Lesson learned.

Following my previous post about Pharoah Auto Investments, I was glad to hear someone reach out to me for an amicable course of action to at least meet me halfway with repairs that needed to be done on the car. I might have, however, been glad a little too soon as that entire outreach did not seem to yield any results.

Anyway, I have had an experience with Pharoah Auto Investments, perhaps not the most customer-friendly, but an experience nonetheless.

Having a car for 3 to 4 months and having to spend upwards of R30 000 on repairs alone did not make sense to me and yet I found myself in a helpless state because I operated in good faith and took another man’s word. It gets worse when there is constant communication involving possible solutions but none of them actually materializing.

Following numerous interactions with Pharoah Auto, we found ourselves in a situation where we felt betrayed to say the least because we were not aware of certain problems in our vehicle and once we brought it to the attention of the seller, the best answer we received was “it is out of our hands”.

I then discovered that the Consumer Protection act states that if an item fails to fulfill its purpose within 6 months or a reasonable time of purchase, then the seller needs to either repair the item, replace it or refund the client. The exception to this is if a client knew that a certain problem exists in the item and bought it anyway. This was however not the case with us as we had no idea of what is wrong with the car when we bought it. This of course implies to us that we bought the car “voetstoets”...which I am not certain is legal. But I’m not a legal head so this is just the basic everyday things.

Furthermore, the fact that we have driven 15000 kms in 4 months has somehow been turned and used against us. To that, we were told that the previous owner drove that distance in 12 months instead of 4. So then I suppose the point of that response is to say “the reason you are experiencing the problem is that you drive the car more than the previous owner”...

The other part of this is that there is correspondence that states that the previous owner warned that there is work that needs to be done on the car before selling it but the car was sold against such a warning and unfortunately, I did not know about such problems until after taking delivery of the car. I then received correspondence that detailed what that problem was (and of course it has nothing to do with the Current problem as far as the dealer is concerned - all I’m suppose to do is contact my warranty) and that I will need to pay the balance of whatever extra is charged.

So then how do we begin to believe that the problem we were not told about is the one that caused where we landed now? Do we take the dealership’s word ? Just as we did when the vehicle was sold to us...

I have, since then, realized that this matter has not only strained our relationship with Pharoah Auto but also horribly challenged our finances.

Bottom line ? At the end of the day, it is business as usual for a dealership and, for a customer, a lesson painfully yet very well learned. Thank you Pharoah Auto Investments.