How Auto Centurion/JMC/ Christo van Rensburg treats their customers

22 October 2018 On the 22nd of October 2018 my son, and I, went to have a look at a Ford Figo at AutoCenturion/JMC. The Person that helped us was a Mr Shaun Engelbrecht. We looked at the vehicle and took it for a test drive. To the eye the vehicle was in a good condition inside and out. My son did however ask Mr Engelbrecht if the sound that the vehicle had was in order as it sounded a bit hard and abnormal. Mr Engelbrecht assured him that it is how the diesel engines sound and that he had the vehicle on a diagnostic machine which picked up no problems and that the vehicle was also AA approved. We went into his office and decided to purchase the vehicle. We transferred in total an amount of R89 740-00 into the bank account of AutoCenturion. We signed the contract/terms and conditions and asked for copies of these. Mr Engelbrecht informed us that the office in which the copiers was, was already locked as it was about 6pm already and promised us that he will mail it to him 1ste thing the morning of the 23rd of October 2018 which he failed to do. 23 October 2018 That evening we went to pick up the Figo as Mr Engelbrecht put it through its Road Worthy. The vehicle had two new tyres as he had to replace it in order to pass its Road Worthy test. Again Mr Engelbrecht assured us that the car had no defects on it and that it then went through Road Worthy, was approved by AA and that their diagnostic machine did not pick up any problems, and also said they have an excellent technician who looked at the car and said the car was fine. He again promised to mail us the documents. 24 October 2018. We have a friend that is also a motor vehicle technician and I took the Figo to him the next morning to show him the new car that we bought. He had a look at the Figo and stated that he can see that it was in a good condition inside and out. We went for a drive and he said that the engine sounds a bit loud and that it sounds if it had a “diesel knock” and advised me to take the Figo to Ford as he was not very fami**** with the Ford Figos. I then went to Ford. They also mentioned that the car looked good, but the moment they started the Figo they said that a diesel engine does not sound like that and advised me to have it checked out as it sounded as if there is a problem with the injectors. Ford gave me a print out where they showed me that work was done on the injectors in 2015. They gave me the previous owners contact details. I phoned Mrs Topham and she told me that she bought the Figo from a lady. The lady and her daughter apparently both used the Figo. She could not give us the contact details of her previous owner. I asked her about the noise and she said she bought the Figo like that and drove it with the noise for the year that the Figo was in her possession. She mentioned that she also asked Ford about the noise but never had it investigated. My son send a Whattsapp to Christo, apparently the partner in business with Shaun, as well as to Shaun, wherein he said that Ford also said the car looked good but that the engine runs a bid hard. Unfortunately my son got mixed up the statement of Ford and our friend. Shaun phoned my son at 3pm and was told that Ford said the car does not sound right and of the possibility of a fault on the injectors. He also mentioned that the clutch is a bit worn out and asked if they could fix it. Again, we did not receive the terms and conditions and had nothing to refer back to. 25 October 2018 Christo send a voice note to my son explained to him that the clutch is not covered and suggested to him to buy a warrantee to the amount of R6000-00. At this stage my son had no money to do so I phoned Wonderboom Car Service and booked an appointment to have the Figo checked and the noise investigated. 29 October 2018 Wonderboom tested the car on the 29th of October and gave us a report which stated that there was a problem on the injectors which also may lead to further engine problems especially because the car was driven like that for such a long period of time. My son phoned Shaun and explained to him what Wonderboom Service Centre found and also send the report to him. He also mentioned to Shaun that there is smoke coming through the vents if you put the fan on and said he would like the car fixed, replaced or he wants a refund. He went to pick up the Figo from Wonderboom Car Service Centre and the people that worked on the vehicle explain further to him exactly what the consequences of the problem might be, the whole engine might need to be opened, and that it would cost a lot of money to fix. They also showed us that die diagnostic machine showed an audiometer replacement and pointed out that in almost all the cases that come up when there was tampered with die reading on the odometer and the odometer not replaced. The people at Ford also confirmed that. My son sent a voice note to Shaun explaining to him what the technicians told him in person and requested a refund on the Figo. An appointment for the 30st was made to discuss the issue with Shaun. Christo send my son a voice note and told him that he was going about this situation wrong. He said to my son there is nothing wrong with the car and said that if there is something wrong with the car he must bring the car to them to be fixed and that a refund will not happen. 30 October 2018 We send Shaun an e-mail, again formally requesting a refund with the report from Wonderboom Car Service. The same e-mail was later forwarded to Christo. This was the 3rd request for a refund. We met up with Shaun after 5 and had a discussion about a refund. Shaun also said a refund will not happen and that they have the right to fix the car first. We asked him to show us in the CPA where it stated that they have the right to 1. Fix the car, if it is not fixable 2. Then replace the car. If they cannot find a replacement, and 3. Only then refund. He got the CPA on his laptop, turned it towards us but did not show us where it was written and left his office. Since this was on the 8th day since purchase they were not willing to accept a cancellation fee. In this meeting we stated that we do not wish to have the car fixed and that our first choice is a refund. Shaun said he wants to test the car again and he accepted when we said that he can do it on his own. We want nothing to do with it as we wanted a refund. He took it upon himself. We promised that he will send us a video of the test and that we will, if they find something wrong with the car, then sit around a table and discuss further options. Before we left I again stated to him that we do not want a repair as we prefer a refund and repair is not our choice. He also accepted when I said I want a second opinion of my choice present when he was going to test the car. I phoned Dekra Centurion and Vts Roadworthy Centre Centurion. Vts told me they did the Road Worthy test on the Figo. Their data basis showed nothing about an AA test. I also spoke to the gentleman who did the Roadworthy test and he confirmed that there was no request from AutoCenturion for an AA approved certificate, both Shaun and Christo said that the car was AA approved. 31 October 2018 My son and I waited the whole day for him to call so that the person we arranged with for the second opinion can go through to witness the test. Nobody called and we never received a video from him. Automatically we assumed that the test has not yet been done. Take note that we never booked the car in for repairs and stated that we are not interested in repair. My son received an e-mail from Christo at 4:14 where Christo the Ford is in the workshop which we never singed off for or requested. He stated the vehicle testing solutions found nothing wrong with the car and their strap on computer could find nothing wrong before the sale. He stated that if there are parts needed to be replaced they will do so and will need at least 5 working days to complete this. Again we never book the car in for repairs to the workshop and never requested repairs. He also stated that the CPA firstly give the seller an option so repair and if not fixable a replacement and lastly a refund.At about 1’ o clock Christo phoned me and said they are busy fixing the car. We could not agree when he said he will not pay us a refund and when I wanted to point out to him that we did not request repair…..I again ask him for the paperwork and asked him if he could sent me the part of the CPA that he refers to. He said he will not send me anything and that I will get nothing from him He would not give me a chance to explain myself, kept on talking and then put the phone down in my ear. As he refused to send us the terms and conditions, we had no documents to refer back to. We acted blindly as it is impossible to recollect everything on the documents. He then sends me a voice note saying he don’t want to talk to me. Stated that we will not give us a refund and will not cancel the transaction. He stated that they were busy repairing the Figo. He stated that he will no longer speak to me or to Edwin??? He did not even know the name of his client. He then again stated that neither him of Shaun will speak to us anymore and advised me to go and see a lawyer so long. He also said that he knows exactly how to work with difficult clients and that he is used to it. On this day I requested the contract twice from Christo via whattsapp, which he totally ignored, he only send me a whattsapp, saying the time for that was not right yet. He said we must stick to e-mails and during working ours. We also requested the contract and his requests were also ignored. He send an e-mail at 4:15pm stating that if they do not find a problem in the vehicle he will invoice us for the time spent, this is after his he told us that they are busy fixing the car. Since then we requested the terms and conditions from him every day. He send us a voice note stating that he told us to leave him alone for 5 days and that he told Shawn not to speak to us anymore. Shaun started ignoring us from the 31st. On the 2nd of November after another request from us to Christo, to send us the paperwork he blocked us on whattsapp and on phone. I managed to get through to Shaun as he did not know my number and again requested the contract; he said it was not a contract but terms and conditions. I said to him he promised us he would send the documentation Ruan signed on the 23rd of October 2018. He said he would speak to Christo. We never heard from them.

5 November 2018 Christo finally send the Terms and conditions notifying us him that if all goes well they might be finished with the car on 6 November 2018. We asked Christo about the progress on the vehicle, he actually answered back and said they did a pressure test on the engine and couldn’t find anything wrong and that we owe them R700 so far and that he wants to do another test the following day. 7 November 2018 We phoned Shaun again and after the 3rd time that he called, Shaun answered. We asked him when they are going to phone us so that we can send our representative to be present while they are doing the test as we discussed with him. He said they already did it and that it was our responsibility to ask when the test will be done. Shaun also never sent us the video of the test and also never arranged to get together with us to discuss further options as he promised. They now want to charge us for tests done that we did not agree on. We did not book the car in for work to be done but only left the car there so that Shaun can do the test on their own machine “for himself and that it has nothing to with us. They also admitted that they are fixed the car and all of a sudden since Monday, they said there is nothing wrong with the car…… so what were they fixing? And where did we ask them to fix anything on the car? 19 November 2018 Today the Figo is with Auto Centurion for 3 weeks already. Today, the 16th workday. In the meantime my son is still blocked. According to them, they worked on the injector and that the car is now at a specialist, as they were unable to get the engine running smoothly…… that is now the same workshop Christo referred to as of the highest standard and so is his mechanic. He refuses to say where the vehicle is, and also refuse to give as the vehicle back. (F&WU)(M&OE)