Car accidents are sometimes inevitable, and can often prove to be a hassle for all involved. Asides from the risk of personal injury to both drivers and occupants alike, there’s also the inconvenience that comes from having your vehicle sent in for repairs. However in the case of Proton X70 owner Mr Aaron De Silva, that ordeal eventually came to span an unbelievable 8 months, as opposed to a mere few weeks.
M’sian man sends his Proton X70 SUV for repairs after accident
In a lengthy post that was shared to his Facebook recently, Aaron chronicles how he had been left without a car of his own after getting involved in a car accident on 21st November 2021. Two days later, he brought his car into Proton EON Glenmarie 3S in Shah Alam to have it repaired.
Understandably, the service centre would have to wait until Aaron’s insurance provider approved on his claims before work could begin, which took place on 6th December 2021.
A few days later on 9th December 2021, he proceeded to check-in with the service centre to learn more about the status of his car’s repairs and the total cost incurred. A person-in-charge (PIC) informed Aaron that they placed an order down for the parts required for his car, and that they will begin repair works as soon as they have arrived.
Service centre waiting on necessary parts to arrive
Roughly a month later on 6th January 2022, Aaron received an update on his car and was told that the parts that were shipped have already been installed in his vehicle.
Yet on the 26th of the same month, service centre staff told him that they were still waiting on 9 parts that have yet to arrive, after Aaron asked for an update. He would receive the same response two weeks later on 14th February 2022.
By now, this would mark the third month that Aaron has had his car held at the service centre.
“I decided to call into their customer care thinking that it would make a world of a difference. I mean at this point, no harm trying la kan?” he said.
Phoning Proton’s customer service helpline on 20th March 2022, he was told to send in an email to customer service concerning the long wait, which he did the following day. To his chagrin, Aaron did not receive any word from Proton for a period of 2 to 3 weeks. During this time, he continued to phone the customer care helpline and spoke to a number of different agents who were of no help either.
Eventually told to send a letter off to the CEO
A representative from Eon Glenmarie had apparently told him that as they have yet to receive the necessary parts after placing an order, there was nothing that they could do on their end to expedite the wait. As a matter of fact, Aaron’s car was apparently only short on 1 part, for which an order was placed on the 8th of December 2021, two days after his insurance claim was initially approved.
Understandably frustrated by the situation, he eventually paid Proton Edar Cose along Kesas Highway a visit on 25th April 2022, where Aaron was told to write a direct letter to Proton’s CEO to voice out the issues he faced, and ask for compensation or even a replacement car outright. Doing just that, he dropped the letter off the next day and waited for yet another month.
Proton only offered a RM300 voucher in compensation
On 18th May 2022, a senior executive from the company emailed Aaron and told him that the remainder of the outstanding spare parts for his car would arrive at Eon Glenmarie by/before 31st May 2022. On top of that, he was offered a RM300 service voucher as a compensation, which he rejected.
“Who here would be bloody insulted if you were offered an E-Voucher? On top of that, I had to agree to that compensation within 3 days or not, and the offer would lapse.”
“So I did what every person here would do, politely reject and demand more because it’s not justifiable for the time taken to repair my car.”
Contacting the senior executive to turn down the voucher, he was told to write in to Proton again to demand for a higher compensation amount, given how long it took to have his car repaired. In return on 7th June 2022, they offered him one free service, redeemable at any Proton service centres instead. Bear in mind that during this time, the service centre has still yet to receive the parts that were supposed to have arrived on/before 31st May 2022.
Found his car languishing in the back lot of the service centre
On 14th June, Aaron decided to visit the service centre in person to check on his car instead of waiting on further correspondences from Proton. Upon arriving, he found his vehicle sitting uncovered in the service centre’s backyard.
As of Monday (20th June 2022), Aaron said that it would have been around eight months, or about 200 days, since his insurance claim for his car’s repairs had been approved. Despite that, he remains without a vehicle of his own and has had to resort to a number of workarounds in order to get around town. What’s more, he has continued to pay off installments on his car while it remains stuck in the service centre.
“Spending extra cost to grab and stuff plus having to ask friends around whether I could borrow their car for like a week or two it’s really hard.”
Because my dad and I both use the car, so a lot of planning has to go down because I do work in KL, but fortunately I don’t need to go in to the office everyday.” he told Wau Post.
In reaching out to Proton, Wau Post has been informed that Aaron’s case has been escalated to the relevant departments. However, no further statement will be released by the company concerning the matter at this point in time.
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