Complaint Against SA Taxi and Mobalyze – Financial Mismanagement and Vehicle Repossession

I would like to formally raise a serious complaint against SA Taxi and Mobalyze regarding the repossession of my vehicle and the financial handling of my account.

On Monday, my vehicle was repossessed and I was instructed to report immediately to their offices. Upon arrival at their premises, I was advised to go inside and speak to Shirley or Thabang to make an immediate payment of the arrears in order to prevent further action.

At reception, the consultants were not present, but one of them was contacted to assist me telephonically. I was instructed to pay R79,000 to release the vehicle. I made the payment immediately. However, after payment, I was informed that the vehicle had already been taken inside and that I would need to pay a reclaim fee the following day before it could be released.

The next day, I was sent a reclaim settlement figure of R157,000 and told that I needed to settle this within 15 days. I paid the full R157,000 on the same day in order to resolve the matter. I was then informed that I would need to wait 7 working days because the vehicle was undergoing inspection.

After receiving a detailed statement (which I had requested because I was not satisfied with the arrears amount), I discovered that a payment of R16,000 made in October had never been allocated to my account. This unallocated payment directly contributed to the accumulation of arrears and ultimately led to the repossession of my vehicle.

When I queried why the payment was not allocated, I was told that they “did not know who it was for,” despite the fact that my details (Mr Tsamago) are correctly recorded in their system.

Due to this administrative failure by their finance department, I suffered:

Repossession of my vehicle

Payment of R157,000 under pressure

Additional reclaim and penalty fees

Loss of income and business disruption

My vehicle being held for 7 working days

This situation could have been completely avoided had the R16,000 payment been properly allocated to my account. The handling of this matter demonstrates serious incompetence within the finance department, and the financial impact on me has been significant.

I believe this matter warrants urgent investigation, as such practices place clients under unnecessary financial pressure and cause severe hardship.