********* Conduct

Took my vehicle in for an inspection for which I was charged R971. When I collected the vehicle I was told told that they did not find fault with the car other than a cracked alarm remote. I was puzzled by this since I handed in a perfectly intact remote to Shirley in the service department this morning. At this point I was made to wait 15 minutes while Shirley walked all over the dealership trying to find my car keys and remote. When she eventually found them and handed them to me the remote cover was broken and had been split right in half. I informed her that the remote was not in that condition when I gave her the keys that morning. She discussed this discrepancy with the workshop employee who insisted that the remote was not broken by the dealership. Someone working at Kia Northcliff is lying. When I reported the incident to the Dealer Principal, Anthony Bothma, he initially seemed unhappy to hear about the matter and said that they would replace the remote and have it checked by a fitment centre but that I would need to bring the car back in for this to be done. In the meantime Shirley had found another remote lying in an office somewhere and got the workshop employee to replace the cover. When I wanted to leave the premises the car alarm kept going off when I put the key in the ignition and the boot light kept activating. I called Anthony Bothma to investigate the matter before leaving and queried why the workshop didn't pick up the apparent alarm wiring fault during the inspection. The same workshop employee sated that the boot light had not been on during the inspection. At this point Anthony clearly signalled that he was becoming irritated with, and disinterested in, my dissatisfaction and lack of confidence in what I was being told in view of the afternoon's events. He started to become argumentative rather than apologetic and customer focused; brusquely asserting that "yes my confidence was eroded by what had happened but that it will be rebuilt when I bring it in for them to have an alarm fitment centre check the wiring". Save to say that he would refer the matter to the manager when they returned to work after the weekend, there was no apology for the appalling dishonesty by someone who works at that dealership or recognition of how material that breach of trust was, in fact the response was blasé; the reasonable imputation being that this sequence of events was not especially out of the ordinary. Other than an irritated remark about knowing that I must be frustrated, there also was no appreciation of the fact that dealing with this profoundly ********* and unprofessional conduct took another hour of my time and would require that I should have to return my vehicle to the same dealership on another day. While Mr. Bothma is clearly not concerned that there has been a complete break down in trust in Kia Northcliff and that I am disinclined to have any further dealings with that outfit I will, nonetheless, take this opportunity to inform Kia that trust will not be re-established in the context of what I have just described.