collected the car Jannie was not there and no one went through the invoice or checked the vehicle with me to see if I was happy. They could not wait for me to finish and get out of there so they could go home. This was around 5pm, so not particularly late.

I went to Audi N1 to get a quote for the parts that broke off (see attached). They mentioned that the oil used must be 5W-30 because of the diesel particulate filter on my vehicle. They also mentioned that there is a dipstick in the hydraulic fluid reservoir for the power steering and that the fluid level must be at or exceed the minimum level on the stick. It is well below that. They also asked me if the pollen filter was replaced, because that is a service item on the 150 000 km service for my vehicle. According to Kwikfix’s invoice, they had not done that.

When I left Audi I went to KwikFix again to speak with Mr Van der Westhuizen in a last attempt to resolve the matter amicably. He was still antagonistic and told me to go away because I lodged a complaint with RMI. I told him that I had not sent the form in yet and that I would prefer we settle the matter. He was not interested and said I am welcome to send the complaint form in. The discussion then degraded quickly into name calling and swearing and I decided to rather leave.

When I initially dropped off the car I mentioned to them that they needn't worry about topping up the AdBlue because I do it myself. They had no clue what I was talking about. That should have been a warning sign for me since it seems they are not up to date with the latest technology.

Mr Van der Westhuizen is an arrogant aggressive person who believes he knows everything about cars and does not care one bit about his customers. If he were customer focussed he would have made an attempt to calm me down to get to the real issue, but instead he just told me how rude I was and that I am falsely accusing him and his staff of wrongdoing. The proof is the R1400 damage to my car and the fact that he missed service items and used the wrong oil grade.

I am really surprised that he is still in business and I would guess that he does not have many repeat customers. I will definitely never go back and would also discourage anyone I know not to use his company.