Mish S

Disgusted at the quality of service from Aksons Wheels Pietermaritzburg

Growing up in Pietermaritzburg I had the notion that Aksons was a reputable dealership that sold top-notch condition cars. From my years of growing up in the city, I did not hear any grievance about the dealership in my local newspapers or from people around me. Hence when the time finally came for me to purchase my first car it came as no surprise that my friends and family advised me to visit the Aksons dealership. Little did I know that the very first car I purchased would be the start of a living nightmare for me. On the 27th of December 2018, I purchased my Renault Clio from the Aksons dealership. As a sports car fanatic, I was drawn to the sporty, shiny car in the showroom that looked to be in immaculate condition. After inquiring about the car and test driving it I decided that it had to be mine. I had recently moved up to Johannesburg and was confident that this was a secure and dependable car for me but I soon realized that it is a very erroneous and extremely problematic vehicle, which was definitely not safe to be used by a young lady in the big and busy city of Johannesburg, given all the issues the vehicle was portraying in such a short time of acquiring it. From the date of acquirement of this car I have been having perpetual problems with this car. At first, I thought that the problems I was experiencing was minor and was not apprehensive to spend the extra buck on my new car as I did purchase it second hand, but I soon realized that the problems I am experiencing with the car was going to be bountiful. With purchasing the car with a low mileage of +- 35 500 kms and the mileage currently at 38610 km (my usage being less than the 3110 kms since purchase) no one would have imagined that this car to be giving me the complications that it is currently giving. From the date of purchase of the car, the following are the issues I have been experiencing with the car: • Prior to the purchase of the car it was brought to Darryl’s attention (the salesman at Aksons) that the badge from the one of the rims were missing. It was assured to me that the badge would be replaced. Once the car was purchased and the badge was still not replaced and after constantly calling Darryl and been told that they are working on getting the badge, the money for the badge was deposited into my account after 3 months after I contacted the manager Sayed. I then ordered the badge from a Renault dealership in Johannesburg and got the badge fitted within a week. All this inconvenience could have been avoided if the money was deposited into my account initially. • Within a day of delivery of the car I noticed that the two front speakers of the car were not working, on making Aksons aware of this they sent me to a Sound and Security company contracted to them for the speakers to be checked up. It was found that there were in fact no speakers in the car and they replaced it with very much an under market brand of speakers. Yet when purchasing the car, I was under the impression that the original car speakers were in the car. • Prior to the purchase of the car and when I purchased the car I pointed out that two of tyres were not in a very good condition, I showed this to Darryl and they had replaced the two tyres with two second hand tyres. When the tyres were changed, the incorrect size was put on the car and this was only found out when I started having a squeaking noise on my front tyres when I turned my steering full. Worried about this noise I took the car a Renault Dealership here in Johannesburg where they advised me that my side shafts were gone. When I had asked them to replace the side shafts as the car would still have been under factory warranty they told me that the factory warranty on the car had been voided due to the previous owner not doing his last service at a Renault car dealership. The voided factory warranty was not brought to my attention when purchasing the car. With Renault diagnosing the noise as my side shafts and the cost to repair been +- R22 000 as per their quotation I decided to take the car to a CV joint specialist for a second opinion. The CV joint specialist then told me that he could see no problem with the CV joints or side shafts and told me to visit a power steering specialist. After visiting the power steering specialists and them telling me that they find no fault in the power steering I then took it to a workshop where the guy there swopped my front tyres with my back tyres and the noise had vanished. The tyres that were put on the car were of the incorrect size and through research it was found that all four tyres should have been of the same size. It took me approximately 2 weeks for me to get the correct diagnosis for my car and this inconvenienced me a great deal as I had lost countless hours of work time. • I had to replace the back brake pads of the car as they were on 40%. When replacing the back brake pads the front brake pads were checked and it was found that incorrect front brake pads were installed and this caused damage to the front brake disks. • The battery on the vehicle had to be replaced, as the error lights were appearing on the dash and the car was not taking certain gears. I have been towed twice thus far due to this battery issue. Once in the morning on the highway during peak traffic as I was stuck on the fast lane and once at night (not adding the possibility of danger I was exposed to and the emotional trauma). The car went to Renault for the reprogramming of the battery it was found that was the ECU on the car was also damaged due to the faulty battery. • It was also found by a diagnostic that the clutches on the car is at its minimum and the car is not drivable currently. For having this car for less than 6 months of purchase, it has caused me innumerable inconvenience and cost and lead to me feeling perilous as a female driving in Johannesburg. Above is the content of the email which I had sent to Aksons. To this very day, my email above has not been responded to, on the progress of my car. On the 7th of June, Aksons paid for a car carrier to take the car down to Pietermaritzburg, so that they could inspect it. With today being the 3rd of July and about a month having passed my car is still not fixed and I am paying huge instalments for a car that I do not have in my possession and for a car that’s problems never seem to end. During the first week of the car being at Aksons they said they had sent the car to a gearbox specialist and nothing was found to be wrong as well as the Renault dealership where the ECU was programmed. The car was then given to us for a weekend to test and the same issue still occurred. After showing them a picture of the error light that displayed after testing it. They then said that the alternator on the car was an issue. The car went to an auto-electrician and they assured us that the car was fine now. With them assuring us that the main problem of the car had been fixed (The error light appearing and the car not taking certain gears), I asked them to address my other faults. They did not replace my speakers, they skimmed my brake discs and put spacers in my tyres instead of replacing it. They took the cheap way out. Last weekend when we picked up the car to test it the same issue occurred once again. It is clear that they have no clue of the problem and the people they are sending the car to must be people who have no knowledge of the car instead of sending it to Renault specialists. From the time, the car has been at their workshop no proper communication was received from them. I, as the customer had to constantly phone and check up on the progress, making it appear as though the issues were caused by our own doing, instead of them selling us a quality car in the first place. To date we have received no information or no courtesy call from any senior personnel and the manager Sayed refuses to take our calls or emails. We have been forced to deal with Viren and Sharaz. Prior to picking up the car last week we requested all documentation for all the diagnostics they sent the car for but as a norm to date nothing has been given to us. I also asked to be reimbursed for replacing the battery of the car, but Darryl has been working on it for the past 2 weeks. Nothing is a matter of urgency to them and they did not even offer me a courtesy car for my troubles and I am stuck in Johannesburg without a car. I am paying the instalments for this car month after month as well as the monthly insurance while the car is with Aksons “attending” to it with no urgency. The service from the staff at Aksons is unprofessional, yet when the time came for them to make a sale on the car, their service and communication was fast. They are not worried about what happens to the customer after the sale. For the reasons above, I will not do business with this dealership in the future and would surely not recommend them, given the nightmare I am currently faced with and no idea of what my recourse is, given the slack service delivery of many.