Audi South Africa disregard for the customer

I herewith forward a copy of my email to Mr Van Rooyen, the Dealer Principle at Audi Sandton. You will find the detail wrt my initial dealings with the sales consultant Vijen, Upon investigation you will find that I submitted a OTP for the vehicle to Vijen on Friday 11 January which was received and acknowledged by Vijen.

After numerous phone calls to Vijen and then to the manager Mr Mike KIng on Monday 14 Jan and Tues 15 Jan and again Wednesday morning 16 January the matter remained unattended by either Vijen or Mr King.

The reason for my frantic calls trying to get Vijen to call me back and then trying to get Mr King to investigate and resolve the matter was that I needed the vehicle to be delivered by Thursday 17 January because I had urgent business at my farm in KZN and needed to get the vehicle there to start work delivering livestock.

After speaking to Mr King on Wednesday morning for the third time since monday he undertook for the second time to "investigate" and come back to me. By 1 PM Wednesday Mr KIng had NOT returned my call AGAIN and I had no alternative other that to drop all other commitments for the day to visit the Sandton Audi premises in an attempt to resolve the matter.

When I arrived I walked straight to the desk of Vijen and asked him why he was not returning my calls and when the Amarok vehicle would be ready for delivery.

Vijen informed me " THE VEHICLE IS NO LONGER AVAILABLE"

I was furious and asked him to explain. He began to explain that he had not received my finance application to which I interrupted him and informed him that according to my signed and accepted OTP I had 2 weeks to arrange finance and besides, my finance documents had already been submitted to Fundi Ntaka.

I then approached the office of the Used vehicle manager Mr King. Mr King was busy with another person and I agreed to wait for him to finish. While waiting I made contact with the Dealer Principle, Mr Van Rooyen and asked him to be present with me in my meeting with Mr King. Myself, Mr van Rooyen and Mr King then had a meeting and discussed the matter. From my discussion with Mr King in this meeting with Mr van Rooyen being present it became clear to me that Mr KIng was aware that the Amarok vehicle had been made available to another customer and that this information was purposefully being withheld from me. Mr King was clearly aware of this information since I first made contact with him n monday and it is inconceivable that he did not have a discussion with Vijen regarding the matter.

CONCLUSION: At some time after my test drive with Vijen on Thursday 10 January the vehicle was offered for sale to another customer. I was not contacted or advised in any way at anytime whatsoever. Mr King and Vijen were clearly avoiding me and not returning my calls because they had re sold the vehicle without informing me. The sales consultant Vijen had a signed OTP which he acknowledged received and had no legal right to offer the vehicle to another customer.

During all this time Sales consultant Vijen was apparently busy attending to customers and I was asked by Mr van Rooyen to wait for him to finish. I waited for Vijen approx an hour during which he neither approached me or offered an explanation.

I told Mr van Rooyen I needed to leave.

Mr van Rooyen assured me he would rectify the situation

The evening of Wednesday I was called by Mr van Rooyen and informed that I could have the vehicle if my finance was approved. No apology for my inconvenience, no undertaking to re instate my contractual right to the vehicle for two weeks following the OTP. No explanation wrt to what had transpired.

My finance was approved on Thursday but the vehicle had not yet been sent for roadworthy, checks etc. So I had no alternative other than drive to the farm with my Sedan Audi vehicle and return the following week to take delivery of the Amarok vehicle.

Upon returning the following week to take delivery of the vehicle I called Mr King requesting the rear tyres to be replaced because they were worn more than 50% as opposed to the front tyres which were almost 90%. Mr King said he would look into my request.

I received a message later indicating that he wanted to discuss the "cost" of the tyres with me. I refused to discuss this with him and contacted Mr Van Rooyen requesting the tyres to be changed not only because they were worn and not worthy of a vehicle delivered by Audi Sandton but also as a small gesture for my inconvenience.

At one point I was informed by Mr King that "the vehicle passed the roadworthy test" with the tyres so they should be fine.

Mr van Rooyen reverted back to me offering to compensate me R2000 towards replacing the tyres which apparently cost R3800. I needed time to think about his offer and decided to decline since in my opinion it was adding insult to injury. The vehicle was sold to me at more than R20 000 above trade price and I felt that replacing two tyres was not asking too much especially considering I had to do an extra trip to KZN because of a breach of contract by the sales consultant and the manager.

On the day of taking delivery of the vehicle Mr King again undertook to "speak to Mr van Rooyen" and try to arrange the tyres to be replaced. This undertaking was made in the presence of another sales consultant by the name of Werner. BTW, still waiting for a service book which was not in the vehicle and an undertaking by Werner to provide me with the service book.

After taking delivery I have not received any call from either Mr King or Mr van Rooyen and no apology or explanation from the sales consultant Vijen.

This treatment left a very bad taste in my mouth and I wanted to put it behind me, but I feel this can not go unchallenged and I have decided to take this complaint as far as is necessary to find some kind of resolution.

I am 58 years of age and have had many dealings with many organisations in my time but never encountered the kind of arrogance, complacency, sheer disregard bordering on insult from people supposed to be professionals.

Kind regards Gerhard de Klerk

----- Forwarded Message ----- From: Gerhard De Clerck ********** To: ********** ********** Sent: Thursday, January 17, 2019, 2:40:23 AM GMT+2 Subject: Re: OTP Amarok s/c sale GP De Klerk

ATT Mr Van Rooyen,

Following is a written submission of the situation regarding my offer to purchase and the subsequent unfolding of events:

1. On Thursday 10 January 2019 I visited the Sandton Audi premises following a discussion by telephone with sales consultant Werner, and then meeting sales consultant Vijen who took me for a test drive in the Amarok vehicle.

2. During and after the test drive I indicated to Vijen in no uncertain terms that I am interested in buying the vehicle for my farm in Kzn.

3. During our subsequent discussion at his desk I made a verbal offer of R135000 excluding the quoted "on the road costs". Vijen mentioned that he needed to get the go ahead from his manager and walked over the the managers office. Upon his return he indicated that the offer is acceptable but that a written OTP needs to be submitted. I agreed and the OTP papers together with the finance application were emailed to me.

4. During the discussion at the desk of the sales consultant Vijen I mentioned to him that I had app**** for finance with MFC on another vehicle which was pending and would submit my papers to Sandton Audi early the following week since I did not want two finance applications in the system and did not want to jeopardize my other application in any way.

5. On Friday 11 Jan the OTP was signed by me, emailed to Vijen and receipt acknowledged by Vijen.

6. On Monday 14 January I emailed the finance application together with my personal supporting documentation to Fundi Ntaka but the email bounced back on two occasions. I needed to be sure that my application was received and I called the landline number ********** on three occasions requesting to speak to Vijen. I was informed he is not available and I left messages on three occasions. Vijen did not call me back.

7. On Tuesday Morning 15 Jan I called the landline number again requesting to speak to Vijen. Again I was informed he is not available and I left a message. Again he did not return my call. Later I called asking to speak to Fundi Ntaka and was informed she has three calls holding and I requested for her to return my call, my call was not returned.

8. On Tuesday at approx 12 PM I called again requesting to speak to the Pre owned vehicle sales Manager Mr Micheal King, I was informed he is not available and I left a message requesting his call back. Mr King called me back about 1 hour after my call and I indicated to him that I was highly frustrated because nobody was returning my calls and I needed the application to be submitted since I needed the vehicle by Thursday or Friday latest. Mr King advised that he would investigate and call me back. Mr King did NOT call me back.

9. After speaking to Mr King I tried again to email my documents to Fundi Ntaka and again they did not go through. Upon careful investigation I realized that I had made a mistake with the email address and then corrected that and emailed again. My email together with Finance application and personal supporting documents were acknowledged received by Fundi Ntaka at 13:08 PM on Tuesday 15 Jan.

9. By Wednesday morning, 16 January, 9;30 AM Neither Mr King or Vijen had returned my calls and I called again requesting to speak to Mr King. Speaking to Mr King I realized that he still did not have the facts regarding the situation and did not appreciate the urgency from my point of view. He again undertook to investigate and come back to me.

10. By 13:00 pm Wednesday 16 January Mr King still had not returned my call and I decided to drive to the premises. Upon arrival I approached the Sales consultant Vijen and asked him why he was not returning my calls and what was the situation wrt the vehicle. Vijen told me "THE VEHICLE IS NO LONGER AVAILABLE" and began to explain that they had not received my finance application in good time. I told Vijen "that is bull****" and he used my "profanity" as an excuse to abscond from discussing the issue with me any further.

I then approached the office of Mr King who was busy and I agreed to wait. While waiting for Mr King to finish I requested yourself, the Dealer Principal, to be present at my meeting with Mr King. Upon discussing the issue with Mr King with you being present it became clear to me that he, the Pre-owned vehicle manager, MUST have been aware of the situation wrt the vehicle having been offered to another customer.

CONCLUSION: At some time after my test drive with Vijen on Thursday 10 January the vehicle was offered for sale to another customer. I was not contacted or advised in any way at anytime whatsoever. Mr King and Vijen were clearly avoiding me and not returning my calls because they had re sold the vehicle without informing me. The sales consultant Vijen had a signed OTP which he acknowledged received and had no legal right to offer the vehicle to another customer.

I was called by you on Wednesday late afternoon offering to rectify the situation and to continue with my finance application.

My understanding of this is that the subsequent buyer will be informed that the vehicle will no longer be available to him since there is an existing offer to purchase on the vehicle. My offer to purchase allows two weeks for finance to be approved, however, it is understood that finance can be arranged and approved within a day or two.

I have agreed on condition that the person responsible for the finance application communicate with me regularly and keep me informed of progress and any requests for further info by the banks and that I have a right to communicate with banks directly and make my own submissions to ensure they have all pertinent information.

I reserve he right to take this further since I am of the opinion that the way I have been treated by your staff is a gross injustice and not to be expected from a reputable Audi dealer.

I furthermore do not wish to have any further dealings with Vijen and request another sales consultant, perhaps Werner, deal with me wrt further details regarding the vehicle.

I have subsequently escalated my complaint to Audi South Africa with no action taken, no apology whatsoever.

Gerhard de Klerk