Terrible Service and ********** Claims

I took my Citroen DS5 (BW70BVGP) to Citroen Bryanston (Suzuki Bryanston) for its routine 20000km service on 11/01/2018.

I entailed everything that concerned me as irregular, amongst others, a faulty tyre sensor.

Later that day I was contacted by the service advisor (Chanel Kloppers) and was told that in addition to the routine service, I had to change my v-belt, turbo lube pipe and front discs and brake pads. I gave the go ahead for these components to be changed and my car to be serviced.

With this service, I was told there will be a delay in sourcing my brake components. Therefore I could only pick my car up on 18/01/2018. For this I was not provided with a courtesy car.

I paid for the above mentioned service and repairs via EFT on the 17/01/2018 upon request by Chanel, as she would not be present when I pick my car up. I paid the sum of R10 846.25 at that stage.

I went to collect my vehicle on 18/01/2018, the service manager; Ronnie accompanied me during the inspection of my vehicle. I immediately noticed that the brake disks and pads had been replaced with non-original (pirate) parts. I explained this to Ronnie and advised him to alert Chanel promptly. At this stage Chanel told me that they replaced the brake components with pirate parts because the originals were on back order, I however, was not told about this and had paid the full price of the originals components.

Additionally, upon picking my car, the air conditioner that was working prior to the service, was no longer working.

After Alerting Chanel about the all the above details, she admitted this was wrongful conduct and I was scheduled to bring the car back as soon as they had received the original braking components.

However, whilst waiting for my brake components, I was driving on 21/01/2018 my vehicle experienced sudden jerking and an abrupt loss of power. The check engine light was flashing, the cooling fan was turned on at full blast and I had to stop my vehicle immediately as it was no longer drivable. I immediately sent Chanel a message alerting her to this.

On 22/01/2018 a technician from Citroen Bryanston arrived at my residence to diagnose the vehicle. His computer showed that there had been a miss fire in cylinder 2. He however said that it was okay to drive back to the dealership. After spending the day there to diagnose this problem, I was later told that my car was misfiring because of the coil pack that had gotten wet during the pressure washing of my engine bay.

This showed extreme neglect on the part of the dealership potentially causing a catastrophic situation.

In addition, I once more inquired why the tyre pressure sensor was flashing a warning. At this stage Citroen Bryanston advised me to replace the sensor after multiple failed software resets.

At this stage the root cause of my air conditioner failure and prolonged periods of cooling fan operation, was attributed to the electric water pump that had stopped working. I incurred the additional costs of replacing this component

When my vehicle was taken in for the second time on 22/01/2018, I only received it back on 16/02/2018. Within this period I inquired multiple times if I could have a courtesy car. However I was met with no response and was left incurring a substantial Uber bill during this time.

Upon receiving my vehicle on 16/02/2018 I was told about what had been changed. I was also ensured that my brake disks and pads had now been replaced with the original components. I inquired whether I could have the used components and Chanel said she would look for them. After returning from the workshop she presented me with a set of used disk brakes, however these were incorrect parts as they were clearly smaller than that of my vehicle. She apologised for this error and after searching some more, she advised that they could not locate these pads. At this juncture, she assured me that the brake components had been replaced with the original components. She promised that she would send me the receipt for the original components that were ordered to my VIN number. At this juncture I had to pay an additional R7 359.74 for the electric water pump, tyre pressure sensor and air conditioner.

After driving my car for less than a week, on 02/03/2018 my car experienced sudden jerking and loss of power, exactly as previously. Once again the fan was blowing at full blast, even after having stopped the vehicle. I once again, immediately notified Chanel about this.

On 05/03/2018 Chanel sent a service technician to pick up my car for the third time. Later that day I was told that they had now detected a fault with my high pressure fuel pump and that I had to replace this. This is potentially a result of the misfires caused by the wet coil pack. At this point, to replace this component, I had to pay an additional R15 074.94.

I was told that the part was on back order and I would only receive my car in a few weeks. At this point my car was completely un-driveable. I requested a courtesy car, however, even after multiple requests; I did not receive a vehicle till I could pick up my vehicle on 29/03/2018. I was thus left for weeks on end without a vehicle I had thus incurred a further significant cost in Uber fares once again.

Upon picking up my vehicle on 29/03/2018 after spending a total of R33 280.93 I was told that my car was running without any fault codes.

When picking up my car I inquired once more about the brake components receipt to prove that they had been replaced with originals. However, once again the dealership could not produce any proof and I was promised by Chanel that she would email it to me as soon as they got a copy of it.

I am writing this on 23/07/2018 this is 6 months since my car has been to Citroen Bryanston and weekly requests to Chanel I still have not yet received proof of receipt that my brake components have been replaced with original parts.

This inevitably leads me to believe that I have been **********ly, told and paid for original brake components, however, the pirate parts are still fitted to my car. To confirm this I am having my brake components independently assessed for authenticity

Furthermore, I still experience the occasional jerking while accelerating.

I have not managed to get any response from Citroen Bryanston with very poor service and even more shocking after sales correspondence. Claiming the delay in receipt allocation was due to a PCSA parts system change, with new login details that needed to be obtained.

Kindly investigate and advise, as a matter of urgency, on how to address the multitude of problems as highlighted above.