Christo T

Kia, the power to shock

<p>I am the owner of a 2012 model Kia Cerato.  When I bought the new car at Kia (Somerset West) in 2012, I also bought an extended service plan covering services for an additional year in order to look forward to a total of 5 years of no or minimal own costs to maintainance of the vehicle.  On Friday 9 June 2017 my car went for a service at Kia (Somerset West) as part of the mentioned extended service plan.  At about 09h00 on 9 June 2017 I received a call indicating that they have no record of my extended service plan.  I promptly emailed a copy of the policy document to them and assumed that everything was sorted out as I saw the email being read and had no further enquiries.  A friend dropped me at Kia after work and it came as quite a shock to learn that they have done nothing to the car all day.  I had no choice but to take my car and tried my best (many telephone calls and also some emails) to schedule another service date the whole of the next week.  In spite of my policy document and proof of payment thereof on 8 October 2012, Kia only agreed to schedule a service on Thursday (15 June 2017) afternoon after work when I went there in person.  This service took place on Monday 19 June 2017.  After this service I wanted the invoice and only managed to obtain one on 21 June 2017, after I went there in person for the second time after the service.  Needles to say, telephone calls and email requests were completely ignored.</p> <p>I find it totally unacceptable that a client can be made to pay for a clear and obvious mistake (and proven as such) on the part of Kia.  It should not have taken Kia longer than an hour at most to make the decision that the car must be serviced at their own cost.  I need my car for work and as such it was a sacrifice to be without one for an extra day and also to organise transport to Kia each time. </p> <p>My plan was to buy a new Kia Sportage soon after the 5 year warranty of the Cerato expires.  Obviously the above mentioned poor service caused me to reconsider - most definitively I shall not buy a Kia ever again.  </p>