What are you actually getting from a car deal from YapYap Cars?

Roslin Tasker was one of those consumers who contacted YapYap Cars in June, after seeing an advertisement on Facebook for a Renault Kwid for R1899 per month, with no deposit and no residual and first payment end of September, as well as three months insurance.

After she applied and submitted all her documents, she claims that YapYap Cars said it would have to “pay up” the amounts outstanding on her loan and credit card that were part of the payment holiday extended to consumers during lockdown to get her application approved.

Read more: Those R699 cars and YapYap car deals: same-same but different?

She says her application was approved and someone called Willie fetched her and took her to a dealer to sign her credit agreement and collect her car.

“I only found out after I received my documents from the car financing company that the deal I applied for was not what I got.”

Then she started getting calls from the financing company about non-payment and could not understand what was going on. YapYap Cars allegedly told her that they will refund her, but in the end the financing company force debited her account for the outstanding amount.

Only a ‘lead generator’ who stopped taking her calls

When she enquired at the dealer, she was allegedly told that YapYap got the “leads” as they were only a lead generator company. People who bring “leads” to car dealers usually get a “finder’s fee”.

Tasker is now liable for R2 808 per month and a 40% residual payment at the end. YapYap does not take her calls anymore, she says.

Another consumer, who prefers to remain anonymous, bought a Datsun Go for R 1 899 per month in September last year with the first instalment only due in January 2020. YapYap allegedly said it would also pay part of her instalments until March 2020. After March it would be restructured to R1 899 as advertised.

She was even flown up to Johannesburg to collect her car.

At the dealer, when she was signing the credit agreement, she heard that her first instalment would be due in November 2019. She says the refund YapYap offered was not paid in full and the instalment was not restructured as promised in February.

She was refunded the difference between the advertised price and the instalment for April, May, June and July, but now nobody is answering her queries about the restructuring, she says.

Negative reviews

With the name change, all the older posts on the Facebook page were removed, but not the reviews and comments on reviews. Some of the comments were less positive about YapYap:

• “Scammers liars. Willie and his boss.”
• “Be transparent with clients stop tricking people into signing in for residual even when your advertisement says “no residual” and the free three months insurance?”
• “They are a scam, I was scammed and lied to by Willie.”
• “They are a big scam. Willie and his boss are crooks. Only make empty promises and when you phone them they are rude or sometimes they ignore your calls. I have been struggling with them for months to get my car’s papers.”
• “I’m still waiting for my car to be refinanced since January 2020.”

What YapYap says

When we contacted Albert Venter, managing director of YYCR Car Deals, he said people who approached YapYap “knew that we only do car rentals”. “We took them to dealers to help them when they wanted to buy cars instead of renting them”.

However, both consumers we spoke to say they were never clearly told the prices on the advertisements were only for car rentals.

Venter was in the news in 2014 when he ran Drive Car Sales, a division of the Satinsky Group of Companies. Consumers allegedly had to sign two agreements: the first to apply for bank financing and the second to accept a “rebate” for advertising the scheme on their cars stating that you can drive a new car for only R699 per month.

They supposedly had to pay the full instalments and would then receive “rebates” from Satinsky’s overseas partner, Blue Lakes, which would effectively lower their monthly instalments. The scheme imploded when Satinsky told motorists the rebates had dried up after the company cut its ties with Blue Lakes.

Code of Advertising Practice

The Code of Advertising Practice also states that “advertisements offering motor vehicles on a lease or rental basis should include full details on the payments to be made and the basis on which the residual value will be determined if ownership of the vehicle is obtained at the end of the agreement. The price stated in such advertising must be a true reflection of the actual price to be paid by the lessee or hirer.”

None of the advertisements on Facebook or the website make it clear that the cars are only available for rental.

Clicking on the advertisement on Facebook takes you to a details page where it clearly states “Want to BUY A NEW 2020 Toyota Etios 1.5 XI Hatch with an instalment(sic) from as low as R2 699 per month?”

It is only when you apply that you have to tick a box next to the statement that states “The advertised deal is Rent to Buy option”.

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