No Assistance and Protection to the Consumer from *****ulent Car Dealerships and Poor Service

Dear Elliot Mohale (Wesbank),

Firstly - The complaint was lodged on 18 May 2023 (Attached is the email), where it stated that response will be received between 5 to 8 business days. Your response was received 9 June 2023 (Attached is the email), this is 21 business days. This is a ridiculously slow response time, and all you did was one phone call to the Dealership in question.

Secondly - You clearly did not read my Letter of Demand to the Dealer, nor have you performed a thorough and valid investigation, and you have not consulted with your legal advisors. I confirmed in the Letter of Demand to the Dealer, that the Dealer did pay towards the repairs of the vehicle as the warranty claim did not pay out, as stated in their policy. This however is not the issue. The issue stated in my Letter of Demand to the Dealer is that: • Even after the repairs of the Injection nozzle, Nox sensor and Lambda sensor (for which I paid a portion of and the Dealership paid a portion of), the vehicle still was non-operational or drivable, because the diesel particulate filter and nitrogen oxide catalytic converters have been removed from the vehicle (the insides of the components have been cut out). Additional software has been carried out to prevent all faults from appearing on the diagnostic (Software of the vehicle has been tampered with). • These ARE MATERIAL LATENT DEFECTS. • This all happened within the 6 months of date of purchase.

So your investigation by merely just calling the Dealer, to obtain a confirmation that the Dealer paid for the repairs, of which this confirmation is already stated in my Letter of Demand, does not constitute a fit and proper investigation of the complaint I lodged with Wesbank.

The Dealer is an approved Dealership of Wesbank, and as such I trust that Wesbank has done the necessary due diligence and compliance checks so that me or any consumer would be comfortable to purchase a vehicle from that Dealership. I am the Customer of Wesbank, and have been for more than 10years. Wesbank should act in the best interest of the Customer and not in that of a potential *****/*****ulent dealer (that is approved by Wesbank).

According to the Consumer Protection Act: “In terms of Section 56(2) of the Consumer Protection Act 68 of 2008 (“CPA”) a consumer may return goods to the supplier, without penalty and at the supplier’s risk and expense, if the goods fail to satisfy the requirements and standards contemplated in section 55, within six (6) months after the delivery of such goods.

The consumer may then request that the supplier either repair or replace the failed, unsafe or defective goods or refund to the consumer the price paid by the consumer for the goods. This decision is the consumer’s to make, provided there is proof of a breach of the CPA. Section 56(2) does not specify that the consumer must give the supplier the opportunity to assess or fix the vehicle.”

The vehicle I bought was defective and failed to comply with the standards contemplated in section 55 of the CPA as set out above, thus the supplier is in breach of the provisions of the CPA. In this case, I may return the vehicle to the supplier, without penalty and at the supplier’s risk and expense, within six (6) months after the delivery of the vehicle. I may then request that the supplier either repair or replace the vehicle or refund the price paid. All proof have been provided and was attached in the my email that included the Letter of Demand to the Dealer.

Therefore Wesbank should have assisted and protected me (Customer/Consumer) from *****ulent business practices, as Wesbank is geared to do so. Your influence is not limited as stated in your email response, according to the agreements I effectively purchased the vehicle from Wesbank (Finance Contract), and Wesbank purchased it from the Dealer (Dealer’s invoice to Wesbank). Therefore Wesbank has the CPA and “the approved Wesbank Dealership stamp” to leverage from.

This poor service delivery is contributing to why the country is such dire and failed circumstances. This matter has caused me severe stress and trauma during this already hard economic times.

Conclusion: I managed to deal with this on my own without the assistance of Wesbank. I had no choice to get the vehicle fixed as this was the only option the Dealer would agree to, even though this was not my choice. Luckily the Dealer did a good job of repairing the vehicle. I am absolutely disgusted and disappointed with your and Wesbank’s service in this matter. I am a loyal customer of FNB/RMB/Wesbank/Firstrand and was once an employee, but after this you have lost a loyal customer, and I will not sing the praises of the brand to my network in the future. So you are welcome to close the matter, and read all about it on hellopeter.

I wish you all the best.