Disgusting and *******.

This is my first time making a complaint like this, and hopefully the last. But my experience with Barons VW Cape Town CBD has been the worst ‘customer experience’, I’ve ever had in my life. I feel ****** and hurt. I feel naive and deservingly ashamed for going back there.

About 2 months ago (I’m only reporting this now as the process of learning about what has actually happened and internalising the extent of this issue has taken some time), I went to VW for my annual car service. The VW service consultant named Fadlhi helped me. After a phone call while I was at work, telling me that “you need to replace the steering rack in your car as it is leaking fluid, which is visible on the ground under the car”. I came to the VW to discuss it. They gave me a quote of around R33,000.00 (this also included my windscreen wipers to be replaced). At a cost of R33,000.00, call it R30,000.00 for the sake of round numbers, Fadlhi gave me a formal quotation saying that: “the lower control arm bushes are damaged and torn, the steering rack has play and is noisy and the power steering fluid is low”, “we thus need to replace the entire steering repack mechanism.” I felt hopeless. The book value of my car is around 90k, and now I’m to fork out a 3rd of that to fix the steering rack.

Warning signals were going off everywhere though. Something wasn’t right. I had not noticed any leaks under my car, as Fadlhi had claimed. I was referred by an engineer friend of mine to see a mechanic in Table View who specialises in power steering repair. His email to me is below:

“I have inspected the above-mentioned vehicle and found the steering operation to be in accordance with factory specifications. There are no visible leaks and the steering rack boots are free of any power steering fluid. There is no free play on any of the steering components. We could find no visible damage of abuse or of an impact related incident. Furthermore, we can find no reason to recommend replacement of the unit or a service exchange unit.” He didn’t even charge me for the assessment…

Disgusted and hurt, I complained to VW and was made to sit on the phone for hours, only to have my calls bounce around on hold waiting for people to talk to me day after day. No one was willing to help and no one cared. A customer care lady called me and said she would definitely help me. She eventually called me back to say, “we refuse to accept responsibility, all our engineers are trained according to German engineering standards and they don’t make mistakes”…

I’ve been driving my car ever since. No leaks, no noise, no steering problems.

But that’s not the end of it… A month or so later my ABS light started going off after my hub-caps were ******. I wasn’t sure where to take my car. In the end, I naively took it to the same VW again (I needed VW hub caps and Barons Cape Town is right around the corner from where I work) I know right, I’m naive and deserve to be ********** - I made a huge mistake. After explaining to them that I am struggling to trust them after what happened previously, and that I will only deal with the service manager (who ended up being a guy named Neville) he refused to accept responsibility for what happened with the steering rack and was even aggressive with me when discussing the matter. We proceeded with the ABS issue.

He assessed my car for a day and had the hub-caps replaced. He told me that the ABS sensor HAS to be replaced even though they aren’t entirely sure what the problem is. He said that they always start with replacing the ABS sensor on the side that the light is going off. He then said I have to buy the part first, and then they put it in my car to test it. And if it doesn’t work then that’s my problem. “They have to sell electrical parts first even if it doesn’t function”. Thats f*%ed up! Well you guessed it, R1800 later, and after going back and forth to their shop 3 times, I drove my car for a day and the light went off again. I had been ******, again….

I took the car back to Barons Cape Town, who refused to pay back the money and assessed my car again. They now said that the wheel bearing is damaged. That's why the light was going off. They gave me a quote to fix it of R7039.00. I was appalled… once again.

So, knowing what I knew first last time, I took it to another mechanic and electrical engineer. They weren’t sure what the problem was hearing my story and decided to phone Barons Cape Town, VW as they felt it was ethical to consult with the engineers who initially worked on my car. They asked the engineer from Barons Cape Town, who worked on my car (he was on speakerphone), “ did you try and swap the speed sensors around to test if the left speed sensor gives the same problem on the right side?” This would obviously confirm as to whether the speed sensor was, in fact, the problem. The mechanic said “YES, I did”. The phone call ended and the engineer said to me “you can’t swop those sensors around in VW’s. They are not designed that way”. So this engineer ****. Outright ****.

After a days assessment, the mechanic eventually found that it was my wheel bearing that was causing the issue. He replaced it within a day which cost me R2k all in.

If you’ve read up until now you’ll perhaps have some sort of understanding of what I went through with this ‘business’. If there ever was *******ion occurring within a car dealership, you’d find it at Barons VW, Cape Town. The mechanic and electrical engineer who worked on my car confined multiple accounts of customers who had experienced similar problems.

It’s devastating that Volkswagen is having their name tarnished by people within their corporation like this. They are a disease. They are evil. Please don’t go there, even if it’s convenient, do not support their ******** agenda’s.