1 reviews | Active since Mar 2013
Car Dis-service City
I had my car at the CSC Midrand on Monday 31/08 for a service and I requested them to also fix the ABS brakes and the bootlid lock. They sent me a quote of R28 000 for various repairs that had nothing to do with what I asked for. I told them to do the service and a few other odds & ends, which eventually cost me R3047.20, without them having fixed the ABS brakes or the bootlid lock. Yesterday, 7 Sept after 1 week, the engine oil light came on, the car lost power in acceleration and started to smoke (something it has never done before). My son took the car back to them today (Tues, 8 Sept) and their technician said that their "machine" does not detect anything wrong on the car, but if the light comes on again, he should bring it back. He drove to Pta and driving on the N1 the same thing started to happen, except this time the car also made a strange metal grinding noise and he pulled off and stopped the car. He phoned them to tell them what happened and their response was that he must get a tow-truck to tow his car back to them and IF it is proven that the fault was caused by them, they will refund him the tow-truck fee. When I called them to demand that they should pay for the tow, their customer consultant had the gall to tell me that they had identified that the ABS light on the dash comes on and that must be cause of the breakdown. I told her that the ABS light on the dash has nothing to do with the engine oil and definitely would not cause the breakdown. Eventually they requested their Lynnwood branch to collect the car. They cannot get a tow-truck, because all their tow-trucks are busy and the workshop manager said he'll come to tow in the car with his bakkie - probably causing even more damage to it. And I'm still going to have to fight to get my car repaired after what is, essentially, their negligence. I've had a similar experience with another branch of CSC before, but since these repair shops are owner-managed, I thought I might have better luck at another branch. Clearly that was a mistake - Car Service City sells their franchise to anybody who has the money to pay for the licence without them every checking the credentials, skills, expertise or knowledge of the owners or their workshop staff. Meaning, they don't even employ qualified motor vehicle mechanics to work on your car.
CSC in the mean time had opened up the engine and sump and removed the incriminating oil sludge. Thus, by the time the assessor arrived, he was shown what they wanted him to see, including him inspecting the wrong car. He obviously confirmed that the damage was caused by my neglect of maintaining the car, which is total nonsense.
I went and fetched my car from CSC and took it to another service place. The owner, who is actually a qualified motor mechanic, said he could see the damage on the cam shaft that they had sent in the boot of the car, however he couldn't confirm that it was the same one that was removed from the cam housing on the engine.
Cost me R40 K to have a new head fitted. The battery they had in my car wasn't its actual battery, I had a new Sabat battery fitted a year ago and the Willard they left was 4 years old. Some other electronic parts were also removed from my car. In other words, while I was waiting for the Ombudsman to get a move on with their investigation, CSC was stripping my car for spare parts.
Make up your own mind about this, but I won't ever take another car of mine to Car Service City, I will never deal with any service center that displays the RMI membership logo and I won't waste my time to ever lodge a complaint with the Motor Industry Ombudsman again.
CSC in the mean time had opened up the engine and sump and removed the incriminating oil sludge. Thus, by the time the assessor arrived, he was shown what they wanted him to see, including him inspecting the wrong car. He obviously confirmed that the damage was caused by my neglect of maintaining the car, which is total nonsense.
I went and fetched my car from CSC and took it to another service place. The owner, who is actually a qualified motor mechanic, said he could see the damage on the cam shaft that they had sent in the boot of the car, however he couldn't confirm that it was the same one that was removed from the cam housing on the engine.
Cost me R40 K to have a new head fitted. The battery they had in my car wasn't its actual battery, I had a new Sabat battery fitted a year ago and the Willard they left was 4 years old. Some other electronic parts were also removed from my car. In other words, while I was waiting for the Ombudsman to get a move on with their investigation, CSC was stripping my car for spare parts.
Make up your own mind about this, but I won't ever take another car of mine to Car Service City, I will never deal with any service center that displays the RMI membership logo and I won't waste my time to ever lodge a complaint with the Motor Industry Ombudsman again.