Huge inconvenience by BB Hatfield that left me feeling speechless!!!

After my mom passed away in December, I decided to relocate to Switzerland in March. After putting my car on sale, on a site called Weelee, i finally got an offer on the vehicle. I was called to ask if Id accept the offer, which I did. On the 26th of February, I met up with the buyer by the name of Johan who agreed to meet me at Hyundai Montana because I lived 2km from there so it was convenient. Johan inspected the car and agreed on a lower amount than initially stated on weelee, which I understood because a picture doesn’t show all the dents clearly (although on the ad i did mention dents) so this meant I’d have to settle my own money with the bank to pay the total settlement fee - no problem. On the 27th of February I dropped off the car at BB Hatfield in Pretoria and Johan wasn’t in at the time so I gave the car, license disc paper along with the original keys to a gentleman by the name of Thabang. I had forgotten the spare key at home and made a quick trip home by uber to return with the spare key. I then dropped off the spare key that afternoon at around 16h00 into Thabang’s hands. This time Johan was back at the dealership but busy with a client.

I flew out to Switzerland on that evening 27th of February. The agreement was that Johan would pay me the R80 000 for the vehicle in mid of March 2018. So once I got to Switzerland I whatsapped him, notified him of all the things I left at the dealership and that we will finalise payment mid March. Mid March passed and I had not heard from him. I contacted Thabang by whatsapp and he assured me that the car is in safe hands and is at the Head Auto and is being repaired so I told myself i must wait abit. In May, on the 8th of May 2018 after much dead silence, I contacted Johan’s number by Skype call and when I asked to speak to Johan I was told Johan is no longer in the employ of BB Hatfield. I was very worried, scared, because at this rate my car bills and insurance are mounting and some I paid with the money I had but all I wanted was to SELL THE CAR! The person I spoke to was Ernest, who asked for the vehicles registration and assured me that they have the car and I mustn’t worry. He will investigate this whole thing and that he will get back to me-which he did and in his own words said “Don't be alarmed. I am just not aware of the situation. But I have confirmed with andre my dealer principle and he says he knows about the car. We will however only be available tomorrow to discuss what the history of everything is as i am new at the dealer.” I then told Ernest I want them to sell it or pay me because it’s been a very long time now and in between all of this, I was even too lazy to ask how Johan could leave BB Hatfield without anyone advising me since I left all my details there but that was not priority because all I honestly wanted was to sell the vehicle so I agreed to wait from Ernest regarding the go-ahead process. After not hearing from him, I rang him on the 14th of May asking for feedback he said he would get back to me. No problem. Then on the 16th of May I called him again and he said he would respond and in this conversation he mentioned all the things that were wrong with the car, which I was aware of (the dents) and Johan was aware of because he saw the vehicle and even lowered his offer because of the dents. Then Ernest said, over the phone, he does not think he will give me the same offer because the car is not worth that value and he will revise his offer - I was unhappy about this because first of all, I turned down all prior offers because Johan’s initial offer was good enough for me so according to any sales agreement you agree on an offer and that is a form of a sales agreement right? But I didn’t even go into that all I wanted was an offer so that I could move on. I told him I would wait to hear how much he offers. After the phone call, there was still no response and at this point I am getting really worried because how can it take so long to give me an offer, or to sell a car and my car bills and insurance are rising cause car is not fully settled at the bank? I then text him again via Whatsapp on 18 May saying I have not heard from him and would like to know what the plan is regarding the vehicle. How much are they buying it for? No response from him and I saw that he had read my message. On the 25th of May Ernest finally emailed me and in the email he told me he (BB Hatfield) cannot unfortunately purchase the vehicle because to fix the car it would cost R10 000 excluding the clutch which needed replacement (I was unaware of the clutch issue by the way). I mailed him back, told him I am willing to pay for the costs so can he give me an offer taking into consideration those costs of the dents. He was once again silent. I sent him a whatsapp a week later asking if he has seen my email, he read my message and did not respond. Then on 7th June, I sent him a whatsapp and said to him since he is ignoring me I will then come collect the vehicle. I then asked him to have the 2 keys ready (original and spare key) as well as the License Disc paper. In the same text I asked him to confirm that no work has been done to the car since dropping it off. Then he responded saying the car’s door was fixed, but it will be of no charge to me because I had not authorized this. This puzzled me because he worked the car already but still doesn’t want to buy it, why spend money on something and not buy it? Then he said there was no spare key according to Johan and there were no documents but he will check. At this time im getting really upset because I might have a potential buyer and we all know how NB a spare key is. I told him I left the key with Thabang who even agreed on text that yes indeed I gave him the key. On the 8th of June, I text Ernest and asked on feedback regarding the key because i need to now confirm collection of the vehicle as the person I organized has to collect it the following day (9 June 2018). No response so I call him. He says to me Thabang does not know anything about the spare key - puzzling. So i tell him I gave the key to Thabang and if he doesn’t have it then I will need to seek legal assistance and Ernest lost it saying Im threatening him, prompting me to “calm down” while I wasn’t even screaming. And obviously at this point I have been dealing with someone who has continued to ignore my texts and is once again telling me to “WAIT. He will get back to me regarding the key” but yet I have less than 24 hours to collect my car so when will he get back to me when he has a history of responding days later? I have a buyer who wants the car and I do not have a spare key? So the value of the car will go down AGAIN! This is all too much and very very unprofessional. It’s not okay that BB Hatfield doesn’t want the car but I didn’t even want to make this an issue, I respected their choice to not buy the car but can I atleast get it in the condition I dropped it, the keys the papers etc. the whole matter has caused me stress, and made my move to Switzerland unpleasant because I am here trying to solve past issues. BB Hatfield is a reputable company that should have reconciled all issues when Johan left, instead of keeping quiet and waiting on the seller to contact them. I am a professional in South Africa and I can tell that this was handled very loosely, selfishly and poorly without considering my situation of the fact that im 8000miles away, I handed this car over rightfully and all these things that are happening now could have been long solved with prompt response from both Johan and Ernest. Finally, as I type this Thabang sent me a text saying he cannot find the spare key (once again confirming I was not lying when I said I left my spare key at BB Hatfield) and advised me to be in contact with Johan, when I asked him for Johan’s number he doesn’t have it - which I totally understand. But how does a company as big as BB Hatfield not keep my things safe or ensure their employees keep things safe? Isn’t there some sort of policy? Secondly, a car sales assistant should have interpersonal s****s, how do you even get the job when you lack at such a simple s**** as to communicate to people and respond as promised or as soon as you find the time to? I am hugely inconvenienced by BB Hatfield, inconvenience is even an understatement and will in future advise people to be careful dealing with Ernest in particular. I will collect my car but I need that spare key back and ensure the person collecting it does a thorough inspection because I now do not trust BB Hatfield at all.