A.J Automatic Machine Co.Ltd
reviews and complaints

I drive a 1998 Audi Avant 2.4 multitronic. When I bought the car in November 2008 the place I bought it from advised me the gearbox had a year warranty from "AJ Automatics" in Pretoria - I had never heard of these people until I bought the car with the guarantee.
In May I started having problems with the gear box, where the car would not change up into 3rd, 4th of 5th gear. Where the whole display - showing what gear the car was in - just light up and did not respond. I then contacted AJ Automatics and had my car towed to them. They then told me there was a big oil leak and that the car had been bumped which caused this. About a month prior I sent my car to Steve's auto clinic to have a brand new exhaust put on the car and the car was fine when I sent it to them, so don’t know it something happened with the possible test drive as they are located in Midrand and as the mechanics at AJ automatics told me they must have hit a speed bump as a speed - and the complex they are in are riddled with speed bumps. I told AJ Automatics they must give me a quote to fix the gear box, they were initially going to charge me R2350 for them to take the gearbox out and strip it to give me a quote, the R2350 was inclusive of putting everything back together for the sake of giving me the quote if I did not want to fix it there. They then contacted me advising the quote to fix the car was R22 159 (Total for parts and labour = R19 438 and Tax = R2721.32) Quote attached!
I then went ahead and send the same quote to a few other places and had one company come back advising they would be able to do it for R15 000. I then contacted AJ automatics to advise them I would be taking my car to another place and I would pay them the R2350 for the stripping and re-assembly of the gear box. I was then told by Koos (apparently) the owner that he was not going to put it back together as it was going to be too much work, they had to come and pick everything up as is and I was still expected to pay the R2350 for the stripping and RE-ASSEBLY of the gear box. We ended up in an argument and I hung up! A few minutes later Tanya Knoetze from AJ Automatics phoned me and apologized for the alteration I had with "Koos". She said they will not charge me tax and would fix the car of R17 350 but I would need to pay it into her personal account and not AJ Automatics account. = Quote and personal banking details attached. I with the help of my sister paid the R17 350 to her/them in about two months (unfortunately I did not have that kind of money lying around). When I went to pick the car up on Saturday the 26th of June - I asked her to give me an invoice to confirm the amount was paid in full. She then told me they had put in a RECONDED SECOND HAND GEARBOX and did not fix and replace the parts as they quoted me. = invoice attached
I took the car and she told me to phone her if there was any problems. I phoned her first thing Monday - there was a huge noise coming from the front of the car when I pull off in 1st and when the car changed to second (sounds and feels like I’m ridding over huge metal balls). The whole boot was skew (THE CAR WAS NOT DOING THAT WHEN I SENT IT TO THEM). The electronics in the car was doing exactly the same as before I sent it to then, the car was no selecting multitronic mode and the lights showing what gear the car was in was broken. I then phoned her and told her the problem, she wanted me to drop the car off but I refused, she, after a week got someone to come and fetch the car (6th of July). I had written a note and put it in the car as to what all was wrong with it. I phoned them back after about 3 days and spoke to Koos (apparently the owner) only to be told that the noise the car was making when it changed gears (sounds and feels like I’m ridding over huge metal balls) was not their fault and the boot they know nothing about! He said the problem with the gear box was that a plug came loose at the bottom of the gear box and that I why it was not selecting the multitronic mode and also why it was not showing on the display inside the car. After two weeks I phoned them back to be told there was a problem with the gearbox and they were waiting on parts to come back. It has been exactly 4 weeks now and they are still waiting for parts for my car and all they tell me - YOUR CAR WILL BE READY WHEN ITS READY!

I really need help, anything would be greatly appreciated.