Proton Service Centre Takes Over 8 Months To Fix Customer's Car... And It's Still There
"Eight months of instalments are still being paid while my car just sits in the workshop," said the frustrated car owner.
By May Vin Ang — 22 Jun 2022, 04:57 PM
A man from Subang, Selangor has taken to social media to vent his frustration as he has been waiting close to eight months to get his car back from a Proton service centre
Facebook user Aaron De Silva took to his account on 20 June to rant about how his Proton X70 has yet to be returned since he sent it in to Proton EON Glenmarie 3S in Shah Alam on 23 November 2021.
He sent it in for repair after he was involved in an accident.
Initially, he understood that the repair would take awhile as he only had his insurance claim approved on 6 December before the work could begin.
So, as expected, an agent at Proton informed him that they only placed an order for replacement parts on 9 December and had to wait for their arrival to complete the repair.
In early January, Aaron was informed by Proton that they have installed some parts that have arrived, and there were a few more that have not, so he would still have to wait
Two weeks later, on 26 January, the car owner asked for an update and was only told by Proton then, that out of the 44 parts that they have to replace, nine have not arrived. So, he had to wait a little longer.
In the middle of February, when he asked for another update, he was told that the parts had still not yet arrived and they could not give him an estimated date of arrival.
At this point, Aaron said that it has been two months — disregarding the time it took for his insurance to be approved — since he sent in his car for repair and he was starting to get agitated.
Another month later, he decided to call Proton's customer care hotline to escalate the issue and was told to write an official email to customer service about the long wait for his car to be repaired
However, he did not receive any response for the email dated 21 March.
By then, the person-in-charge of his car at Proton EON Glenmarie 3S also told him that they could not proceed with completing the repair of his car either, as they still had one last part to receive.
On 25 April, still having no idea of when he could get his car back, Aaron visited another Proton service centre in Subang Jaya to ask about what he could do to hasten the delivery of the last part.
He said an agent there told him to write and address a letter to Proton's chief executive officer (CEO) Dr Li Chunrong to complain about the wait and ask for compensation for loss of usage or even a replacement car for the months of not having his personal mode of transport.
Another month went by, and on 18 May, he finally received an email reply from a senior executive at Proton who informed him that the remaining replacement part will arrive at his service centre by 31 May
The senior executive also offered Aaron a RM300 service voucher as compensation for all the months-long inconveniences.
"I was really excited and happy to hear the news about the last remaining part arriving, but the RM300 voucher, I think they wanted to get slapped lah," wrote the frustrated car owner on Facebook.
"Who here wouldn't be bloody insulted if you were offered an e-voucher? On top of that, I had to agree to it within three days, or not, the offer would lapse."
Aaron said he politely rejected the voucher and demanded higher compensation for the unreasonable time taken to repair his car.
Replying a few weeks later, the senior executive offered Aaron a one-time free service at any of their outlets, which was laughed at by the customer
"COME ON. AT THIS POINT IT'S GETTING RIDICULOUS," he ranted, angered by the poor compensation offer especially since it was one week past the promised due date and there was still no news of the remaining part.
On 14 June, still waiting for updates from Proton, Aaron visited the service centre and saw that his car was just sitting in the sun at the centre's uncovered backyard.
As of 20 June, the day he wrote the Facebook post, Aaron said it has been close to eight months that he has not had a car and has yet to receive any form of compensation from Proton
"It's been really tough," Aaron told SAYS.
"I work in KL and I have to ask friends from time to time whether I can use their extra car for a week or two. Otherwise, I've to plan my day out with my dad because we have one car left at home."
He added that he has still been paying his instalments while his car "just sits in the workshop".
"It isn't cheap when you're paying for instalments, and on top of that, you have to fork out extra cash to spend on other stuff like renting a car or taking a Grab," he said.
"It is now 20 June 2022. It has been about 200 days since my insurance claim was approved and I have yet to receive my car. All I asked from Proton was compensation for loss of usage or a replacement car and I was denied that," he lamented, saying that no one at the company has been accountable for his car.
"These past few months have been tough. My family and I always support local brands but this is really hard to do when we do not even get the care we need."
SAYS has reached out to Proton for a statement on the matter and have yet to receive a response as of publication time.
Read Aaron's full account here.
