PEUGEOT CITROEN SOUTH AFRICA IS NOT TAKING SOUTH AFRICAN CUSTOMERS SERIOUS

I am Mduduzi Christopher Sibanyoni, based in Midrand, I am driving Citroen DS5 1.6 Style [147kw], I have been driving this car since 2019 and it is now currently sitting at 100 000km.

I HOPE THIS LETTER REACHES TO THE CEO OR HIGHEST EXECUTIVE MEMBER RESPONSIBLE FOR PARTS IN SOUTH AFRICA.

My experience from the time I bought Citroen DS5 to date has made me conclude that PEUGEOT/CITROEN IS NOT SERIOUS ABOUT its South African Customer Market. This has nothing to do with your employees per ser but THE PARTS MANAGEMENT of Peugeot/Citroen SA Division. This is a management matter that either the CEO or executive member responsible for deployment of parts has to fix.

From the day I bought Citroen to date I always had and faced the same problem: PARTS UNAVAILABILITY. You either have the part not available or have partial parts available. For almost two years I have experienced the same problem (dealing with different dealerships some of which have been closed now such as (Centurion/Kempton Park). I have realized it is NOT THE STAFF YOU EMPLOY THAT IS *********** OR THAT HAS A PROBLEM OR UNWILLING TO HELP CUSTOMERS, this has TO DO WITH MANAGEMENT IN PEUGEOT/CITROEN that is taking the SOUTH AFRICAN MARKET THOROUGHLY FOR GRANTED. This management IS NOT YET SERIOUS TO RETAIN CLIENTS OF PEUGEOT/CITROEN TO THE BRAND.

For couple of times I have ordered parts when need arose to no avail, at some stage I had to have my car parked for the whole month in your now closed dealership at Kempton Park. I had to struggle with TRANSPORT NOT BECAUSE I HAD NO MONEY but simply BECAUSE PARTS WERE NOT available and had to be ordered FROM FRANCE.

MY QUESTION to whosoever in management is in charge of this department: how do you sell cars to the SOUTH AFRICAN MARKET yet not authorize or even ALLOW PARTS to be manufactured here locally? Common business sense is that manufacturing parts locally will minimize the lead time of parts procurement, thus minimize customer inconvenience and eventually lead to happy customer relations which will then translate to INCREASED TURNOVER AS MORE CUSTOMERS WILL BE INTERESTED IN BUYING YOUR CARS.

THE NAKED TRUTH IS THIS: AS LONG AS YOU DON'T FIX THE PARTS ISSUE, FORGET ABOUT INCREASED TURN OVER IN TERMS OF CAR SALES, FORGET ABOUT WINNING SOUTH AFRICAN MARKET AND MAY BE CONSIDER CLOSING YOUR BRANDS INDEFINITELY! This is because if anyone or any customer were to ask me which CAR TO BUY, you will be the last to even mention, I wouldn't recommend YOU TO NOBODY because you treat US SOUTH AFRICAN CUSTOMERS AS A PIECE OF TRASH!

And PEUGEOT/CITROEN management I recommend you drop your sales target from your sales people until you FIX YOUR PARTS UNAVAILABILITY ISSUE. How do you expect your sales people to sell a product you are NOT FULLY READY TO SUPPLY PARTS FOR OR ALWAYS HAVE PARTS missing?

I am speaking almost on behalf of millions of customers. And CHECK YOUR STATS of how many customers you retain who upgrade their cars, you will realize the percentage is so low or extremely poor because many customers AFTER THEIR FIRST EXPERIENCE WITH CITROEN, they start DISLIKING ANY FRENCH BRANDED CAR... they will rather move to BMW, Merc, VW , Audi just to mention a few, because the difference of those brands to Peugeot/Citroen is because they TAKE THEIR CUSTOMERS very seriously. Parts are made available, they have allowed local production of parts to avoid delays in procurement. This is not just me being NEGATIVE, THIS IS A PROBLEM YOU NEED TO FIX BECAUSE IF IT WAS NOT THERE TO START WITH, I WOULDN'T HAVE WRITTEN THIS LONG EMAIL.

I am writing this constructively, hoping it will reach management, be received with an open mind and hopefully, there will be a 180 degrees change.

To prove what I am saying is true, I have been looking for a simple part, the part number is: 6446WF which is water pipe for CITROEN but is also used in some of your other branded cars. I checked this part with your following branches: North Cliff, Sandton and Fourways and guess what? They all do not have this part, It must be ordered in FRANCE (a phenomenon I have experienced couple of times). AND AS A CUSTOMER TELL ME HOW INCONVINIENCING THIS WOULD BE IN TERMS TRANSPORTATION AS I WOULD NOT BE ABLE TO DRIVE MY CAR NOT BECAUSE I DO NOT HAVE MONEY TO FIX IT, BUT SIMPLY BECAUSE PEUGEOT/CITROEN DOES NOT PLAY ITS PART OF ENSURING PARTS ARE IN THE COUNTRY OR AT LEAST MANUFACTURED LOCALLY.

Better consider manufacturing parts locally or continue loosing serious customers, your choice.