Service

<p>I, Alec van Niekerk, owner of Hyundai Sonata 2.0l, was experiencing problems with my vehicle and I took the car to JP Botes for an inspection and fault finding. After his investigation I was told that the engine needs to be overhauled, the reason being there is a slight bearing knock. After my conversation about the repair work, I requested a quotation, to recondition the complete engine.</p> <p>An agreement was reached between JP Botes and myself that he will recondition the engine and I received a quotation via a telephone call. I did not receive an official quote although I kept asking him for an official quote.</p> <p>My vehicle was driven to the residence of Johannes Pieter Botes situated on plot no 96 Hartbee****rt by Mr Botes himself to be for stripped and repaired. I am very wary when it comes to car mechanical repairs. I would like all the mechanical parts to be machined by an authorized engineering company.</p> <p>He suggested having the engine cylinder head and crankshaft resurfaced at JBL Engineering in East-Lynne Pretoria that is owned by his Uncle Johnny.</p> <p>I requested a quote for the same work from JB Engineering in Randburg in order to compare the prices and all seemed to correspond.</p> <p>I requested the banking details of JBL Engineering in order to do an EFT payment. Mr Botes told me that his Uncle don’t accept EFT payments due to ***** and that he needed the cash to collect the already machined parts.</p> <p>I handed him R5000 cash. After handing over the cash to him he handed over a hand-written “order” that looked very suspicious. I queried it and told him that I needed an official order form with the JBL Engineering company logo.</p> <p>I immediately went back to Mr Botes and insisted that he give back the R4500 in order for me to collect the parts in person and that he keep R500 as advance on labour, whereupon his uncle, Billy Stoltz got very upset and said they will collect the parts themselves. He refused to give me back the money saying that it would cause problems for everybody if I collected the parts in person. </p> <p>On the 31/10/2016 when I went to inspect the vehicle I found that the cylinder head was cleaned but it didn't look very professionally done.</p> <p>When I requested the invoice for the repair work, I was told that it was done and the invoice was left on the table outside, and the donkey chewed the invoice.</p> <p>I took a photo of the handwritten "order" form and e-mailed it to JBL Engineering who advised me that it is not authentic. They sent me a sample of how their "order" form should look like.</p> <p>I contact the engineering company that supposedly did the repair work and was told that there are no records of such repair work.</p> <p>I demanded that Mr Botes give back the money and was told that it was spent on repairs. If, they are saying that the machining was done by a reputable engineering company then why can’t they provide the invoice? I just wanted to be certain that my car was receiving the best attention and repair work.</p> <p>I was forced to retrieve my vehicle and parts from the premises of Mr Botes at my own expense.</p> <p>On 5 November I took the parts to JBL where it was supposedly machined and they confirmed that the parts was never done by them and according to what they see also not by a qualified person and chances are that the cylinder head surface is damaged beyond repair</p> <p>They told me that they know Billy Stoltz and that he regularly does things like this and then disappear. According to Mr Botes Billy Stoltz did disappear the day after I handed over R5000 to Mr Botes. Also that he contact them and requested that they help him with such a invoice, whereby they refused and told him that they will not get involved with *****.</p> <p>I am of the opinion that I entrusted my car and money to Mr JP Botes and that the agreement was between him and me. I belief that when I demanded that he give back my money that he were suppose to do it as I am the client and I felt that some injustice was being done to me. He violated the trust that I had in him.</p> <p>I contact Mr Botes again and demanded that he pay back the money to me but there was no response from him. I borrowed the money to repair my car as I have a tight budget and because of this *******ion and possible damage to the parts I am in a situation where I don't have transport and I am not able to borrow more money.</p> <p>I would like to claim the money back from Mr Botes thus I will appreciate it if you can advise me as to what procedures I must follow to lay a claim against Mr JP Botes.</p> <p>Thank you in advance for your assistance.</p>