WeBuyCars stuffs up big time and requires a call to CEO to sort it out

Note I am trying to post this again as HelloPeter pulled it citing some bizaare reason about the spelling of the name of the company.

Thu 9 Feb, 2023

RE: Open letter wrt our WeBuyCars purchase and delivery experience

To: whom it may concern

Cc: Faan van der Walt, WeBuyCars (WBC) CEO Henry Harber, WBC Corporate Manager Amara Patel, WBC Corporate Customer Care Bartel Wolmarans, WBC PE Branch General Manager Rudi Bezuidenhout, WBC PE Branch Sales Manager Fabian Rademeyer, WBC PE Branch Sales Executive Bradley ???, WBC PE Branch Junior Sales assistant Nina Meaker, WBC PE Branch Receptionist Rhode Bester, TAC MIOSA HelloPeter.com Land Cruiser Club of South Africa (LCCSA)

Introduction This letter serves to document our experience purchasing and receiving a car from WeBuyCars.co.za (WBC) from our perspective. We fully realise that buying a car over the Internet entails a physical and virtual distance whereby WhatsApp messages, emails and even phone calls do not necessarily reflect a true picture of what happens on the ground. Therefore, up front, we must emphasise that the events described below, actions and feelings associated with them, are our impressions of them all.

Our context We have been saving to buy this Land Cruiser for 15 years. When we met 30 years ago in Arizona, USA, I had a 1976 FJ40 Land Cruiser. We couldn’t bring it over in 1996 when we moved to South Africa because of the wheel column being on the ‘wrong’ side. We’ve driven a 4x4 Toyota Condor for 17 years. When we sold it last month, 2 days later, this maroon Land Cruiser popped up on WeBuyCars. We had been looking for a Toyota Prado or Land Cruiser 76 series for about a year, mostly online and at used car dealerships around Cape Town. After doing that, and also trying to sell our Condor online, both unsuccessfully with very bad experiences all around, a friend recommended we try WeBuyCars. So we did. And our experience has been a sandwich of the thrill of buying a car we had wanted for so long, then frustrating and less than ideal in several significant ways for 3 and half weeks, then the thrill of finally receiving it.

Our experience We found this Land Cruiser online on Sat 14 Jan, 2023. We reserved the car on Sun 15 Jan with a reservation fee paid via Ozow. We did not receive any confirmation of the payment. In fact, the car still showed online as being for sale, not a purchase in progress as we had seen for other cars on WeBuyCars.co.za. After we called the salesman, Fabian Rademeyer, at the PE WBC branch to inform him of this, the car was removed from the website. We asked him how much we needed to pay to fully purchase the car, and we did so on Mon 16 Jan. We paid in full, again with no automated email confirmation informing us of the payment/purchase, no invoice, nothing. We asked about shipping to Cape Town and were given a quote from TAC. We accepted the quote and paid them in full on Tue 17 Jan, sending proof of payment, again, via email, by then to both Fabian and Nina Meaker, whom we find out much later is not a sales executive; she's the front receptionist. Fabian assured us we would receive the car in 8-11 days. That was on Mon 16 Jan.

A *week later*, our friend Brian, who had test driven the car on Sun 15 Jan (and discovered a dead battery prevented it from starting, and Fabian quickly arranged a replacement), saw the car still sitting in the WBC lot. So we called Fabian and Nina and by this time, a third person was involved, a junior sales assistant named Bradley, and told them again, hey, we had paid TAC and the car should be on a transport to Cape Town. By this time, we had filled out and signed a number of forms with WBC via Nina and Bradley. Apparently, a TAC transport did not pick up the car from the WBC depot, and Fabian and Bradley eventually brought it to their depot.

*Another week later*, the car was still sitting at the TAC depot. Rhode Bester at TAC called us Sat 4 Feb (after hours, mind you) and told us WBC PE branch had still not sent the paperwork to enable her to ship the car to us. She recommended we call the Sales Manager Rudi Bezuidenhout, which we did, and he finally called us back on Sunday or Monday and feebly apologised. Meanwhile, we had registered a case with MIOSA the previous Thursday. We also sent a brief outline of the experience to ***, whom we had cc’d on almost all correspondence with the PE branch because nothing was happening! All we got for 2 weeks were automated acknowledgements, and so customer service whatsoever. Amara Patel from corporate customer care finally responded (after nearly 2 weeks of automated replies) and said the car would reach us within 72 hours, by close of business on Monday. We told Rudi all of this, and told both Rudi and Rhode that we think we wanted our money back because we felt like it had been ****** from us. We paid in good faith, and had received . . . nothing!

*A third week later*, on Mon 6 Feb, I called a lawyer for advice and he advised us to a) call WBC CEO Faan van der Walt to explain our situation since we were not finding joy with PE branch nor corporate customer care; b) what was happening was a breach of contract, and not theft; c) we could sue for our money; and d) the best way to get WBC to learn from this experience would be to send this very letter to HelloPeter.com (which we have done).

So I did WhatsApp and call Faan on Mon 6 Feb, and was actually rep**** to by Henry Harber at WBC corporate. And only then did things start to happen. We immediately got a call from the PE branch general manager, Bartel Wolmarans, who apologised and said he'd make a plan. We asked Bartel to supply proof that we own the car, e.g. a license certificate. He did send a photo, and it had WeBuyCars as the owner! We only received the license certificate in Lizanne’s name (and ID #) today Thu 9 Feb, after receiving the car; which is great, except the guys from the local Brackenfell branch of WBC told me that the papers packet should also include a license disc and a plate (with a local code) which they would gladly rivet on for us. Those didn’t come in the courier packet.

We got WhatsApp messages, email and then another call from Rhode on Sun 5 Feb and Mon 6 Feb saying again that she had requested the paperwork from WBC PE branch weeks ago and got no response, which we forwarded to Rudi and Bartel. We didn’t hear from Rudi again. After Henry and Bartel were involved, the car was shipped out asap and arrived in Cape Town on Wed. On Tue we got a call from Fabian, the original salesman, who 3 weeks after payment in full finally took responsibility for the whole situation, and said we would get the car Thu if not Wed, and that he would personally fill up the tank with diesel and have the car delivered to our home.

Well, the car did arrive in Cape Town on Wed 8 Feb. Bartel called again (and please note, it was only after speaking with Henry 3 weeks after paying that *anyone* at WBC called us of their own volition with status - every time was in response to a call, email or WhatsApp from us) and together we agreed that Thu morning was more convenient for us. Fabian called me soon after that call from Bartel and iterated his promises of a full tank of diesel and delivery to our door. We all agreed on 11am Thu.

Early Thu morning, today, the day I am writing this, the car arrived at 8am after Bartel called me again just a few minutes earlier. Wow! What a pleasant surprise (when you receive something that you had not expected). You know, we had so strongly considered asking for our money back, especially if the car were not to arrive, and when Bartel asked me if we did want our money back, I first consulted with my wife, who actually bought the car, and we decided together we wanted our Dream Car. And we are so glad we did. We absolutely love the car.

Well, WBC didn’t fill the tank with diesel; nor received the promised license disc or the license plate with the documentation courier packet. We did, however, get a nice card and bar of chocolate and a quarter tank of diesel. Is that enough to make up for 3 weeks of consumer hell??? I put in 60l today after showing the car to our mechanic (of 15 years) who specialises in Land Cruisers and Toyota 4x4. He thinks the car is in really good shape, and so do we.

Will we use WeBuyCars again? Not now. Will we recommend WeBuyCars to friends and family? Or to colleagues or my students at university? Again, not now. Why must we call the CEO of a large corporation to get decent customer service? We are still frustrated and disappointed when we edit this letter, and tell our story to others. We really hope WBC learns from this experience and figures out how to make people happy when we buy a car from them online; not just the sale, and not just after-sale - I mean *right after sale support* with daily status and seeing the process through in a professional manner. I would love to spend another hour or two writing out suggestions, but . . . you know what? We have spent enough time the last three and a half weeks chasing WBC PE branch to honour their side of the contract. We need to let it go. WBC ought to know how to run a used car service better than us. It’s their job; not ours. We really hope they learn to do a better job with it so experiences like ours will not be repeated for anyone.

Most sincerely, and with good intent to the best of our ability,

Bill and Lizanne Tucker, Happy Land Cruiser owners once more!