Trashy Opel Adam made worse with trashy Reeds service

Opel owners need to be careful of Reeds Bellville. In fact be careful of the whole brand.

My wife has just had a harrowing experience with their service involving classic passing of the buck and disingenuous 'truth'.

After owing an Opel Adam for approximately 18 months the time came for the 45 000 km service. My wife had done over 15 000 km since the last warranty service but that was done under a year ago. So initially they did not want to accept the vehicle Then when the highly inexperienced and rudely abrupt 'service advisor' realized that it was beyond the 15 000 km service interval, 'special permission' had to be gotten to carry out the work. That took over an hour and my wife was made to wait, missing work.

Then suddenly she was told that the radiator needed replacing (after only 45 000 km ???) and also the turbo intercooler. Note: This is a VERY BAD choice of vehicle - DO NOY BUY ONE. In fact, give the whole of Opel a wide berth. It is technical trash.

So then came a litany of false information, confusion and very poor case management. After 3 days waiting for a decision as to whether the parts were still under guarantee I contacted the dealer principle who took 24 hours to tell me there was nothing he could do and that they were not prepared to provide a) a loan vehicle and b) no car rental option available.

(I thought at least car rental is a given with all decent vehicle brand service agents these days - but not this 'pedigree' German stallion, it seems).

So come FIVE days waiting, still no answer or action at all. My wife begins to doubt whether the car is still in the workshop at all or if it has been ****** or crashed. Then a rumour emerges that a member of Opel SA staff is on leave. The person who approves warranty component replacement. Simply closes the file and goes off on leave. No handover or fill-in staff member. This was confirmed by Friday - employee "X" is on leave. No approval until he returns.

In my 35+ years of dealing with the motor trade, this is the lamest story I have ever heard. Here we have an OEM supplier with a staff member away and special approval service work has to be put on hold?

Finally by Monday night the next week a glimmer of hope. The car might be ready the following week (Week THREE!) Next day I contacted the PR manager of the distributors, Unitrans Group, as a member of the media myself, to get some answers. She tried to help best possible but my question remained unanswered: how can a key decision at an OEM be put on hold with somebody on leave? She did however facilitate some assistance from a trouble-shooting member of staff who was able to break the logjam. But it would be another four days before repairs were complete.

The only bright hope was the warranty clerk at Opel Reeds Bellville, Annetjie, who was at all times honest and true with my wife. Five out of five for her.

So finally after some pressure on the head office, the car was ready on the Friday - two working weeks on - but even then a 10 am promised handover time turned into another wait for my wife when the car was actually handed over only at 1.30 pm in a filthy state.

Wakeup REEDS - the water crisis is over and you are allowed to conservatively wash a newish vehicle before handing back to a client, that due to your incompetence, has been made to wait for two working weeks with no alternative arrangements being offered for transport.

We will not touch this brand with a bargepole again and seriously discourage anyone from using the Reeds Group especially Bellville. Unless the service team and the DP get replaced by people who are properly trained and have an iota of customer-centricity.

Interestingly, my wife works as a very large financial company 'down the road' from the branch of Reeds and when she shared her predicament with work colleagues, there was a collective groan "Not Reeds Bellville again - never use them".