Very disappointing service

I’m at a loss for words to describe my disappointing experience of purchasing a vehicle at the Midstream outlet of We Buy Cars (WBC). All I can say is that it was FOUR DAYS OF UTTER HELL.

I was initially excited to write a review of the place after my first day there. In spite of my disappointment with aspects of the service, I was still highly impressed by the size of the outlet, volume of inventory, and pricing of the vehicles. Taking the shortcomings in service that I had experienced into account, I had thought I’d give it a 4-star rating and looked forward to experiencing improved service in the purchasing process. But sadly, it was not to be. Instead, things were to get worse. Much worse.

The total experience was a comedy of errors in every department, from sales to finance to technical services. What was worse, I didn’t get the impression that management was overly concerned by it all. I’ll describe my experience on each day.

Day 1: After being shunted from pillar to post by sales execs while requesting assistance, I ended up at the unmanned helpdesk searching for a vehicle on the desk-mounted monitors. I was saved from my despair by a young sales exec named Jaden who approached me, asked if he could help and eventually assisted me to pick the ideal vehicle for my needs. His excellent service was in stark contrast to what I’d experienced earlier and left me looking forward to concluding the purchase.

Day 2: I was at the dealership just after 9am and excited at the prospect of driving off with the bakkie I had picked. I expected I would be out of there by lunchtime so I could get a canopy fitted as well as a valet clean before driving to Durban the next day. I even called the vehicle rental company to come to the dealership and take the vehicle I had been using, a move I was soon to regret. By midday there was still no sign of my vehicle. I enquired with Jaden and was informed they had been supp**** with the wrong windscreen earlier and had to wait for the right one to be delivered (the initial windscreen had a chip).

Then the vehicle was taken to the road worthiness centre, which itself took a few hours. Once the vehicle was back, there were delays with processing the invoice. Suffice to say that I left the dealership with the vehicle at 17:50, but without the tracking unit, which would now have to be fitted the next day. An entire day spent warming the benches in the WBC coffee shop, and the process was still not complete. More significantly, I would now need to extend my stay in Jo’burg by a day, keeping me in Gauteng longer than planned and adding to the cost of the trip.

Day 3: I had been told the fitment of the tracking unit, done on the premises, would take an hour or less. I arrived at 10:30, still harbouring hopes of fitting the canopy and doing the valet the same day. To cut a long story short, at 14:15, with the vehicle still unattended, I escalated the matter with sales management. I was informed there was only one technician that day, hence the delay.

The manager I spoke with left his office to go to the Netstar booth. I assumed it was to expedite the matter of my vehicle. I was wrong. He didn’t come back to me with any feedback and there was no immediate change to my situation. Around 15:45, Jaden came to me to say that the technician had asked if I could give him an hour longer. Apparently he was only then starting to work on the vehicle.

In the meantime, because I had not received the invoice for the purchase by email the previous day as promised, I had asked Jaden on my arrival to ask the finance official to please send it to me. By 12pm the invoice had not been sent, and I went to the finance office to make the request myself. The lady promised to send it at that moment. By 15:30 I had still not received the invoice. I asked Jaden if he could remind the lady. The email eventually came through at 15:53 - and some crucial details on it were incorrect. I again went myself to the lady to request the corrections. She promised to make the changes and email it to me. It never arrived in my inbox.

I eventually left the dealership at 17:11, but the WBC fiasco was far from over. As I parked the vehicle outside a restaurant to get something to eat, I noticed a tapping sound coming from the dashboard, which had not been there before the vehicle had the tracking unit fitted. I called Jaden about it and we agreed that I would bring the vehicle to be looked at the following morning. This would now cause a delay in my departure time for Durban, but it couldn’t be avoided.

Day 4: I had learned my lesson about the delays at WBC and so I started by having the canopy fitted. Once that was done, I drove to the dealership. This time, my wait was an hour and a half and after all that, the technician couldn’t find the source of the problem. Jaden and I agreed that I would drive to Durban and inform him should I experience a further problem on my way there or after I got home. At 14:15, I finally started on my way home, and I got to Durban without incident.

On reflection, I considered some of the inconveniences I suffered which included: * Missed appointments in Jo’burg; * Extra expense in accommodation and meals; * Extra time away from home; * Inability to attend to other work, including a full day of work lost; * Delayed start to a 6-hour trip; * Major frustration!

Two things I noted: * My experience may have been extreme (I hope it was), but it was not unique; there were a number of other people I heard express dissatisfaction over some aspects of the service received, or who were subjected to long waits at the dealership; * There was no sense of urgency or outrage among the staff or management when a client was unhappy. It appeared to me that it was simply taken as the way in which things worked there.

We Buy Cars is arguably the country’s top seller of preowned motor vehicles. However, judging by my experience, it seems that the company could be falling victim to its own success. Its market dominance seems to be giving rise to a blind spot in regard to customer service, and the company is allowing shoddy service to become a part of its culture. This is unfortunate, especially with many other dealerships springing up and mimicking the WBC business method. Poor customer service is sure to see prospective and existing clients vote with their feet and wallets and opt for the competition.

All in all, a very disappointing experience for me.