Disappointing service

I am writing this letter to you in a hope that I will be help as I feel I was treated unfairly by my car insurance Budget and their service providers. This is about my claim to repair my car (Ford Ranger) which I have complained to them after it was returned to me having Electrical problems caused by their service provider who were doing engine diagnostic. The Claim/Complain number :***/ 2. On the morning of 27 April 2022, I drove my car from Pretoria West to Limpopo (Polokwane) towing a trailer, my car was perfectly well and normal without any warning lights on the dashboard for rest of the trip and it was not having any sign of electrical failure or engine failure. On the same day as I was coming back from Limpopo at around 19h00 unfortunately I got into an accident with mini cooper at corner Hamilton Street and Edmond Street in Pretoria. The first thing I did I got off my car to check if there were any serious injuries fortunately there no serious injuries, I then realized that my car engine was still running I then switched it off with a key. I inspected the damages on my car I found that the impact of the accident did not reach the engine and the impact only reach the radiator, front bumper, front bonnet and two side fenders and the was no water leaks from the radiator. I then contacted the police and my insurance. After the police have registered the accident, they then gave us permission to remove our cars from the road as they were blocking traffic. I then check again if I can start then engine of my car so that I can remove it from the road. I then start the car’s engine I then check if there were any engine warning lights on the dashboard and if there were any water leaks from the radiator, I found that there were no engine warning lights no water leaks, no diesel leaks so the car was drivable after the impact. I then drove the car to the side of the road still towing the trailer and the towing company that budget insurance send asks if the car is drivable and if I needed their help I to told them the car is drivable. I then continued to drive my car to Sunnyside to drop the people I was with, and my car did not show any sign of failure or any power loss from drivetrain/engine. From Sunnyside I continued drive the car to Pretoria West without any problems and it did not show any power loss from its drivetrain/engine. For the rest of the trip that is from morning when I took my car to Limpopo and back from Limpopo to the time where I was involved in an accident and then drove my car from the accident scene to where I stay in Pretoria West my car did not show any power loss from drivetrain/engine and did not show any warning lights from the dashboard. I then parked my car and there were still no engine warning lights or water leaks or diesel leaks inside engine compartment. All this time I was towing a double axel trailer.

On the 05th May 2022 my insurance (budget insurance) authorized towing company Cerebral roadside help to come fetch my car where I stay in Pretoria west. They came to my place to fetch it and I start the car and reversed it for them to then load it on their truck, the car was taken to Auction nation Centurion. At this point when my car left me (on the 5th of May 2022) it was still starting without any problem and without any engine warning lights problems I then continued to register my claim (Claim Number ***/2) with budget insurance for them to repair the damages on the car. My claim was assigned to Jamie Lee Chetty from their claim department. Jamie Lee Chetty was task to update me on progress of my claim. My first update was when Jamie told me that they needed to do engine assessment to check if the engine is not affected by the impact. She told me the assessor Manie Boshoff and the team have decided to take my car to their service provider in this case it was Vanos Tech in Kempton Park for them to check the engine. The second updated is when I complain that why they are taking too long, Jamie told me that the assessment team lead by Mannie Boshoff told her that my car is not starting/cranking and it needed recoding/remapping of the engine. There were updates after updates where they told me they cannot start the engine because they need to recode the car. I since asked them (Mannie Boshoff and assessment team) why they took my car to Vanos tech and NOT Ford for all those engine diagnostics and I since ask for the detailed engine diagnostic report that convince them that the car needed to be recoded/remapping and I have not got the answer from the assessment team lead by Manie Boshoff. And I have asked them to send me the detailed technical engine diagnostic report of what they found as fault to my car as they said to me, they found the fault. They since send me examination report with pictures of when they were doing pressure testing of the engine. The conclusion of their examination report was that they found no damage to the engine. On the 28th of June 2022 my car was at Renew-It group Autobody specialists. Jamie Lee Chetty updated that me that Renew-it cannot repair the damages as there are too big for them, I have since obtained vehicle Inventory register slip from Renew-it which found that my car’s battery was disconnected and there were no locknuts on my car’s mag wheels. Jamie then told me they decided to take my car to Grand Auto Tech in Lyndhurst to do repairs. On the 18th of July 2022 Grand Auto tech told me are they finished with the repairs and I should come collect and I collected it I drove it from Lynhurst to Pretoria west and I did not notice any problem on the car as I was driving at moderate speed(+/- 60km/h to 80km/h).From 18th July 2022 after I parked it at my place I did not drive it until on the 29th July 2022. On the 29th of July 2022 I took it to a test drive from Pretoria west to Limpopo. On this day I notice two main problems and other problems on my car.

First Problem: half to this trip When I was driving it at speed (+/- 120km/h) I notice that my car’s engine is jerking/stumbling when I press accelerator and engine drivetrain warning lights is coming on, I then decided to drive the car at moderate speed.my car continued to jerk/stumbles all the time through the that weekend. Second problem: I notice that when I am approaching the robots and I change my gear to neutral and apply the brakes the engine shutdown it stops running and I must start it again.it continued to do this all the time through that weekend. Other problem: I notice that the lights on the car are not working properly, when I was driving at night with my light on they just light up about 1.5m from the car so it force me drive the car on bright mode because that’s the only way I could see the road and I was endangering the oncoming vehicles with my bright on and again I notice that there was cut-off(on the engine compartment) of my car chassis where it shows it was repainted which I was not informed and this affected my front wheel suspension. On the 1st of August 2022 I complained about the issues to the insurance I was helped by Megan Young to register the complaint case (case number ***/2). 0n the 2nd of August 2022 they come fetch my car at my place to their service provider Vanos Tech in Kempton park to do engine recheck .After they did engine recheck Manie Boshoff called me to tell me that the injectors where faulty and it’s my responsibility to pay the cost of repairs I then argued with him that my car did not have any injector problem when you fetch it at my place on the 05th of May 2022 because on the day of accident that is 27 April 2022 I drove the car all the way to my place and it was not having any injection problem he then told me that my car’s injectors were going to fail it’s unfortunate that they failed while the car was in their hands. I visited the place Vanos Tech to check on my car they told me they have send the injectors for testing and I have since asked for injectors testing report as they said the tests found them faulty. I then had a suspicion that what if these injectors were damaged by them that’s why they reported to me that my car was not starting, and they needed to do recoding of the car. They then investigated the case, but my worry was how do you provide bad service to a client and then investigate yourself and then find yourself guilty I already expected a ‘not guilty verdict’ from whoever who was investigating the case. I believe they caused problems to my car and I want them to take responsibility. On August 30, 2022, they reported to me that these problems were not caused by them, and they have then closed the case while my car is no longer drivable.