Active since May 2013
On 18 November 2025 I loaned my niece R75,000 to purchase a Ford Figo from Groenewald Motors in Wellington. However, shortly after purchasing the vehicle the engine did not quite run smoothly and my niece had it tested by Ford. It turns out that the injectors are faulty and the cost of repair is just over R57,000. My niece contacted the sole proprietor, Christo, but he insists that the vehicle was a private sale, even though he provided an invoice under the name "Groenewald Motors". He has multiple cars listed for sale on his Facebook page. A sole proprietor car dealer is bound by the Consumer Protection Act when selling vehicles in the ordinary course of business, meaning they cannot use "voetstoots" (as-is) clauses to avoid liability. My niece has opted to return the vehicle and has lodged a complaint with the Motor Industry Ombud. The vehicle is insured under my policy and since I financed it, I have a stake in this transaction. We are trying to get this resolved as quickly as possible but since my niece needs a vehicle we are going to have to get the car in a running condition. We will be claiming any costs from Groenewald Motors, but this is all taking time and money. This has been a horrible experience for a young lady buying her first car.
Our cars have been serviced by Sabre Motors for many years. They have also gone above and beyond by coming out to me when I was stuck. Once when my gear linkage was broken and I could not move the car, and then again this morning... coming out to jump my car since I had a dead battery. Fortunately I was not too far away from their workshop both times, which probably helped. The staff has always been friendly and very helpful.
Other than my fiber line going down way too often (probably more vumatel), I never receive feedback about the progress of the fix. I have to periodically enable the fiber connection to check whether it is working. This is an absolute pain since I have to switch from my backup line. The other option, as confirmed by an afrihost csr, is to keep contacting afrihost. I would imagine that it cannot be too hard to simply inform a client once the ticket has been closed.
I recently upgraded my package to 200mbps from 100mbps (up/down). However, the speed keeps dropping to 100mbps and then we are back to the ol' "switch off and on" and "send speed tests", etc. I'm not prepared to keep jumping through those hoops if Afrihost cannot provide a stable 200mbps connection. I have downgraded my package to 100mbps again. Afrihost used to be great but lately things appear to be going south.
We moved in to our new house in Feb 2023 and it had a Growatt solar system installed. 3 x 5Kw inverters connected in parallel and the one inverter was already "faulting" and the seller explained how I should just switch everything off and then on again. Within a month the one popped after switching it off and on again. I was then running on 2 up until I recently decided to replace the broken Growatt inverter. Before I could get a quote, both inverters started faulting and one of them popped when I switched it off and back on again. Growatt has a 2 year warranty. The service I experienced was also awful. I have now gone with a Sunsynk system that, together with its batteries, gives me a 10 year warranty. I will never come anywhere near a Growatt inverter again. YMMV.
We moved in to our new house in Feb 2024 and it had a Growatt solar system installed. 3 5Kw inverters connected in parallel and the one inverter was already "faulting" and the seller explained how I should just switch everything off and the on again. Within a month the one popped after switching off and on again. I was then running on 2 up until I recently decided to replace the broken Growatt inverter. Before I could get a quote, both inverters started faulting and one of then popped when I switched off and back on again. Growatt has a 2 year warranty. The service I experience is also awful. I have now gone with a Sunsynk system that, together with its batteries, give me a 10 year warranty. I will never come anywhere near a Growatt inverter again. YMMV.
My fibre Internet went down yesterday afternoon (around 12h30 20 Feb). I phoned/whatsapped Afrihost and got the usual "please switch everything off for 5 minutes". Turns out that there is a Vumatel issue in Randburg/Ferndale which has to do with some or other work Vumatel is doing from 19 Feb to 23 Feb. I asked why there hasn't been any comms... but the person doesn't know. I then asked how I can track the progress to see when it will be done. Apparently I should check the "status page". I asked where this page is and was given a URL. I mentioned that said page contains no mention of the outage and was told that they are only now aware of it and it will be added. This morning I checked again and still no mention of an outage. I contacted the whatsapp chat again and asked if the outage has been sorted yet and why there is no mention on the status page. I was given the whole "switch everything off for 5 minutes" routine again and checking this and that and then, finally, after 30 minutes was told... wait, there's an outage. I'm like "yeah, I asked 30 minutes ago". I was told that only the major issues appear on the Afrihost status; else I need to check the Vumatel status. Vumatel also has nothing about this outage and, but all accounts, an issue affecting Randburg is not a big deal. Anyway, still waiting for my fibre to get sorted. Typically Afrihost has decent service and I have a couple of services that I use them for, but this is just absolutely poor. The "support" appear to be working of pre-defined scripts and stock-standard responses without understanding anything... well, I guess we need to get used to this level of "service" in South Africa.
We were looking to place our eldest son in Andrews as they offer a Cambridge curriculum. We had to pay a R500 application fee and then R900 for an assessment, which we did. They then requested a character reference from his previous school. Finally, after that was all in order, our boy had to go for an interview with the principal. She simply decided that Andrews would not be suitable. Now, why not do the bits that do not cost any money whatsoever first? Why take peoples money, in these trying times, and then simply decide that you will not be taking in the child? They espouse "Christian values" with "individual attention" but reject a child on a whim. That, of course, has quite an impact on a child... well, and the parents. Anyway, if you are considering this school, perhaps ask to do the bits that aren't going to leave you out-of-pocket first.
I have now been trying for 1 hour to get an answer from the Secure Chat on the FNB app. No one seems to understand what I want and the guidance given is just plain wrong. I "downloaded" statements for March and April 2022 and opened them to check something. These are apparently not free since they are "older statements". Now, they are nowhere on my phone and it appears that I need to download them again. My simple question was: If I download the statements again, do I pay another fee? If so, how much? Also, why on earth does the app not download the statement? The one agent (and I chatted to at least 3) reckons that one needs to open the file, then save or share. How is that intuitive at all? The fact that the app is not doing what any reasonable person would expect is one thing, but the absolutely poor messaging and guidance received on the secure chat is appalling.
I arranged a meeting with a manager 1 week in advance. Arrived this morning and was asked to reschedule.
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