Pathetic Service from Ethekwini McCarthy Toyota Durban North

, I have taken my vehicle (2014 Toyota Fortuner Licence ND 650175) in to Bidvest McCarthy Toyota Durban North on 26/04/2022. Upon arrival at 8:15 am I was greeted by a Service Advisor (Shanene Davids), I did advise that my vehicle was in for the 180000km service and my hooter was working intermittently and this was only after the service team at the same Dealership had replaced the steering or driver airbag due to a recall and for it to be checked.

During the course of the day I received a call from Shanene (13:38pm) who notified me that the service team was about to work on my vehicle, I once again reminded her about the hooter, she advised me not to worry she will have it checked. I received a second call (15:48) where Shanene advised that my vehicle was still being worked on but in the interim she would dispatch a driver to fetch me and when I arrived my vehicle would be ready, at this point I reached the point of begging for my hooter to be checked and was told not to worry as she did advise the technician.

When I arrived (17:00) at the dealership I was greeted by Shanene, she went over the components of the service and then advised that the spiral cable on my vehicle had to be replaced, I did explain to her that this only happened after the airbag was replaced on the steering wheel due to a recall by Toyota. Shanene insisted that the airbag replacement would have not effected the cable and even went further to stop a Service Technician to ask if the cable could be effected with the change of the airbag which he did agree with her that the cable is not interfered with when changing the airbag and that the cable is located only in the steering column and not on the top.

I asked Shanene for an estimate on the spiral cable as a technician who I am certain has been properly trained and works with these vehicles on a daily basis said that the cable could have not been damaged prior. To my shock and horror the quotation was in excess of R7000. I had proceeded to leave the dealership only to discover that my vehicle had not been cleaned on the inside, I am aware that this is a courtesy service however it plays into one of the factors of me taking my vehicle in for service at this specific dealership, Shanene did remedy the situation by advising that we would be given a car wash voucher to have the vehicle cleaned again at a later date.

After some research I have discovered that the cable has to be disconnected from both the airbag and hooter to replaced the airbag, this makes me question if I did make the right decision in taking my vehicle to this specific dealership for service for the past 3 services (from the time I had purchased the vehicle) and if the work carried out was done so by trained professionals.

The fact that my hooter is working intermittently may not be a major issue for some (as seen in the nonchalant attitude by the Service Advisor in having the hooter checked and notifying me in advance of the problem with it) but it is a major concern of mine, the hooter is used as a warning device which can lead to a catastrophe should it not work at the right time furthermore if the cable is compromised my airbag might not deploy which would in turn endanger my life even more so now after the floods and disaster that we have encountered in Durban the recent weeks.

I would be highly grateful if this complaint would be treated with the utmost urgency as I am currently using the vehicle endangering others and myself due to mistakes made by Bidvest McCarthy Toyota Durban North or even faulty equipment supp**** by Toyota.

To date I have not received a response from the dealer Principal who I have emailed personally instead a service advisor called to ask me to bring my vehicle through (At my cost with diesel prices being ridiculously high at the moment) to run a check on the vehicle as was done when my vehicle was in the dealership. Alternate arrangements have been made for the service technicians to come to me to have the vehicle checked.