Katlego Sekhu
The National Consumer Commission (NCC) recently welcomed the National Consumer Tribunal (Tribunal) decisions against Wingfield Motors and Sandton Repo Cars.
This comes from consumer complaints investigated by the NCC, which revealed contraventions of the Consumer Protection Act (CPA) by both suppliers.
Wingfield Motors (PTY) Ltd, t/a Best Price for My Car in the Western Cape, was found to have contravened sections 55(2)(a) to (c) and 56(2) of the CPA. The case involved a consumer who purchased a second-hand Ford Focus RS 2.3 EcoBoost AWD 5dr 2017 vehicle for R568,000 (five
hundred and sixty-eight thousand rand). The consumer discovered defects within three days of purchase which required repairs estimated at over R62,000 (sixty-two thousand rand) and Wingfield Motors refused to repair the vehicle.
Upon refusal to repair, the consumer exercised his right to cancel the transaction and sought a refund. The supplier refused to refund the consumer. The refusal by Wingfield Motors to repair the vehicle and refund the consumer violated section 56(2)(a) and (b) of the CPA. The Tribunal found that the conduct of Wingfield Motors violated the CPA and was declared prohibited.
The supplier was also ordered to refund the consumer an amount of R568,000 (five hundred and sixty- eight thousand rand) and imposed an administrative fine of R50,000 (fifty-thousand rand).
Similarly, Sandton Repo Cars (PTY) Ltd was ordered to refund a consumer the full purchase price of R459,900 (four hundred and fifty-nine thousand and nine hundred rand) for a 2018 Volkswagen TSI Golf-R motor vehicle.
Jan Schoeman, the CEO of Retail Motor Industry Organization (RMI) joined Kaya Biz with Gugulethu Mfuphi to help us understand how prominent this concern is and how it impacts us as consumers.
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