Non-existing Service

I was in an accident on the 22nd of February 2021, someone slammed into my car from the back. I took my Nissan Micra into Mokar Panel Beaters on the 24th of February 2021, I was told my car would be stripped and the necessary parts will be ordered. I phoned the panel beaters every week to ask what is happening. I received a call on the 24th of March 2021 from the panel beaters to tell me that the tailgate ETA from overseas is the 31st of March 2021. I phoned on the 31st of March 2021 and the panel beaters said they were still waiting for the part to come from Nissan SA. Last week I phoned the panel beaters to find out if the part has been delivered and when my car will be finished and they were still waiting for Nissan SA. Now 8 weeks later, on the 12th of April 2021, I decided to contact Nissan SA myself to find out where the tailgate is. I was told that the tailgate is still not even in South Africa yet. Once I phoned the customer care I spoke to a customer care consultant and he opened a case for my complaint and asked him for a courtesy vehicle seeing as I have been waiting for this part for more than 7 weeks now. He said he would give me a call back once he has followed up on with the parts department on where the tailgate is and he would escalate the order. He later gave me a call @ 10:44 and said that he has escalated the order and he is waiting for the Parts Manager to let him now when the part will arrive in South Africa.

13th of April at 9:19, I phoned Nissan South Africa to follow up with the Customer Care Consultant about the part. He said that he was waiting to speak to the parts manager and get an ETA on the part, he said he would give me a call after he spoke to the parts manager which would be around 10:00 or 11:00. I phoned again at 12:31 to follow up with Customer Care Consultant to see if he could give me any news. Another Customer Care Consultant said he would ask the Customer Care Consultant who open my case to give me a call back seeing as he was on another call. 13:35 I received a phone call from Customer Care Consultant to tell me that he was just waiting for a flight number then he would have an ETA for this part. I enquired about a courtesy vehicle and Customer Care Consultant asked me to send him an email with my grievances. I sent the email at 14:22 and received no reply.

On the 14th of April, I phoned @ 10:24 asked to speak to Customer Care Consultant I was told by 1 of the customer care consultants that he was not in the office. The person asked if she could help and I explained my situation to her again, I enquire whether they have been able to get approval for a courtesy vehicle. The person said if I could give her my vehicle’s VIN number she could try and arrange it for me, the line was bad so she asked if I could email my VIN number to her, she said to send the email with a picture of my vehicle licence disc to her , which I sent at 10:35. She said she would get back to me.

At 12:43 I phoned Nissan SA again, spoke to another Customer Care Consultant, I explained the situation again and asked him to check if he could see what was happening with the part. He said that he could see on the system that the part is in an airport since Friday, 9 April 2021. When I asked him which airport OR Thambo International Airport or the airport in India, he said he would have to check but it might be OR Thambo. I asked him about the courtesy vehicle and he said that Nissan South Africa won’t give me a courtesy vehicle because I was in an accident and according to their policy a customer can only receive a courtesy vehicle while the vehicle is still under warranty, Which my car is, but according to Renier the warranty is suspended as soon as the car is in an accident. He told me to talk to my insurer and my insurer said that the delay with the part is with Nissan South Africa so they should assist me with a courtesy vehicle.

At 13:45 The Customer Care Consultant I dealt with earlier phoned me to let me know that the part is stuck in an Airport in India and they are currently closed down due to covid-19 but he could see that there was a part @ Auto Mall Nissan in East London. He said I should tell my panel beaters about the part in East London.

I told the panel beaters procurement officer and he called Auto Mall Nissan and spoke to the parts manager. The parts manager told him that the part has already been paid and is going to another client. Thus there is once again not a part for my car in the country according to Nissan South Africa.

I have been patient seeing as we are in a worldwide pandemic but 8 weeks is way too long.