The worst VW branch (Wonderboom) that nearly ****med me R19000 with false diagnostics that i paid R1700 for.

02 July 2025 around 10am while driving my car POLO 1.0 TSI 2019 model, Reg JF99BJ GP. i started hearing rattling loud sounds from the engine and i packed the car aside because as a woman i did not know the cause and did not want to damage the car incase it may be something serious. I then phoned VW Wonderboom Branch because i trusted them and bought my service plan there and i have also been taking my car for the past 5 years for service yearly at their branch. I called the branch and asked the lady who answered if maybe the problem was the cambelt, asked if they ever changed the cambelt during service intervals because maybe it broken and the lady said no it is usually changed on 120 000km, She then said instead i should bring the car in for diagnostics which is R1700 and then they will give me a quote of the repairs afterwards and it will be my choice if i fix or not. On that note i did not have a problem, phoned my insurance to assist and the car was then towed to VW Wonderboom branch and we arrived around 12h00pm and the car was offloaded from the tow truck and parked at the back parking of their workshop and we were told the workshop is fully booked for the day and they can't diagnose same day we will get the quote tomorrow. Then me n my husband left the branch and went home.

This is how the situation begun, the security guard allowed to vehicle to be towed inside the workshop then asked that us to proceed to the admin office. We went to the admin office to book in the vehicle we asked who's responsible to receive the vehicle because normally we know the vehicle gets inspected upon arrival then as a client you will sign to acknowledge the terms and conditions, but none of that happened. We then proceeded to the admin office no one is attending to us even though they could see the vehicle towed inside the workshop. We then ask for assistance, finally someone a Lady is assisting us but seems to be irritated because we ask questions about how their process is working, instead of telling us that she doesn't know or understand and refer us she just looks at us and continue with her work as if we don't exist in her face.We then asked the lady who was creating the jobcard who is responsible to book and inspect the car she responded that the security guard will do it so we asked him to do it before we leave and he said he is busy we should just leave the car there and he will attend to it assuring us he is going to use a work phone to take pictures and videos it is linked to their system.

Fortunately I remembered Nhlanhla the service advisor could also assist since he was working close by. We spoke to him then he asked if the lady assisted us and we responded by saying no she didn't, only to find out she did print the diagnostic booking invoice but didn't care much to hand it to us to proceed. The service advisor says to us your vehicle is now booked in for diagnostic and asked us to send him the video we took of the problem but it will only be diagnosed the following day because they have many vehicles booked in for the day. He then let us sign for the booking invoice and tell us he will be in contact the following day. Later on the very same day, we received a call from the branch a gentleman called to say the vehicle has been diagnosed and the problem with the vehicle is a broken camshaft pulley and it must be replaced.

During the call around 15h00pm we asked what could have caused the problem, he doesn't know because he's not a mechanic but it might have been due to wear and tear according to him. Then another question was that was the cambelt change done to the vehicle during major service, he responded to say no they only do that at 120000km or 8 years. So we getting confused by this kind of feedback, since the camshaft is broken why is the cambelt still intact and the amount we need to pay is R19k. It is now late they are about to knockoff for the day, we then request that can we please get the invoice and images/video of the damage before closing for the day. No invoice or images received on the 02/07/25.

On the 03 July 2025 my husband went to the dealership around past 10 in the morning to go and check how far did they go since they diagnosed the vehicle. To his surprise upon arrival, the gentleman who will assisting him is not the usual service advisor, okay no problem. As we proceed he asked him why was the invoice and images/video not sent to us yesterday upon request, he responded to say their system was having technical problems that's why he couldn't load documents. He then printed a hard copy of the quotation and give it. So now this is becoming unsual, why did they rush to call us previous day? Where are the images of damaged parts? Suddenly mechanic is not around but he will send them. Then we paid the R1700 requested because the vehicle was diagnosed but where is the report that shows what is the problem? The gentleman said the is not report for mechanical parts broken only if it was electrical fault, so they only do visual diagnostic, he say. So now being curious even more because even when we brought the car tge was no alert of engine light fault, fairly asking can we go check vehicle he agrees. They then went to the vehicle and discovered that the cover has been removed were the camshaft and cambelt is positioned, to his surprise nothing seems to be broken only one ***** was loose on the camshaft pulley. After doing their visual inspection got curious why the ***** was loose and the cambelt housing had black fine dust, the cover was taken out for my husband not see it because the problem will be easily spotted and saw the technician was uneasy when my husband did not ask any further questions but suspected foul play on that quote of R19000 then we decided to tow the vehicle out of the workshop because clearly the is nothing wrong with camshaft only one ***** needs to be tightened that's all. Then when my husband got home he opened that cover and tightened the ***** (see attached images). Then vehicle was starting normally just that loose ***** rubbing against the cover that was a problem.

The diagnostic fee was paid for them to release the vehicle, although it was wrongly diagnosed.