Bad service could not deliver as promised

I travelled from Pretoria to Port Elizabeth with my automatic Mitsubishi pajero, which was serviced the day before I travelled. I arrived in Port Elizabeth and on the 16 December my Mitsubishie Pajero would not go into drive, I could not get first gear only reverse gear. I had the vehicle towed to a friend’s place who then recommended Robbie Breakspear from Gearbox and Diff Country. I met Robbie and we spoke about the problem with my pajero. I told him that I was looking on the computer to see what could have caused the pajero not to go into gear. Robbie then said that he could not see what the problem was but would take it to his workshop and put on the hoist and let me know. He then phone me could not find the fault on wiring or Solanoid, but had already stripped the gearbox with my permission. Under no conditions did I ask him or tell him to strip my gearbox. I when down to his workshop to fetch my backpack in my car. I saw my gearbox was out and stripped,” I said to him why did you strip my gearbox he said there is a burnt smell in the gearbox. I then smelled the oil myself there were no burnt smell and the oil still looked red and new. I told him to put the part back, he will not put the part back, said that he started to strip the gearbox because that was where the fault was, I was annoyed because I told him that upon looking up the problem on computer that the cable and safety switch may be faulty. He then said to me that the Mitsubishi did not have a safety switch and that the cable was ok. He got upset with me and then phone the Friend to get him to phone me to convince me that there was no safety switch and that the cable was ok and that he knew what he was doing. I then received a phone call from Robbie on 21 December to say that I could collect my vehicle the next morning as it was finished and in working order. I arrived Friday morning and he was not at the workshop instead only to be told by your mechanic that the vehicle was not ready and that while working and putting the parts back last night you broke the seal. Naturally I was annoyed because you could have phone and explained to me what happened and not to collect the vehicle. I also asked you to replace the cable which you said was not necessary all it needed was to be adjusted.

I then had to wait another week, as you said that the vehicle would take another week to repair. You then proceeded to phone the friend to let tell him that you could finish the vehicle because you accidently broke the seal and apologized to him. You then phone the friend to explain to him what had happened and apologised to him and asked him to phone me to let me know why the vehicle would take another week to repair and why you were not going to replace the cable. As you know this was very upsetting to me that’s why I proceeded to tell you that I was not happy about what you did, because you were not being truthful about the whole situation. I was not happy about the fact that you went ahead and stripped the gearbox without my consent and now other things have gone wrong. You avoid my phone calls every time I phoned you, you do not answer. When you eventually phoned me back I told you that I was not happy about the whole situation as it seemed to me that you **** to me about how you went about stripping my gearbox. When I told you that the cable and switch had to be replaced you ignored me. When I asked you to please find out what the problem was before doing or stripping anything you did not. I told you that I drove all the way from PTA with no problem. Each time I ask you about my vehicle there seems to be a different story as to why you stripped the gearbox, you said that you could smell burning oil or something was burnt out. You did not first find out where the fault was you just decided to strip my gearbox. I told you that driving from Cradock I had so much power, how can you say that my gearbox is stuffed. You kept saying that my gearbox is bugged, then how did you reverse my car with no problem? I told you that I did not smell anything burning when I travelling down to PE, as you had suggested. I kept telling you that the problem was with the cable and safety switch. When I drove it back all the way it kept jumping into N.Drive and I had no gears. The car would not go, I then had to move the gear lever forward and back, forward and back then got into gear and could drive, I had to drive like this all the way back to Pretoria, this was very annoying and not pleasant when you have a wife and small kids in the car. You said the car was 100% but it was not. Every time I phoned you to see what you are going to do about the matter, you keep on saying that I must not accuse you of anything which I did not accuse you of anything, but I did say that you were not being truthful to me. You said you did preliminary checks and found that the gearbox was faulty that’s why you took it apart. You said that you had put the vehicle on the host and checked the vehicle and disconnected the cable and took the cable off and found that there was park and reverse and then you manually selected neutral on the gearbox. But that you had no drive. You then said that you took all the plugs off as well as the plugs on the gearbox and found you still had reverse but no forward. You then wanted to blame the guy who serviced my car for the problem, as your words were “Now let me tell you, took your car to some guy who serviced your car, prior to me getting involved and that no matter what we did to the lever we had no drive. The next thing we had the car running in neutral no matter what we done we had no drive” What has the guy who serviced my car got to do with you working on the gearbox, this guy knows and works for Mitsubishi Pajeros. I could not take my car to Mitsubishi as they were fully booked but the guy who serviced my car works for the company so he knows exactly what to do. In other words you are tell me he did not know what he was doing and that this is all is his fault because he did not put replace the filter, the filter was ordered for me. But said that I could ride the vehicle with the old filter and change it when I got back. Yes I told you that I could not take it to the agency because they were fully booked but I had someone who works for the agency service my car. The guy tested my car and it was 100 percent. When I got to Cradock. I asked three different garages to check my oil and there was no problems, the oil was fine. When I asked you to show me how to check the oil level you did not show me instead you told me to go start the vehicle for you. Now Robbie, you said to me and I quote: “Brian. I challenge you to go to hello peter and facebook and I am going to get the car in to a reputable gear centre bock in Johannesburg and when they find the new part you will pay for it, and when they find the fault you will pay for it. Because there is so much wear and tear, why would I do a job for R13 thousand less than I would normally charge” I kept on saying to you that I did not give you permission to strip my gearbox. then you said you that you could not find parts. You did not give me the change to say to you that you only needed to change the cable and switch, which I looked it up on the computer and phone Mitsubishi who gave me the information about what the problem was, but you did not want to listen to me. You then went on to say that you messed up your kid’s holiday in East London and then the holiday down to adventure land in Plettenbergbay to help me out. You then said to me on the phone: “Let’s cut the bull**** don’t start with me, You want to be a erotic and an idiot because you lack common sense I am telling you nicely you have to understand of the electronic of the car and the cable adjustment is worn” I then asked you “why did you not replace the cable “ You then said to me and I quote: “When we test the car we do preliminary checks, and now Brian you must understand that firstly, I am not dealing with you, I am dealing with friend not you. Friend recommends me to a lot of people, and why would I rip him off. I got a life to lead to I am not going to waste my time because I could not find a drum, we needed a drum, but my suppliers were closed but I managed to source one and I gave you a good price. I am not going to stress and if you had gone to a Rex who also works on gearboxes you would have paid a lot more. I am not going to waste time when I am not making any money out of the deal. I told you we cannot do one thing and not the other, we disconnected the cable and disconnected the electronic plate on the safety switch. We removed the cable and removed the whole cross member and we had movement on the sub. The problem was an adjustment problem. I did not replace the cable we only discovered the wear and tear when we did the sub. I have so much **** in my life, we are short staffed and we had too many people phoning us. I phoned Kassie from Toyota to get a cable, but there was none available. We did not put a new cable in and did not do the safety switch because we did not know that until we put the car back together. We adjusted the cable and you get drive we only discovered the problem near the end” I asked you why you did not tell me about this problem that you could not find the parts. You then said to me I quote: “I have to live a life too I only got your seal on the 8th Jan (today) a lot of the places are only opened today. We removed your gearbox and electrical plates and did not get drive, we managed to get friction plates and one drum and a new gasket and a seal kit. I broke the seal and had to fly in another seal from Cape Town. The more I tried to help the worst the situation gets and now you are threatening me, I told Friend that you are not very intelligent and that you were not computer literate. You are from the old school, you only work on old cars, I could have billed you more and kept on working on your car, but I did not. I told him that the cable and the switch had wear and tear.” You then said: “You must understand I can only help you but I am not going to help you if you slander me. There is wear and tear on the cable and we adjusted it and you know what, I drove that car we had a little noise on the sub of the gearbox, but it is an adjustment problem, I did not put in a new cable and did not replace the safety switch, we only discover the wear and tear after the parts were all put back. Trust me if I could get your car together within an hour I could have done that, it but I could not. And I am not going to rip you off because my relationship with Friend is too important, I get a lot of work from him, why would I do that.” I asked you several times if you knew about the cable why did you not replace it? Only then did you tell me that because the agency did not have a cable and that all you could do was to adjust the cable to get drive. All this time you knew about but you did not tell me. You said that my car was ready two weeks ago but then you kept it in your workshop. When you phoned me to collect my car you said that you had driven in to check it out and that it would be ready and washed. I also told you that it was not necessary to wash my car as I needed to pack and leave the next day.

You said to me, your words I quote: “I drive it and put a 100ks and while I adjust it. We drive the car to do all the adjustment. Once we have driven it we double check it to make sure that everything is 100%. I drive the car and put the machine on, I test the car and while I do this the guys wash the car and we do the all the adjustment and we double check to make sure that everything is ok. Let me do my job probably, we have driven it and tested it and everything is perfect.” Yet when I collected my car you said that I would not make it to Pretoria, well you were right, I got stuck 7 times. My car is now standing in the garage I told you that want to take my car to Mitsubishi to be repaired, you don’t want me to take my car to Mitsubishi (why) and that it would be on your account. You said that you would fix my car but you have not, but no one has contacting me. I cannot drive my car it is standing, I need my car for business and I am losing businesses. You keep telling me that you will organise to get either Shaun at gearbox …. And that he can repair the vehicle for me. You said to me, your words and I quote: “We need to get it to a guy because I have someone in Jhb there Shaun at gearbox and he will have a look at it. If you start the car and pull the lever a little bit to right you can drive the car and get it to Shaun. But if you threaten me and slander me I cannot help you, How old are you Brian, with an attitude like that, this is something that I need to teach you a lesson in life, you are childish, people don’t go running around to hello peter and ombudsman when there is a problem. Robbie, I told you that I have respect for people who are honest and tell me truth but you did not tell me the truth, you were not open and honest about what was happening with my vehicle, I had to keep phoning you. And every time I asked you to explain things to me all you say is, that thing is bugged, that thing is bugged. You say you have a manager who runs the workshop, why did he not phone me to let me know what’s going on. You said to me on the phone and I quote: “I would like you pull the lever and wriggle it towards drive and then you can drive. You need to adjust the lever, as this is an adjustment issue now I will speak to Shaun and if it needs a cable to replace the cable, which you cannot find or repair the cable here in PE. I will chat with him. But if you want to slander me and you can go to the ombadsman I will show them (ombudsman) the parts and I will tell them that you are slandering me and then that’s the first thing we will chat about in the workshop. We unplug the plug it did not work I will not put old stuff in I will put all the new stuff. They will believe me before they believe you because I will show them everything.” I want to take my car to the correct agency and that is Mitsubishi, but you insist on taking it to Shaun (WHY). Mitsubishi can do the scan and sort out the problem as I never had this problem before my gearbox was stripped. I left PE at 3 in the morning and only got to PTA at 11 at night that is not great with 2 small children. You say you spend two days in Plett due to unforeseen circumstances, and that you have a name to uphold. But what has that got to do with fixing my car and sorting out my problem that is something that you should uphold. You say you know Friend very well and that no panelbeating shop will mess around with him and you want to keep him happy, but what about keeping your paying customers happy? You say that Friend and wife are fighting, what has that got to do with working on my vehicle? I think it is ********* for a person of your status to bring in someone such as Friends domestic problems into business. You keep saying that you could have charged me R13 thousand more but you did not. Then you go on to tell me how much you spend R45 thousand on one race and that you have to deal with this type **** all day. This is not my problem. You said and I quote: “We sort it out that’s how we do business and we try and solve the problem and I would like you to phone Friend and tell him that we are working together. The gearbox is very intricate and we have to work with a manual. I am sick of this when customers don’t understand. I will phone Shaun, but I am busy driving at the moment.” The cable and safety switch needs to be replaced. The first thing we check is the cable…..

Well I am still waiting for you to contact Shaun. When I asked you for the old parts you said that you would give them to me but when I went to collect them you were not around and the mechanic could not find the old parts anywhere.

You said, your words and I quote” “Let’s sort it out with like gentleman” But nothing is being sorted. I never had a problem with my car like this, now you keep telling me that I have to keep fiddling the gear lever to get it into gear, who drives like that that is not how the job should be done. Not after paying so much for a job that was not done properly. Then you bring in Friend’s domestic problems in the equation because you say he is blaming you that’s why you gave me discount but I could have charged you R13 thousand more, well that’s not how one should do business. You said, your words and I quote: “I think you need to phone Friend because you are anal and because it is causing a family matter between him and his wife” And then you said that: “I don’t recommend you drive like that, if I told you the stuff ups at Maritime Motors that I have to help out because when you work on a gearbox you have to work with a manual” I am wondering if you did work on manual you would have known that only the cable and switch had to be repaired. 24 January You send me a What up (Hi Brian ,I spoken to Raymond @ Auto box in Pretoria # 28 Eiland street Kudu****rt ********** 214 Kind regards Robbie Please take your vehicle there on Monday Ian will attend to it.

I send you a message and told you that I cannot take my car there it will not go, it is standing in the garage, it has the same problem. My car shows N /.Drive will not go at all? (Robbie did not respond.)