Christopher P

Recklessness, Poor service, and unjustified Daylight *******.

I have not come across this level of poor service in my life. I took my car to the AA Auto Centre in Strydom Park, Randburg. The car had a starting problem. They told me there were problems with the timing, and I had to pay a 50% deposit since it was an involved job. At that time, the total quotation was R22k. This job took them approximately six months to complete. No updates, no feedback—I had to call them literally every week to get a progress update. On regular occasions, I was told the service person dealing with the car was out of the office and no one else had the update. On other occasions, I was told he was busy with another client and he would call back, but he never did. Before the six-month period ended, I found out that my bill had increased from R22k to R45k. They had written notes on the job card detailing what had been done to the car, which had not been communicated to me and which I had no way of proving. By the way, this is a car with a market value of around R30k, which I now had to contend with fixing for 150% of its market value. Either that or I would have to give them the car for free. Eventually, I got the car back. Within two days, the car had the same problem I originally took it in for. Which means that R45k had been spent on fixing a non-existent problem. I took it back, and as it turns out, it was something minor, and I got the car back again within a few days. A week later, I got stuck in traffic. It turns out they forgot to connect one of the water pipes and the car was now overheating. Again, I returned it. Again, I got it back a few days later. On the day I went to pick it up, within five meters I could tell the brakes were not working. I got out of the car and told them. As it turns out, there was a brake pressure pipe that they had forgotten to connect. By this point, I had spent close to R55k on extra this and that. As I write this note, the car has another leak and won't start. I can't believe that one place, which carries such an old, trusted brand, could get away with treating clients with such uncontrolled levels of recklessness, poor service, and unjustified daylight *******.