...company says it's committed to honouring warranty
A disgruntled Marabella resident is calling on car dealer Southern Sales Limited to do the honourable thing and change the defective vehicle he purchased three years ago.
Marcus Stephen said he bought a new KIA Cerato in April 2014 but began experiencing problem with the vehicle with the odometer reading only 800 kilometres.
“I observed rust spots on the roof while the paint on the spoiler began fading. When I reported my observations to the sales representative he told me to take a file and file out the rust.
“At 3,000km a knocking sound began emanating from the engine so I took the vehicle back to the service department where they said they did a series of diagnostic tests and could not detect any problems.
“Then at 33,000km the timing chain tensioner, master control window switch and the steering rack all went bad. I again returned the vehicle to them, this time for a period of 14 days and when I collected it I was still getting a sound from the steering rack although they claimed it was changed.
Stephen said the service department refused to show him the steering rack they claimed they replaced while the master control window switch had to be changed no less than three times.
“To make matters worse, they broke one of the door finishers while servicing the vehicle and whenever I ask about having it repaired they kept telling me they didn't have the parts to do the job. And on the three previous occasions I took the vehicle to have repairs done it always came back with dents and scrapes on it,” Stephen said.
He said his woes with the vehicle continued as the timing chain tensioner and lifters were changed at 59,000km but the sound from the engine grew louder.
Replace my vehicle
Stephen said on May 30 while driving the vehicle it began bucking and jerking before shutting down. He said he contacted Southern Sales and was told to bring the vehicle in but couldn't do so until June 13 as he works offshore.
“My complaint of the most recent problem was verified by one of the servicemen who test drove the vehicle. I was given the assurance that the problem could be rectified in one day, yet as we speak the vehicle is still at Southern Sales while I have to be driving an old car they gave me to use in the interim.”
Stephen, who produced a series of email communication between chief executive officer Imtiaz Ahamad, service manager Richard Suphal and himself, said he's paying a bank loan for a new vehicle that has spent more time parked up at Southern Sales than he has had access to.
He said he has had difficulty in getting a response from Ahamad with regards to his request to have the vehicle replaced.
“When I finally got to speak to him on the phone last month he said he's not going to respond to my question with regards to their policy on changing defective vehicles.
“I don't want that defective vehicle anymore, I want it replaced with one that is actually road worthy, which is what I am paying for and what I should have had in the first instance.”
Southern Sales committed to honouring warrantyWhen contacted, Ahamad told Express it would be difficult to respond to Stephen's claims and the long history of the issues involved over one phone call.
However, he said: “As far as I recall it's just on one occasion I did not reply to an email from him but there are other people authorised to do so and they did.
“Yes, we have had some problems with the car and we have tried to rectify those issues as best as possible and in the best interest of the customer. We are still trying to resolve those issues with the vehicle.
“At times we have been unable to contact Stephen because of the nature of his work but we did have a very amicable meeting once, which went quite well. I believe his disappointment stems from the fact that it did take a while to have the issues dealt with.
“Where we are now is that we're just down to one matter that needs to be resolved, so Stephen should have his vehicle pretty soon,” Ahamad said.
He maintained that Southern Sales remains committed to honouring the warranty on its vehicles by repairing or replacing any defective parts during the warranty period.
However, Stephen remains firm in his call for the vehicle to be replaced, saying, “I will have suffered a tremendous and unfair loss if they do not replace that vehicle and I question if that is how they treat their customers.”
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