A Blue Downs dad says he is being taken for a ride by a car dealer who is allegedly refusing to give back his money.
Ashley Pelton, 36, wanted a white Golf 6 TDI and when he spotted one for sale for R120 000 on Ettiene Carstens’ Facebook page, he thought it was a deal of a lifetime.
And because he had saved up for the car, he deposited all the money after meeting Ettiene, the owner of E. Carstens Motors in Parow, in September last year.
But Ashley says he never got the car, and Ettiene has been dodging him ever since.
He says he was refunded with R40 000 in December after he threatened to involve the police but no other refund received since then.
“My wife test drove the car and was extremely happy with her purchase,” says Ashley.
“We thought we made a purchase from an honest person who traded under his business name, but later found out that he had conned us, the car was never his.“
He says when attempts to get a refund failed, he opened a case against Ettiene. But that too, is a headache for him.
“Police are dragging the case, it is now seven months and there has been no progress on the investigation,” says Ashley.
When the Daily Voice contacted Ettiene on Tuesday, he claimed he had no idea that Ashley never received his car.
“So he never got the car? I know nothing about this, I need time to look at it, call me tomorrow morning,” he said.
The next day he said: “I don't understand what this is about because we paid him R40 000 and we’re going to pay the R80 000, we discussed this with them.
Asked why it was taking so long to do the refund, he said: “There's been no business, we had to close down and we are still working on some stuff but we will pay the money.”
He did not answer questions about Ashley’s claims that the car wasn’t his to sell.
But Ashley says Ettiene is lying as no arrangements had been made.
SAPS’ Andre Traut says a case was registered at Mfuleni SAPS.
“(It) is currently under investigation by the Commercial Branch and no one has been arrested or charged as yet,” Traut says.
He urged Ashley to contact the station commander to get an update on the case and lay a complaint.