Underhanded dealings, no ethics or values

<p>I recently sent this letter to Audi South Africa but had no response. Hoping for a better turnout on this platform.</p> <p> </p> <p>I am currently in the market to purchase a vehicle and found an advert on Auto Trader for a 2016 Audi A4, 1.4TFSI, with 25,000km on the clock and a variety of extras including the virtual ****pit. The colour was a vibrant red and it was priced at R381k. The dealership that was advertising this fantastic offer was the Audi Centre Pietermaritzburg.</p> <p>Needless to say, I enquired about the vehicle, made an appointment to see it, took some time off work and made the 80km trip from Durban to Pietermaritzburg. I was really pleased that I decided to test drive the vehicle and was sold immediately.</p> <p>I settled on a price with the salesman at R380k on the road and he confirmed to me that the car was still available. We even went as far as calling my private banker who confirmed to him and myself that the finance was in order and they discussed what further documents will need to be shared between themselves. The salesman then emailed me the required documentation that evening which included the quotation and the offer to purchase, which he advised me to sign and return to him along with a copy of my ID, drivers licence and proof of residence. On Wednesday 18 January 2017 at 9:59am, I had emailed all the required documentation.</p> <p>Over the course of the next two days, I communicated various times with this salesman (Mr Mandla), regarding a quote for installing a rear PDC system as well as the fact that he was to arrange for the small paint chips to be repaired and the front 2 tyres to be replaced (as they were worn out). He confirmed that this was in fact done and that all was in order for me to collect the vehicle on the Saturday (21 January 2017).</p> <p>It is at this point that my grievance comes in. As you can understand, I was really excited about collecting my vehicle and I had fulfilled all the needs of the dealership, with my bankers contacting them to request the invoice. In my mind (and in any reasonable person’s mind) everything was in order for this transaction to proceed. However, on the 19 January 2017 at 17:24, I received a call from Mr Mandla at Audi Centre PMB, to inform me that his manager had sold the vehicle that very same morning to another customer. I was furious. I had signed an offer to purchase more than 24 hours before that vehicle was sold to another customer. Mr Mandla had no answer for me and I requested to speak to his manager.</p> <p>After numerous attempts on Friday the 20 January 2017, the manager finally took my call. However, the discussion was not fruitful. He stated that Mr Mandla came to invoice the vehicle of Thursday afternoon and had found out that the vehicle was sold for a cash consideration. The fact that Mr Mandla sat with a signed offer to purchase for more than 24 hours and did nothing with it still baffles me. The manager also stated that if he was to wait for every customer to obtain approved finance then he would never sell any vehicles which is why he went with the cash offer. I then informed him that Mr Mandla spoke to my banker in my presence (2 days prior to the car being sold) and there was no issue of the finance not being approved and that Mr Mandla was well aware of this. The manager was however not willing to change his stance and the only comfort he could provide me was that he would try to source another vehicle and will give it to me at cost + 2%. I felt that I was left with no option but to wait for whatever offer he could find and there was no guarantee that I would get a similar spec vehicle at the price of R380k.</p> <p>I must stress that I was highly annoyed and disappointed in the way this dealership, which is an ambassador of Audi South Africa, conducts its business. If a signed offer to purchase with confirmed approval of finance means nothing, then I am not sure how much more one can do to signal intent of purchase. As interesting as this chain of events is, it gets even better.</p> <p>On Saturday the 21 January 2017, I decided to have a look at Auto Trader again to see what else is available. You can just imagine my surprise when I find that the exact same vehicle in question (with the same description, pictures and number plate) is still being advertised but now at a price of R439,000. One would normally assume that if a vehicle is sold, the advert would be removed. I would even consider it normal if the vehicle was still being advertised after the sale, sighting that it would take a few days for someone to get around to removing the advert. However, this advert was amended. The price was increased. This means that someone intentionally went into the advert and inflated the price. Something very underhanded was going on and my assumption was that the dealership realised that they under-priced the vehicle and made up a sale “to another customer” so that I would get off their backs and they could then sell the vehicle at the higher price.</p> <p>What makes this even more interesting is that a friend of mine also saw the advert and called in on the Monday morning (23 January 2017). It just so happened that he also spoke to Mr Mandla who confidently confirmed that the vehicle is still available and gave a price of R439,000. I was deeply disturbed by this and started to really question the values and ethics that this dealerships conducts its business with.</p> <p>I decided to phone the dealer principle (Ms Allison) and give her an opportunity to explain her side of the situation. She insisted that the vehicle was definitely sold and that they were just waiting for the money to be received so that the invoice can be finalised. Now this did not tie up with what the Manager told me, however it appears that only a deposit was paid by the other customer and to date he had not settled the balance. This irked me even more, as I had enquired about paying a deposit and was told that they need to discuss with my Bankers as to whether the deposit must be paid to them or to the dealership (with the bank settling the difference). However, my biggest concern that I raised with Ms Allison was that the same salesman that called me to tell me the vehicle was sold (Mr Mandla) was going around and confidently telling other customers that the vehicle is in fact still available. Her response was that Mr Mandla cannot explain why he said that and he made a mistake… It seems to me like a very flimsy excuse and cover up for something under-handed that was going on. To any reasonable person, this chain of events and evidence that can be provided to back it up, would suggest that there is some level of dishonest trading taking place. Ms Allison could not even give an answer as to why the advert on Auto Trader was changed to a higher price.</p> <p>As someone that was extremely excited to be an Audi owner for the very first time, this experience has left me very disappointed. The lack of perceived honesty and ethics has made me question whether I want to deal with this dealership again, or even Audi in general for that matter, if this is representation that Audi conveys to the general public.</p> <p>I trust that some sort of amicable solution can be found so that we can put this terrible ordeal behind us and that Audi does the right thing in honouring the deal that was agreed.</p>