Don’t trust webuycars ‘A-rated’ vehicles, and don’t expect much from their customer service

I purchased a Fiat 500 from the George branch and took delivery of the vehicle on 12/09/2025. I had to take a bus from Cape Town to George to collect the vehicle and drive it back to Cape Town the next day. I might note that the Vehicle was marked as A-rated and on the DEKRA report pretty much everything was marked as ‘good’, ‘very good’ or ‘excellent’. This is actually the reason why I bought this particular car - as I could not afford a car which would come with costly mechanical repairs down the line.

However, 10 days later, I ran into the first issue - the sunroof (which was marked as being in ‘very good’ condition) would not close. In an attempt to close the sunroof and protect my vehicle from the weather etc, I manually closed the sunroof of the motor - but this resulted in a completed electrical failure of the car. I was advised to have it towed to an electrician for inspection (which unfortunately due to availability of the electrician had to happen only 1 week later). It was there that they closed the sunroof for me and advised me the electrical failure was caused by a faulty battery - and I would need a new battery in the near future. The car’s battery was charged and I took the car back on the 01/10/2025 on the premise that I would need to be prepared for it to fail at any moment. It is notable that the agent who was handling my claim, Jantjies, at the George branch had an incredibly bad attitude and actually dodged calls from both me and the electrician.

In a ditch attempt I went to the Richmond branch for some advice or assistance. The agent I spoke to was very friendly and sympathetic and assisted me to open up a complaint online. Within 48 hours I had been requested to provide various details pertaining to my vehicle and the issues. After I provided these details, the response time was incredibly slow - 3 to 4 days to get a response that an agent, Amarah, would be handling my case and reach out to me. This, she never did. I had to handle all of the communication from my side as my emails were not being responded to, and in addition if I would call and Amarah was busy, she would promise to call me back - and never call me back.

Not even a week later, the clutch (also marked on the DEKRA report as being in ‘very good’ condition) on my vehicle failed. I had my car towed to my mechanic in the evening, and advised webuycars the very next morning. This thankfully they decided rather swiftly that they would be covering the costs for, however, it has been a lengthy process. Every day that I do not have this vehicle I am spending money on Ubers - which has come up to a total of almost R4000 by now, in the time that I have not had my vehicle. Despite me calling and asking for a resolution this process has been dragged out immensely - it has now been over a week and my mechanic has not yet been paid in order for the repairs to commence. Every time I call the call centre, my agent Amarah is on a call, and promises to call me back. This has by now happened a total of 6 times and not once has she called me herself. The times that I have managed to get through to her on the phone, she promises me escalations and promises to send various information via email, but to no avail.

In the mean time, though, she did manage to inform me that webuycars will not be covering the cost of a replacement battery because it is a wear and tear item. So essentially they claim 10 days is enough for me to completely wear down the cars battery - shocking. If the battery failed in 10 days, that means the defect was present at the time of sale. Webuycars is actually in direct contravention of my consumer rights by refusing to cover the cost- and unfortunately they are clever enough to know that customers will at some point give up the fight, as the Motor Industry Ombudsman of South Africa has an average handling time of 3-6 months. Very sneaky way to go against customers rights and give them no option but to accept it.

The sunroof for now remains unrepaired as the electrician is only able to give me a quote once there is a properly functioning battery in the vehicle. This will now have to be another couple days in the future that I do not have my vehicle.

I would have NEVER bought from webuycars if I knew this would be the vehicle/service I would receive from them. It is absolutely shocking and has left me in severe financial difficulty following all my expenses.