Avoid Flora Auto Clinic at all costs!

My Freelander II's alternator broke and I had to be towed. The company that towed me, First Help, suggested Flora Auto Clinic. I spoke to a sales lady that told me this great story of how they diagnose everything for free and I shouldn't spend money further by going to any other place. Everything looked above board at first. Obviously there must be some relationship between First Help and Flora Auto because all the cars that were towed there were towed by First Help. but I digress. They took a week to fix the alternator. I had to follow up the whole time and they even cancelled my call after the 3rd time I was trying to get through to them. The morning I went to fetch my car, the power steering broke as I was in their parking lot. At first they made it off by just saying, they didn't know they had to bleed the system after they removed the belt and it will only take 30 minutes. An hour went past and then I could see it wasn't a quick fix. When I queried this the manager was very rude and said it is not related to the work they did. I heard Clive tell her, they had to remove the belt to get to the alternator. She then kept quiet. I came from Potchefstroom and my lift already left. I was stranded there for 5 hours because they did not want to help me get back to Potch. I asked them to just keep the car and fix it and pay for my uber which they just refused. In the end I had to get home by myself. They also later changed their initial story by telling me I will have to pay for the repairs on the steering. The steering never was an issue before this, I never even felt a shudder. The steering doesn't just break like this.

They informed me that the power steering pump was broken and they can get it reconned for R 8800. After another 2 weeks they got it back and the steering is still broken. They then said it's the steering rack and will cost me R 34 000 extra. I decided to tow the car to LRXtreme where I usually get my work done and they said the pump is not fixed. I paid R 8800 for nothing and they would have gotten R 34 000 extra out of me.

The mechanics there are quite young and I do not think they have the knowledge and skill that is required. I was told that their main guy has 27 years of experience and he can work on any car. Obviously he didn't work on my car then. They broke the steering, they couldn't fix it and they are guessing. Overall I had the worst auto clinical experience at Flora Auto Clinic. Do not take your car there. They are unprofessional, have no client service and do not possess the knowledge and experience. They got a lot of money out of me for nothing in return!