Be careful of purchasing a car at Reeds Claremont

On Monday 27 May, I visited Reeds Claremont to purchase a car (my decision to use Reeds Claremont was based on the good star rating I had come across). I now totally regret purchasing a car from Reeds Claremont.

It's 7 working days later and I have a car that has several things that need to be attended to, and bad service that I have been on the receiving end of right up to today.

As a retired person I wanted a smaller car. The salesman, Zainudien, showed me a 2015 Opel Corsa Essentia. The car had arrived at the dealership on the previous Friday and still needed to be brought up to Reeds standards so it had not been advertised yet.

The salesman assured me that Reeds had very high standards that surpassed those of other "roadside dealers". There was the G2 certification and 114 point checklist to put my mind at ease.

On the Friday I collected the car. The minor damage to the headlights which I had been told would be attended to was still in evidence. I was told I had to bring the car back to have that seen to. I posed for the photo next to the car to humor the salesman but he knew I wasn't happy.

Fifteen minutes later, I could not get out of the car because of a faulty front passenger door handle. (I did not feel like driving the car because the entire experience of having bought a new used car had been soured by amongst other things phone calls not returned by Reeds.).

I went back to Reeds yesterday, Monday after collecting it on Friday to point out: scratch marks right at the bottom of the left side of both right side doors; the rubber missing from the accelerator pedal; a problem with the dashboard lighting which became unreadable when the headlights were switched on; a faulty thumbwheel needed to adjust the dashboard lights; the back right side passenger door that does not close so that the door will be flush with the body of the car; brakes that arenoisy when app**** when driving on the freeway....

Yesterday morning, when I pointed out all the problems (except the issue with the brakes which I discovered yesterday afternoon) to Glen Bester, the Recon Clerk, he told me that some of the problems I highlighted were things that the guys in the workshop might overlook eg the door that couldn't be opened from inside. {REALLY????}

This morning at about 8AM I spoke to Dieter September, the manager of the used vehicle section to inform him of all the problems I was having as well as the noisy brakes. What a shock!

There was no effort made on his part to decently apologize or to reassure me, instead he came across as combative and angry at me saying that he didn't know why I was given the car when the turnaround time for a car before it was sold was 7 days almost as if I was to blame for the situation!

He eventually offered (not politely I may add) to have problems sorted out and would let me know today when the car will be collected.

Well its the end of the working and typically, no one from Reeds, not even the manager who promised to, has contacted me.