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Cape Town - Motorists who drive a car displaying advertising that states ‘Drive a new car from R699’ are up in arms after the company behind the alleged scam, the Satinsky Group, said in a statement on its website that it dissolved its management agreement with media platform company, Blue Lakes Trading and Promotions Ltd.
This means they will not get paid according to the two options they signed up for.
An aggrieved Fin24 user wrote that "hundreds of people have been cheated out of their money" by Satinsky Group of Companies, which runs the Drive Car Sales business.
In a plea to warn people “thinking of taking these cars” to be careful, the user, currently a client of Satinsky, said the only thing she can do now is to help stop the false advertising.
“They are crooks and the more we drive with this false advertising the more people get trapped like us,” she wrote.
The two options touted on Satinsky websites Drive a New Car and New Cars from R699 a Month for motorists to act as advertising service providers are Earn While You Drive and Earn While You Own.
The Earn While You Drive option is where the client is rewarded on a kilometre exposure rate. “You have to submit five photos every month as well as your kilometres [covered] on their site and you get paid for the more kilometres you do,” the user said.
She added: “The more kilometres you do in the month, the more they pay you out. Clients who drive more than 2 000km per month will receive the full advertising fee.
The second option is Earn While You Own, where clients receive R570 for a minimum mileage of 500km if they provide two pictures as proof. Clients also receive R3 000 on every car sold on the unique code of the car.
It was first suspected Satinsky changed Earn While You Drive contracts to Earn While You Own contracts without consent from clients. The user claimed at the end of March that she received only R570 associated with the Earn While You Own contract, instead of the R1 021 she was supposed to get.
Furthermore, with the announcement that the agreement with Blue Lakes Trading and Promotions Ltd is terminated, clients were not paid for July.
She wrote: “None of us agreed to the change as they are supposed to call you and have a voice telephone agreement. So they are on (sic) breach of contract.”
According to a recent statement on Satinsky's website, Blue Lakes Trading and Promotions Ltd will be replaced by Accelerator Rewards PTY (ltd) (sic). This is a more “suitable alternative offering” for their “valued customer".
The use of the Accelerator Rewards App offers a system of rewards for successful referrals. This means a word-of-mouth referral sent by a client that becomes a successful sale will link the reward back to the client.
The website further stated clients no longer have to drive a required amount of kilometres for advertising or load monthly photos, enabling clients to “save substantially every month”.
However, more than 500 aggrieved clients have voiced their concerns on the Facebook group, ‘I have been done in by Drive a New Car from R699 per month'.
Clients have complained that they have not been paid and are taking steps to remove stickers from their cars to stop the false advertising.
There are also numerous complaints on the Hello Peter website ranging from a breach of contract, poor billing systems, false advertising and poor service.
The user also complained about not receiving responses after contacting the Satinsky Help Desk.
This has ended up being a greater expense for clients than they expected. “I am now paying the bank more for the car every month as they are cheating me out of money,” wrote the user. “We are now left with debt that we didn’t budget for”.
Clients fear they will lose their cars because they cannot afford to pay for them. Satinsky did not provide clients with copies of their signed contracts. Satinsky made applications to the bank on behalf of the clients, raising questions of possible misrepresentation in contracts.
Numerous calls for comment from the Satinsky CEO Albert Venter and other Satinsky Group representatives have gone unanswered.
- Fin24
This means they will not get paid according to the two options they signed up for.
An aggrieved Fin24 user wrote that "hundreds of people have been cheated out of their money" by Satinsky Group of Companies, which runs the Drive Car Sales business.
In a plea to warn people “thinking of taking these cars” to be careful, the user, currently a client of Satinsky, said the only thing she can do now is to help stop the false advertising.
“They are crooks and the more we drive with this false advertising the more people get trapped like us,” she wrote.
The two options touted on Satinsky websites Drive a New Car and New Cars from R699 a Month for motorists to act as advertising service providers are Earn While You Drive and Earn While You Own.
The Earn While You Drive option is where the client is rewarded on a kilometre exposure rate. “You have to submit five photos every month as well as your kilometres [covered] on their site and you get paid for the more kilometres you do,” the user said.
She added: “The more kilometres you do in the month, the more they pay you out. Clients who drive more than 2 000km per month will receive the full advertising fee.
The second option is Earn While You Own, where clients receive R570 for a minimum mileage of 500km if they provide two pictures as proof. Clients also receive R3 000 on every car sold on the unique code of the car.
It was first suspected Satinsky changed Earn While You Drive contracts to Earn While You Own contracts without consent from clients. The user claimed at the end of March that she received only R570 associated with the Earn While You Own contract, instead of the R1 021 she was supposed to get.
Furthermore, with the announcement that the agreement with Blue Lakes Trading and Promotions Ltd is terminated, clients were not paid for July.
She wrote: “None of us agreed to the change as they are supposed to call you and have a voice telephone agreement. So they are on (sic) breach of contract.”
According to a recent statement on Satinsky's website, Blue Lakes Trading and Promotions Ltd will be replaced by Accelerator Rewards PTY (ltd) (sic). This is a more “suitable alternative offering” for their “valued customer".
The use of the Accelerator Rewards App offers a system of rewards for successful referrals. This means a word-of-mouth referral sent by a client that becomes a successful sale will link the reward back to the client.
The website further stated clients no longer have to drive a required amount of kilometres for advertising or load monthly photos, enabling clients to “save substantially every month”.
However, more than 500 aggrieved clients have voiced their concerns on the Facebook group, ‘I have been done in by Drive a New Car from R699 per month'.
Clients have complained that they have not been paid and are taking steps to remove stickers from their cars to stop the false advertising.
There are also numerous complaints on the Hello Peter website ranging from a breach of contract, poor billing systems, false advertising and poor service.
The user also complained about not receiving responses after contacting the Satinsky Help Desk.
This has ended up being a greater expense for clients than they expected. “I am now paying the bank more for the car every month as they are cheating me out of money,” wrote the user. “We are now left with debt that we didn’t budget for”.
Clients fear they will lose their cars because they cannot afford to pay for them. Satinsky did not provide clients with copies of their signed contracts. Satinsky made applications to the bank on behalf of the clients, raising questions of possible misrepresentation in contracts.
Numerous calls for comment from the Satinsky CEO Albert Venter and other Satinsky Group representatives have gone unanswered.
- Fin24
