Motorite worst Warranty/Maintenance plan service provider in SA

This relates to my very first claim logged on the 21st of February 2019 and it wasn’t the most pleasant experience, frankly it was preposterous to say the least. My car went in at Mercedes-Benz Bedfordview, due to it having a knocking sound coming from the rear right wheel, the sound is so audible and you can literally feel every shock on the road with even the slightest little bump. To avoid further damages to the vehicle I booked in the vehicle on Monday the 11th to go in the Thursday of the 21st of February. Janice who assisted me by receiving the vehicle and taking notes of the fault that I had reported, she then requested that I go with workshop foreman around the premises to identify the noise with him. After driving around just as I initially suspected the workshop foreman also confirmed that there is a high probability that the sound could be because of a worn out shock absorber. I knew that it is expected that shocks wear out over time as my vehicle was well over 100 000km and it is for this reason I extended my maintenance plan. I had thought I had a reputable company to assist me when I am faced with these types of problems, little did I know that I will be caught up in the middle of a meaningless back and forth with Motorite which is far from the service I expected, a hassle free service that should be offering peace of mind to its customers.

Before sending in my vehicle I called Motorite to get confirmation about what my maintenance plan covers, I was told shocks are covered as long as it is due to wear and tear, which was the case with my vehicle. My car stayed overnight on the 21st of February 2019 as workshop needed to do a thorough check to confirm if there are other components that are affected which they confirm to me the next day, that it was only the shocks that needed to be replaced on the rear due to it being worn out and both right & left rear should be replaced as you can’t replace only one side with new and the other side you keep old one, that I understood but Motorite didn’t. The estimate was than sent to Motorite on the Friday 22nd of February in the morning and Motorite only came back to my service advisor in the afternoon after lunch time around 13:30 pm Friday afternoon, bare in mind we are still in request for authorization stage. Thana the back and forth started, Motorite agent disputed the labour charge and requested a revised quote which the service advisor agreed to do she did the amendment and resubmitted to Motorite at 15:00 pm, Motorite responded to the service advisor by requesting pictures of the worn out shock showing evidence of a leak or damage. I was puzzled by this odd request from Motorite as I did indicate to them that the car is well over 100 000km and they were made aware of that fact, Myself and the workshop foreman had to drive around with the vehicle and we both felt the noise and there surely is a problem with the shock in the rear which is obviously worn out, Mercedes-Benz also had to verify if there are any leaks on the shocks, which they did but found that there were no leaks and they responded by to Motorite, the shocks were simply worn due to mileage and they have done their time, but the Motorite agent wouldn’t accept this fact even after explaining.

Motorite than requested a shock test to be done on the vehicle, Mercedes Benz Bedfordview confirmed that they don’t do shock test in the workshop nor do they have the equipment to perform a shock test. I than asked Motorite the following questions which they could not give me a clear direction:

1. Where do they expect me to do this shock test? If they do not trust Mercedes- Benz dealership’s word. 2. Who should do this shock test? if it has to be conducted through an external service provider/3rd party?, and; 3. Who is liable to pay for this test?,

Motorite responded by saying that if the dealership cannot conduct the test, than it is therefore the client to do it, I responded by saying that it was nowhere mentioned to me that I have to do the running around to try and prove a faulty component in my car with external service providers/ 3rd parties, I always send my vehicle to Mercedes not to external service providers /3rd party which are not Mercedes- Benz approved, they couldn’t even guide me to which external service provider/3rd party I should go to and take my car to do this test. After 2 days of wasted time my car had to be reassembled without the issue being resolved at Mercedes-Benz due to Motorite’s time wasting and crazy requests, I had to take back my vehicle with the faulty shocks feeling that I have been failed by Motorite all along I have being paying monthly premiums without fail but this is the customer experience I get from Motorite.

The following Monday the 25th of February, I decided to go and do the test myself with the hope of getting this resolved and to get my car repaired once and for all, I went to 3 tyre and shock service centres around in my area and they all told me that they don’t have the equipment to do shock tests and that I should go to the testing stations where they do roadworthy test on vehicles, this was never mentioned in the contract.

Now the question is, does it mean that for every instance when a component fails or it is worn on my car, besides the fact that my car went in at Mercedes Benz dealership, the time taken to strip the vehicle and assess the faulty component, verify it compile estimate send it to Motorite, claim disputed which is usually the case, vehicle reassembled with faulty component, than I would still be required to take to my car to a roadworthy testing station to verify that the specific components is worn (I am exposed to a risk of driving a vehicle around with a safety critical component that is worn and also verified by Mercedes- Benz dealership), not only that, I am also obligated to pay the cost to the testing station as they don’t do it for free, all this inconvenience, my fuel and my time off work. I find this to be highly unreasonable from Motorite with the premium that I am paying every single month and have this type of absurd service.

Frustrated as I am I tried to explain my predicament to the supervisor and probing him for a solution/way forward he than resorted to telling me straight up “didn’t you say you wanted cancel the contract on Friday” I said that’s what I felt like doing on Friday because I was not getting any assistance that I needed from Motorite. Without him even trying to find a solution/ a way forward to support me as their customer, they made me aware that they clearly don’t care about their customers and they don’t have the slightest interest in trying to retain their existing customers. It is quite clear to me that Motorite only cares about receiving my monthly payments from customer every month, but when it comes to doing their part they will give you a run-around.

This is by far the worst experience I have had when it comes to dealing with vehicle maintenance and service claims, having said this I hereby request cancellation of the said maintenance plan/contract and request full refund of all debit orders paid since the loading of this contract, if not I will have to resort to seeking legal advice through the consumer protection services.