North Motor Group Rivonia pulled auction stunts on me as they took me for a fool

To whom it may concern,

I desperately need your attention in resolving the below matter.

I have recently experienced a disgusting raw deal at Mitsubishi (North Motor Group) when I was trying to make a car purchase with them. I am totally unhappy with their service.

Quick summary of the below: Mitsubishi Rivonia and I agreed on a quote of R303 000 from R314 000 on their Mitsubishi XPander 2023 demo, but when my bank had to make the payment Mitsubishi changed the price to R330 000.

Please see full details of the events below:

Sat, 20 May 2023:

I went to Mitsubishi (North Motor Group) in Rivonia to view and test drive their Mitsubishi XPander, for the second time after my Nov 2022 visit. I test drove their 2023 Mitsubishi XPander demo with registration KY 26 VY GP and I was happy and proceeded to negotiate a deal. The sales person who was assisting me is Donald Letsaolo, he found out the car price for me from Jacque (Jacques@northmotorgroup.co.za). I managed to negotiate the price from R314 000 to R303 000, which Mr Colin Zikhali and Donald gave me a quote for.

Mon, 22 May 2023:

Now I dealt with Philly (Philly@northmotorgroup.co.za) from the Mitsubitsi used cars department, and they were expecting a podium for finance. Although my banker, Mashudu Mpofu, was on training, she still did her best to communicate with Mitsubishi and Standard Bank to ensure the podium is ready. Philly also indicated that there was another customer who was interested on the same car and wanted to put in a deposit. Due to some delays Philly suggested that I put a small deposit of R2 000 to hold the car while awaiting the podium, I made an instant payment which I was charged fees for.

Tue, 23 May 2023:

I sent through the podium to Mitsubishi at 08H45. Everything looked all fine with the deal until Jacque got involved and wanting to “auction the car”, changing the price! Only then I received a call from Jacque, the same person who gave the price of R303 000, claiming that Donald is still a new sales person and that Donald made a mistake! To clear this, Donald did not give me a price, but Jacque gave the price to Donal to give to me, so clearly Donald did not make any mistake. I am happy to open a case in order for Vodacom to pull the recording of the call I had with Jacque today (23 May 2023) at 10H14. I requested Mitsubitsi on an email to send me in writing what Jacque explained to me over the call, but I did not receive anything. Instead Jacque expressed that he has another car, exact same model, a year older with a higher mileage and he wanted to sell it for R280 000. To add to this, the car model (shape) Jacque was offering me at R280 000 other dealers are selling it for R269 000 and less with less kilometres even, but is not what I want. I asked him two questions (on the call record), “Is the car exact same mode not previous shape?”, I said, and he said yes, but he ****. The call with Jacque caught me off-guard and I tried to remain calm and keep good mood as I was preparing for my Steerco presentation.

My Personal Conclusion:

Based on all the info above I strongly believe that Mitsubishi Rivonia took me for a fool and they played an auction on me. They indicated that there was another customer wanting to buy the same car which they said is R330 000 instead of R303 000.

Next Steps at least for Now:

With this letter I am demanding to know the following please: Confirmation that there was another customer wanting the same car? What is happening with the car KY 26 VY GP? Is anyone in a process of buying it? For how much? Also, I would like to know the description of the customer? Was I discriminated unfairly? Based on what? Race, gender, status, etc.? Base on the information from point 3) I might need to get EFF’s attention and other media channels to have their say on this.

I need to know if there was any application to finance the same car between the 20th and 22nd May 2023? **Very important. Where was the confusion? How is R330 000 and R314 000 related? As I negotiated the price down to R303 000?! Where is my deposit? I made an instant payment but I have to now wait for the money to be paid back?! Due to the level of unprofessionalism on how this was dealt I have requested Mitsubishi Rivonia to cancel the raw deal they giving me. Now I am sitting with a vehicle approval of R303 000 for the car that I did not know was on “auction” by Mitsubishi Rivonia!!! I was not aware that Mitsubishi Rivonia is an auction company not a dealership!!!

Quick Background:

I had two cars and my one car was written off during lockdown and since I was working from home there was no need to replace the car as we have another car. However, now that I am working two days in the office and between myself and my wife we need to manage the admin of dropping and picking our kids from school.

Some of the unnecessary inconveniences caused by this:

This has caused a massive inconvenience for me, as a urgently need to get a second car but not just any car that anyone throws at me. Now I am currently sitting with unnecessary credit bureau enquiries which is going to affect my credit score as I need to find another car that I want and reapply. This weekend I have to go to Limpopo and my wife will remain in Gauteng and for convenience we will each need to have a car.

To Mitsubishi SA, it will be nice to hear what other South African or customers are going to same on Twitter and Hello Peter.

If you really care about your customers I will see from your responses on the above platforms, Ombudsman and NCR.

While my one deal may not necessarily mean anything to you, I think the views of other potential customers might mean something.

I hope you will find all the above in order and take necessary steps to ensure anything like this is not experienced by any other customer.

Please feel free to contact me for more details, check for my Twitter and Hello Peter complaints for more details.