First-time business buyer – unnecessarily difficult and frustrating experience

This would have been Pretoria WISP’s first company vehicle purchase through WeBuyCars, and I genuinely expected the corporate/business buying process to be far more organised than what I experienced.

We initially completed and uploaded all the required company documentation and contacted WeBuyCars regarding a vehicle located at JHB South. I specifically asked whether the vehicle could be transferred to Silver Lakes so that I could physically inspect it before making the final decision and signing for the purchase.

I first dealt with one salesperson who simply stopped responding. After following up and complaining, I eventually managed to get assistance from another salesperson and later Lesego. The finance side actually progressed well — the company went through the credit checks, we obtained pre-approval, and I explained very clearly that I wanted to inspect the vehicle before completing the purchase.

Unfortunately, by the time everything had been sorted out, that vehicle had already been sold. Frustrating, but fair enough.

About a week later I found another vehicle I was interested in and contacted the salesperson from the previous deal. I was then told that he could not assist directly and that I first needed to phone in, generate a lead number and have the lead assigned.

Fine. I did that too.

Before doing so, I specifically asked whether we would have to go through all the paperwork again. I was told no — because the company had already been approved, finance should essentially just need the new vehicle details and the vehicle could then be transferred to Silver Lakes for inspection.

Then the newly assigned salesperson called me and suddenly the process changed completely again. Now there were additional requirements, more steps and more hoops to jump through before they would apparently even consider moving the vehicle.

At that point I gave up.

What makes this even more frustrating is that I contacted a Mitsubishi dealership in JHB South about another vehicle, explained that I was in Pretoria and wanted to inspect the vehicle locally before buying it, and they managed to arrange it without turning the process into an administrative nightmare.

I completely understand that WeBuyCars needs procedures and controls, particularly with financed business purchases. But when a company has already supp**** its documents, completed the credit assessment and obtained pre-approval, surely your own salespeople should at least be able to give the customer one consistent explanation of the process.

Instead, every person I spoke to seemed to have a different version of what needed to happen.

For a first-time company vehicle purchase, this has been an incredibly disappointing experience. I was genuinely prepared to buy through WeBuyCars, but after spending this much time chasing salespeople and trying to understand contradictory procedures, I would rather take my SME business somewhere that actually makes an effort to complete the sale.

The ironic part is that I wasn't asking WeBuyCars to hand me a vehicle. I simply wanted the vehicle transferred to Silver Lakes so I could inspect it before committing to purchase it.

That should not be this difficult.