Is the ”R699” car a scam?
For loads of South Africans, the ”R699 car deal” seemed like a good opportunity if you can’t quite afford a car. Adhering to a certain option, you could even make money from driving the car. Recently we did a small article on how the famous (or now infamous) R699 car deal actually works. However, we have noticed a lot of complaints and frustrated people who have signed into this deal. And now we’re asking, is it to good to be true? Is this some sort of ”scam”? It all seems very legit if you check out the website, which states that you can drive a car from as little as R499 per month.
Firstly, let’s check the facts and stats. We see these cars on the road daily. Currently there are about 20 000+ vehicles on South Africa’s roads that have been purchased via the car ownership model introduced by Just Group Africa, trading as Drive Car Sales in partnership with Hong Kong Blue Lakes. While this is a tiny percentage of the country’s 6.4 million motorcar population, according to National Traffic Information System (eNaTIS) figures for December 2013 (excluding taxis, buses, trucks and panel vans), the number has more than doubled since the end of 2012. To date, there are 100’s of complaints on HELLOPETER.com from unsatisfied customers that state that the company is not adhering to their part of the deal (there are the odd customer compliments, but some of them seem quite questionable). A lot of the complaints revolve around commission payments, either non-payment or underpayment. One customer said they had been consistently underpaid and their contract had been cancelled without notification. The customer is now threatening a class action lawsuit and encouraging others to join. Some unhappy customers have also created a group on Facebook named: ”Don’t be fooled”. It seems that the common thread among many is that while it worked well for them initially, they have since been switched from option 2 to option 1 without notice. From March/April of this year, and even earlier in some cases, they suddenly got paid R570 (or even less), instead of an amount double or triple what the company owes according to the contract in correlation with their mileage.
Frustrated customers state that:
”I’m suppose to get 100%. Only get paid R570. For the second month now. There must be something we can do. I send mail to Carte Blanche and Robertson regstreeks. Lets hope one of them is willing to look into this. This is now a scam. [sic]”
”I have the same problem also showed that I should have received 85% only got R570. They are not allowed to change us over without a recorded telephone agreement. [sic]”
When these customers complain via e-mail to the Blue Lakes SA help desk (run by Satinsky which owns Drive Car Sales and also manages Blue Lakes Trading), they all appear to be getting an identical response, often weeks later: ”Please note that all payments effected are done so in terms of the terms and conditions of your advertising agreement. Kindly refer to the terms and conditions as set out on the Blue Lakes/Just Group website and your advertising contract on clause 7,3. Payment will be effected by any means deemed fit by the company”.
Satinsky is now distancing itself from all the complaints, saying that it is only the managing agent for Blue Lake, and by cancelling the contracts, the customers will be forced to pay the full instalments on their cars and complaining to the Advertising Standards Authority about misleading advertising could have the same effect, thanks to the wording of the contract, under ”Suspension of Payment”.
All this being said, there are people that we’ve heard of that are quite happy with this deal, but it looks like there are 1000’s of unhappy customers, which is quite unusual for a business- to have a greater degree of unsatisfied customers. So be sure to do your homework before getting yourself tied in to any deal and make sure you know ALL the terms and conditions.
(Source: HELLOPETER, Moneyweb and IOL Motoring)