Shocking Service from Bidvest McCarthy Toyota Ballito

We have received the most shocking level of Service from Toyota Ballito and will never recommend them to anyone in future.

Our Toyota Prado was dropped off at The Toyota Ballito Branch for its 150 000km service on the 14/04/2019 with an indication from Toyota that the service should take a day and the vehicle should be ready for collection that afternoon or early the next morning. My husband and I were away on holiday so Fly and Park, an airport parking service provider, dropped the vehicle off at the service center for us. Fly and Park were told that they would be contacted later that day when the vehicle was ready for collection. Fly and Park was not contacted on Thursday and Friday was a public holiday. Fly and Park contacted Toyota Ballito on Saturday morning to ask when they could collect the vehicle. They were told that nobody was available at the service department and they would be called back. They were not called back so they phoned again on Saturday afternoon and were once again told that nobody was available and that they should leave a message and Toyota would get back to them. Once again they were not contacted.

The Toyota was closed on Sunday, and Monday was a public holiday. My husband and I had organised that we collect our vehicle on Monday afternoon from Fly and Park as we had to drive from King Shaka to Manguzi (four hours away) so that my husband could be back at work at the hospital (he is a doctor). We were informed by Fly and Park on Monday morning that our vehicle was still at Toyota and that they were unable to contact them. I spent the entire morning looking for a non existent emergency contact number with no luck. My husband and I therefore had to make arrangements to get an uber to a bnb for the evening, an unplanned for expense.

We contacted Toyota Ballito on Tuesday morning and were then told that the vehicle was ready but that the batter was dead and needed replacing. There is no way that this was possible as when we dropped the vehicle off the battery was fine, and the vehicle automatically tells us when the battery is running low. We told them that we did not have time to wait for them to replace the battery and that we were coming to collect it and would sort the battery out at a later stage if it was an issue.

When we arrived at the Toyota the battery was still 'charging'. My husband went to go and put our luggage in the car while we waited only to find that they were still putting oil in the engine, something that should have been done as part of the service on the Thursday before. After we had left the service center we also noticed that the battery of the vehicle remote had not been replaced and was still dead even though we were charged for the new battery.

Half way through our four hour drive home I wanted to check something in the vehicles service booklet. I went into the glove compartment only to find that the service booklet was not there. I called Toyota asking them where it was. They said they would get back to me. They didn't so after an hour or so I called again and the women, Precious, said she was still looking for it but that she didn't think that it had been in the vehicle. I personally checked the service booklet when making the booking for the service so I know that the service booklet was definitely in the vehicle. Regardless, they would have needed to stamp the service booklet once the service was completed and if it was not there we should have been informed. To add insult to injury, when we got home we also noticed that the vehicle was still telling us that it required a service, so Toyota have not reset the service settings either.

We have had no issues with the vehicles battery since we returned home and we suspect that Toyota was using the excuse of a dead battery to buy themselves the time to do the service of the vehicle on the Tuesday morning, a service which should have been completed the previous Thursday. This is obviously hugely *********, and also worrying as we now don’t know what part of the service was actually done.

We have been in contact with Toyota Customer Care and laid a complaint. However, the Ballito branch is sticking to their story that the service booklet was not in the vehicle and we have not received so much as an apology for the inconvenience and stress that they have caused us.

We took our vehicle to Toyota under the impression that they are a reputable company and that we would get the best level of service. We were obviously hugely mistaken and will never be using a Toyota Service Centre to service our vehicle again.