Total Misrepresentation -

I purchased a RAV4 on the 31st August 2017 and it was paid for in full. I was informed by the salesperson Ahmed Osman that they do not have the colour (white) that I wanted but that he would have to order one for me. However, I had to pay on the 31st August 2017 to secure the special price that he had offered me. He informed me that I will have to wait for about a week before the car arrives. On the 01 September 2017 I was contacted by Ahmed to inform me that his Dealer Principle Michelle Rautenbach had “made a plan” to get me the vehicle from Central Stock and that the vehicle will be on a truck from Durban to Johannesburg on Monday 04 September 2017. I was happy with getting the vehicle sooner that I anticipated. Ahmed had arranged for leather interior to be done, but he said he will try to have the vehicle ready by the 07 September 2017. I contacted him on the day and was informed that he is off sick and that his colleague will be in touch with me about what time I can collect the vehicle. Abby advised that the vehicle will be ready by 4pm which was too late for me so I went through the next day to collect.

On collection, I had to wait and was told that the car is going through a 2nd wash. Whilst waiting and before inspecting the vehicle, I was asked to sign the delivery/inspection forms. Each and every block on the form was ticked by Ahmed prior to me even reading the form. All I was told was that I must just sign where he indicated with a “dot”. Which I did in good faith. He also re-iterated to me that even though I might pick up faults later when actually doing the inspection, he will sort it out, as he can be fined if faults where found. Very *********, but I gave him the benefit of the doubt. Our first stop was at my Son’s work place which was 15 minutes away. When we got there, the 1st thing he noticed was a chip on the bootlid. I immediately took a pic of it and sent it to Ahmed. His response was that he had already left work and that I should bring the vehicle in on Monday the 11th September 2017 for him to look at it. The service book was also presented to us, and we where advised that the vehicle was inspected by 2 dealerships to ensure that it was without any faults. Finally on inspection of the vehicle we started from the rear of the vehicle whereby the boot lid was already opened. I found that he spare wheel interior was badly scratched and pointed this out, which Ahmed responded that all of them come like that. I said very well, but will consult with my kids for their opinion and will get back to him. We then carried on with the inspection, and noticed a lot of marks that looked like scratches, but he simply licked his fingers and wiped them off. The leather looked ok to me. Then we were on our way, leaving behind all paperwork pertaining to the deal as Ahmed promised that he will deliver them to us once the registration was done. All we had was the vehicle manuals, the service book and keys. When I got home I carefully inspected the vehicle once again, and found that the workmanship and the leather was of poor quality. The service book was dated 28 July 2017. I took the vehicle in on Monday, whereby we consulted with Shawn and Ahmed and discussed the faults, and our concern about the date on the service book. We were advised that the vehicle we got was not the one that came from Durban but instead we were given a vehicle that was from a cancelled deal. I was totally appalled. Another saleperson tried to make us understand that it was a brand new vehicle. We then went onto the faults, of which Shawn advised that he will get a professional to sort out the chip, but we were adamant, that they do not do any sort of paintwork on it, we were not happy about paintwork being done on a brand new vehicle. We requested that they rather put on a chrome panel on it so as to cover the chip. The chrome panel is an extra accessory that is sold for the RAV 4. We were advised that the leather will be redone and the spare tyre will also be replaced. From the 11th September up until the 25th September, we had to continuously call Ahmed for feedback. Ahmed advised us that on the 26th September he will come through to fetch my husband and I to have a look at the work that was done. He didn’t come and neither did he contact us to say he wasn’t coming through. I then emailed his dealer principle to advise her that we want to meet with her as we had had enough and wanted to cancel the deal. She agreed to meet with us. When we got there, she was in another meeting, so we once again met with Shawn and Ahmed, and was told that we cannot cancel the deal. We then agreed to inspect the vehicle. Within a second of viewing it we were disgusted that the remedy to conceal the chip was not effective at all. The chip was still visible. We refused to go on with the inspection and left the vehicle behind. We were now adamant that the deal be cancelled, but Shawn and Ahmed was refusing to do so. I received a very nasty email from Shawn the next day stating that the vehicle is no longer covered by their insurance and that he is going to charge me storage fees for as long as the vehicle in on their premises and advised that I should collect the vehicle as he has sorted out all of our complaints and there is nothing else he can do. We then contacted Toyota SA for their assistance. They were quite good in as far as getting their technical staff and the service manager of the branch to assist in sorting out the repairs, but they could not get involved with regards to cancelling the deal. We were not going to go back and ask because they had already refused. On this day, the 13th October 2017, we finally collected our vehicle, but have been affected so badly in a sense that we had no transport and also had to borrow vehicles from family members when we needed to. I appreciate your intervention with this please.