CONSUMER FORUM
Powerful result for column readers
YOUR Power Report of February 14 on pre-reporting of car sales leading to early expiry of motor plans refers. It was with relish that I read the successful outcome you obtained on behalf of those vehicle owners. I faced the same problem with Volkswagen South Africa and it declined to assist. I bought a used 2011 VW Touareg with a five-year or 100 000km maintenance plan, which should, at its earliest, have expired on December 31 2015. When a VW dealership in Cape Town submitted a claim for repairs on December 8, it was told the plan had expired on October 28. Volkswagen South Africa refused to pay and I had to fork out R15 000. — the repairs. I have been an avid reader of the Sunday Times for the last 30 years and this is the first time I have had to resort to the newspaper for assistance. The Power Report is widely read, certainly holds sway and keeps corporates accountable for their business practices. My thanks and appreciation. are independently owned franchises and we are unable to control all they do in the course of normal trading. Where a dealer advises us of a pre-report, we do adjust the warranty dates to align with the date of sale. If the dealer does not advise VWSA and a claim is initially not honoured as a result, VWSA verifies the date of sale, refunds the customer and addresses the matter with the dealer. In Mr Basson’s case this was not done, and regretfully it was not resolved correctly as the required investigation was not conducted. This resulted in Mr Basson’s warranty claim being rejected. We have since apologised to Mr Basson and will refund him. Our customer interaction centre has taken this very seriously and put procedures in place to ensure that concerns of this nature are avoided going forward.
I am ecstatic at the results that Megan Power has achieved with VWSA after its flat refusal [in writing from the office of the managing director] in January to reimburse me for
Divorcées aren’t all an insurance hazard
YOUR column on different insurance premiums for single, married and divorced people (Power Report, March 13) refers. I am a divorcée aged 50. I don’t party or drive at night other than to Bible study. I don’t have a history of accidents. I don’t know why all divorced people are tarred with the same brush by insurers. The extra rands the insurer charges me monthly could make a difference to my dependants. If I had money I would challenge this. Insurance companies always have a way of draining money from our pockets. — Harold Basson, Centurion
Pre-reports are not unknown in our industry and, while we actively discourage this practice, there have been times where this has occurred in our network and may occur again. Our dealers
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Anonymous, by e-mail