Nissan Heidelberg - Poor Service, Lies, Misrepresentation of Facts, Failure to Repay Funds Owed, Failure to Admit Misconduct and Failure to Apologise for Misconduct

I have bought a new Datsun Go from Nissan Heidelberg on 30 January 2018.

I have nothing but regret for purchasing a vehicle from this dealer.

Do not get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with the vehicle.

The problem is the service delivery from Nissan Heidelberg which has been atrocious and is exemplified by laziness, lies, falsehoods, deliberate misrepresentation, failure to deliver on promises and commitments, failure to carry out contractual obligations; all of which are related to the licencing of the vehicle.

When taking receipt of the vehicle on 30 January 2018, I asked the salesman Mr. Jacques de Beer when the number plates and licence of the vehicle will be sorted out? He made a verbal commitment that it will be done the next week.

When following up telephonically with the dealer the following week about the licencing and number-plates, I was informed that they were waiting for the bank and it was "in the hands of the bank". I was told to relax because I have a temporary permit.

The following week (second week since purchase) I was contacted by the salesperson Mr De Beer by whatsapp, who left a message that the licence of another vehicle (Landrover) that I previously sold and which was still on my name was outstanding, and that this prevented the licencing of my new vehicle.

I was out of town at the time and could not resolve this issue and requested whether the dealership could assist me in this regard? I made a request to the dealer, asking if I could to pay the money for the Landrover's licence over to the dealer, in advance, and when they went to the authority to go and licence the new Datsun, pay for both the licence of the Landover and that of the new Datsun?

This was a reasonable request because the dealer was still responsible to proceed to the Ekurhuleni municipal authority to go and licence by Datsun, as per our contractual agreement and administration fees paid to the dealership, as part of the vehicle transaction.

I know and acknowledge that it is not the dealer’s responsibility to take out arrears licences of other vehicles not sold by them, but they could very easily accomplish this, at the same time as taking out the new licence for the new vehicle which they are actually responsible for.

I received feedback from the salesperson, Mr De Beer that they dealer is not allowed to take out licences for other vehicles such as the Landrover in question and that only the owner can do so, as it was not legally allowed. I accepted this explanation at the time, as it sounded reasonable.

However I was later informed by the admin lady Ria from Nissan Bruma, that this was not true, as she informed me that the licencing authority allows another person to take out such a licence as proxy, and that dealers do this all the time.

The salesperson Mr. de Beer was fully aware of this and instead of “going the extra mile” for the client in a difficult position, and who was requesting the assistance of the dealer, rather chose to lie to me - because of general laziness - and say that they weren’t allowed to do it, whilst he full well knew he could have assisted, but chose not to.

Anyway this put me in a position to had to take out another temporary permit on 19 February 2018, at the cost of R350, just to ensure the vehicle was still legal on the road. I later realized this cost would not have been necessary, if the dealer was prepared to help me.

It am not I contesting that it was the dealer’s responsibility to pay for outstanding licence fees. I merely asked whether they could assist me, if I paid them the money and they not only declined, but **** to me as well, to cover-up their laziness.

On 28 February 2018, I took a day off work and drove to the Ekurhuleni Municipal Authority and paid for the Landrover licence and I informed the salesperson Mr. Jacques de Beer of this, and sent him proof of the payment on the same day.

I asked him on the same day, now that that obstacle of the outstanding licence was taken care of, to go ahead and licence my vehicle and to get the number plates – because this was the still dealers responsibility to do, and there was nothing preventing that now. Mr. De Beer undertook that he would take care of it. I have text messages from him, in which he committed in writing to do this.

On 06 March 2018 (one week later) the salesperson Mr De Beer contacted me and **** to me by stating that the car was registered to my name but that dealer could not take out my licence and that only I as owner could do so. He request that I should go and take out the licence disk and the number-plates and pay for it myself and he stated that he would refund me.

This statement from the salesperson Mr De Beer was false. It was a deliberate lie because the dealer was too lazy to fulfill their commitments in terms of licensing and installing number plates on the vehicle and it was easier to lie to the client (me) to get me to do it on their behalf.

I later spoke to two Nissan dealers Ria at Burma Nissan and Brandon at Ontdekkers Nissan and both confirmed that as part of the admin process of buying a new car the DEALER is responsible for this process. They both confirmed that the dealer would have been fully capable of assisting me with payment for the outstanding licence (as proxy) and was only to lazy and false to do this.

I then took another day off work to go through to the Ekurhuleni Municipal Authority from Roodepoort (my place of work). I paid for petrol from Roodepoort to Kempton Park (R100), the licence itself (R100) and paid for number plates (R295) and even paid for fitment (R75). This is not taking into account the cost of unpaid leave day from work approximately (R1300). The total cost to me because of this dealer’s falsehoods, laziness and poor service was over R2000!

Now I only submitted a claim for the direct costs of R495 (consisting of R100 petrol, R100 Licence and R295 number plates) to the dealer on Monday 12 March 2018 with proof of expenditure. Mr. de Beer confirmed receipt of the claim and committed to get it paid to me a.s.a.p.

A week later on Monday 19 March 2018 the claim was not yet paid and I again followed up with the salesperson Mr De Beer, inquiring when my claim was to be repaid. I got vague answer from him that it was with “Head Office” and then I knew he was lying to me again, and therefore I felt I had no option other than to register a formal complaint with Nissan, which I then did on the same day.

This complaint was processed by Nissan, and I got a reply from the Dealer principle on the same day Monday 19 March 2018.

However, instead of receiving an apology from him, I was appalled to see that he would actually dare to defend his dealership and the actions of Mr. De Beer, focusing just on the just one thing that he could actually use in his defense, and arguing that it was not the dealers responsibility to pay arrears licences and wanting to lay the blame for the entire problem on that issue.

He failed to acknowledge the lies and actions of his subordinate and failure of the dealership to licence my vehicle after the arrears licence was taken out, failure to keep to commitments, failure to speak the truth and act ethically. He only committed to pay the amount owed to me by the next working day.

I then responded with another email that I demanded acknowledgement of the poor service as detailed above, and that I wanted to receive a full unreserved written apology from this dealer for all of the above issues and immediate refund of all the money owed to me, or that I will escalate this to the MD of Nissan SA, and failing that will register formal complaints with the NCC, CSGO, etc and with social media like Hello Peter.

I got another email from Mr Jooste merely again stating that the dealer is not responsible for paying arrears licences and that he would deal with Mr De Beer internally. He stated he would pay my claim by the next day, and he apologised “if I he misunderstood me”.

*****.?

This response from Mr Jooste was so insufficient, it is actually a further insult to me. He failed to apologise for or acknowledge anything! But only for if he misunderstood me? The arrogance of the man is staggering.

Then to add insult to injury my claim got paid two days later and the dealership only paid R395 of the R495, believing they are justified to decide what was elements of my claim worthy or not?

I suffered direct damages of over R2000 because of their misrepresentations, falsehoods and poor service and they would not even pay my full claim of R495?

I am regretting the purchase of my vehicle from these people so much, as they are the worst example of what could be wrong with a vehicle dealership. They are as ******* and false and arrogant –just the worst example of what a vehicle dealer should be.

My advice to anyone after this experience is the following: DO NOT BUY ANY VEHICLE FROM NISSAN HEIDELBERG OR YOU WILL REGRET IT! Just like I am regretting it now.