Appalling & Unacceptable Customer Service

I am writing this review in the hopes that the exceptionally poor and unacceptable customer service I experienced from KIA Sandton will be adequately addressed.

It has taken KIA Sandton over 6 months to provide me with a spare key for a KIA Sonet which I purchased from the dealership in December 2022. Since then, I’ve been misled, blatantly **** to, ignored and completely messed around by the sales person (Philp Nagel) in my efforts to follow up and get the spare key I should have been given when I purchased the vehicle. It appears as though once the sale was concluded, there was little to no concern or care in ensuring I was respectfully and fairly handled in ensuring I received the outstanding spare key.

According to the global KIA website KIA puts the customer first and promotes a customer-driven corporate culture by providing the best quality and impeccable service with all values centred on its customers. This has certainly not been my experience.

After struggling to reach anyone of significant authority via phone calls to the dealership, I sent a detailed email regarding my ordeal to the dealer principal and was assured by the New Car Sales Manager (Sphe Mbatha) that I would receive a response by Monday 19th June which as of publishing this review, I am yet to receive.

Sphe Mbatha’s attempts to resolve my outstanding spare key was handled in a sloppy half-hearted manner where I had to follow up and continued to receive poor customer service. I pointed out several times the poor customer experience, lack of accountability and lack of apology from the dealership. I don't believe I was taken seriously and I certainly did not experience impeccable customer service that the KIA website speaks of.

In the end after further miscommunication around the receipt of my spare key, I received a half-hearted verbal apology without any clear indication of the corrective action to be taken or compensation for everything I've been put through over the last 6 months, leaving me to walk away with a bat taste of my overall KIA experience, which I pointed out to Sphe Mbatha, who did not seem the least bit concerned that he was parting ways with an unhappy customer.

I am very happy with my car and will therefore need to engage KIA for after sales service etc hence I want to ensure that my dissatisfaction is addressed adequately, the KIA employees in question receive the necessary feedback & training to rectify their unacceptable behaviour and that no one else has to suffer such an unacceptable customer experience from KIA again.