Not worth even one star, avoid at all costs

My experience with WeBuyCars was a complete nightmare from start to finish. There is way too much incompetence involved to go into complete detail, but in a nutshell: I went to the PE branch on January 25 with a view to trading my immaculate Suzuki Swift in on something a bit bigger. Finally I spotted the ‘ideal’ upgrade – a Suzuki Baleno. The only negative I could see was that it was the same age as my Swift. This was countered by the fact that the Baleno had less miles on the clock than my Swift. Salesman Dewald Gerber asked if he could help, pointing out that the car had two bald tyres and suggested: 1) That I come back the next day ( a 40 minute round trip for me) and drive an unroadworthy car to have new tyres fitted. 2) That I then paid to put a car that I had not yet bought through a roadworthy. My crime? Being cash buyer - if I had taken a loan on the car all this would have been done for me. Adding insult to injury, as it would have taken four hours to get a valuation on the Swift, it was suggested that I do that online. I did. The price offered was R100,000. With that valuation in mind, I said I would go ahead if it could be arranged for the tyres to be replaced and the Baleno put through a roadworthy by someone at WeBuyCars. This was agreed and I paid the R5,000 deposit. Suspiciously the car was then put through the roadworthy BEFORE the tyres were replaced. I went to WeBuyCars at 2pm on Jan 26 to pick up the car and sat waiting for who knows what and then sat some more. Finally, after 3pm I was told that I would only be offered R70,000 for the Swift which they admitted was in excellent condition. I walked away and subsequently sold the Swift to a more reputable company for the agreed on R100,000. The whole sorry saga does not end there. I asked for my deposit back and was told it would reflect in my account by January 31 or Feb 1. When I inquired about it on Jan 31 the payment had not been made. I asked that it be done that day and Proof of Payment be emailed to me. It wasn’t so again I inquired. Apparently at WeBuyCars and Proof of Payment and money reflecting in my account are one and the same thing. I then pointed out that I wanted a refund for the tyres but was told that would not happen even though I was no longer interested in buying the car. I did not agree to put tyres on a car for someone else’s benefit ie WeBuyCars or whoever eventually bought it. All that had to be done was to increase the price of the Baleno by R2117 and everyone was happy – WeBuyCars, me and whoever bought the car. Since they refused to give me my money back I said I wanted the tyres that I had, after all, paid for. Another drama, but eventually it was agreed that I could collect them on the morning of Feb 1. Surprise, surprise, early on Feb 1, the car had been ‘sold’ and WeBuyCars would now pay me for the tyres as soon as the contract had been signed which would be ‘that day’. I did, however, get my R5,000 back late on Feb 2. By February 8 they were still stalling over the repayment for the tyres. The drama continued. The Baleno was eventually sold on Feb 8 and I was assured by Dewald that the refund was being processed. On Feb 10 he phoned me advising that the company who fitted he tyres would issue the refund and that I should ‘just pop in there’ to arrange it, despite previously assuring me that WeBuyCars would make the refund by EFT as agreed to when I asked for the tyres. Linton Grange tyres is a 40 minute round trip so ‘popping in’ was not an option. Just more ineptitude from We Buy Cars. They sold a car with my tyres on it, but I had to waste time and petrol getting my money back. Be that as it may, the person I needed to deal with at the tyre fitment centre was never available. Eventually it was agreed that I could either go to the tyre fitment centre on the morning on Feb 11 to get a cash refund or wait until who knows when the have the money paid by EFT. By now trusting absolutely no one, I opted for the former, bringing the whole messy saga to a conclusion.