Christina M

CMH Volvo Cars Cape Town - Utterly atrocious!

I am writing today, not because I am still dealing with CMH Volvo Cape Town, something I hope to avoid at all cost! This is to warn anyone who is dealing with them or are considering dealing with them. They are after all the only official Volvo dealership in the whole of the Western Cape (!), which in itself is an accusation against Volvo. Or perhaps this is simply yet another symptom of how they treat people, who drive their cars. I live approximately two hours away from CMH Cape Town and therefore have my car serviced excellently locally by another dealer. For any other work however, I have to have this done by someone who specialises in Volvo. After a local service provider, who said he is qualified to replace my clutch, messed this up, I was forced to take my car to Volvo in Cape Town. My appointment was for the 23rd of July 2024. Upon being told that the car had been fixed, I paid and picked it up on the 31st of July. Only to realise that the car was not fixed at all on my way back home! I phoned Volvo Cape Town the very next day (1st of August) to inform them. Instead of making the problem one of urgency, I was told that the first available booking would be on the 9th of September! I did not receive any acknowledgement that this was actually their fault and that in the interest of good customer service, they should bend over backwards to resolve the problem asap. I was told that they would need 5 days for the work to be done, to which I agreed. I told them that I believe the new invoice should show that the first invoice had been deducted, since I was very clear in my initial request “to fix the clutch”, which clearly had not been done. When I took the car in on the morning of the 9th of September, upon asking, we were told that it would be ready the following afternoon, very different from the five days quoted initially. We had not planned on staying in Cape Town, had nothing packed, booked or organized at home to stayover. Nevertheless, my husband made arrangements and stayed behind, as to avoid unnecessary trips up the coast and back again. The next day he phoned, but was then told it would only be ready on Wednesday. On the Wednesday, when the car was once again not ready, I wrote an email to Volvo Customer Care South Africa and Mr. Clinton Walton, who I believe heads up Volvo Cape Town. Upon phoning Mr. Walton some days later, he appeared as if he knew nothing of my case. When he checked his emails, he simply told me that he had forwarded the matter on to Mr. Mark Mawson to resolve. I found this outrageous, since I contacted him because I was not getting any joy from his subordinates. On Thursday, I received a call from Volvo, telling me that “the tool which they need for the clutch” has broken, and they are now trying to source another tool. No timeline was offered and upon asking I was told it should be between half a day and one day. On Friday we were none the wiser and my husband, who was still waiting in Cape Town, got another car and came home. In the meantime, numerous discussions and email conversations had been had about the cost. There was absolutely no concession or acknowledgement of fault on their behalf. The most CMH Cape Town was prepared to offer, was a minimal discount of less than R3,000.00, while the two bills combined were in the order of R54,000.00! The next week we kept on enquiring, when on Tuesday finally we got told that the car will be ready on Wednesday. Wednesday came and went without any positive news. On Thursday, upon enquiring, we were told the car was fixed and I started receiving multiple emails with the bill! We arranged to go pick up the car at their premises on Friday morning, so that I could take the car for a test drive, before I pay. Upon arriving there, I was yet again told by Mr. Treasure Mohoje, that his boss, Mr. Mark Mawson was just “tweaking something” on my car and it would take “ten minutes”. Needless to say, I was beyond words! About an hour later, I left with my car, after having paid the requested amount, so that I could take my car. My experience is that Volvo cars are fantastic vehicles. CMH Volvo Cape Town is either not qualified or perhaps simply does not care about their customers. Personally, I will never buy another Volvo or recommend anyone else to buy one. The service is simply atrocious! They do not deserve a single star.