Bayabulela Jolobe | 23 March 2018 | Company News, Customer Stories
Fixxr was born out of frustration…
I drive a Renault Clio IV 2013 model and late last year the ‘Check Injection System’ light came on. I was incredibly cash-strapped at the time as well as running back and forth to ensure MTYsquared – the company I founded – remained afloat. As such I just did not have the time to take a day to go to a shop during the week to first figure out what was wrong, then quote me a number that I most definitely would not be able to afford and then take another day (once I had somehow raised the cash) to go back to whichever shop I went to have the car fixed.
So, I guess, like most people I drove the car ‘that little bit longer’ than what I should have until BOOM! Turbo blew a whole 100 odd kilometers over my warranty mileage limit (don’t know why you even have a turbo on a 1.2 engine but okay)!
Now I was in a predicament and was forced to get towed to my nearest Renault dealer to see what the damage would be to me. First, I had to pay to have them just look at the car to figure out what was wrong. They duly did check (once I had paid of course) and quoted me. Needless to say, the figure that I was quoted was eye-watering! To put it in context, just to get the fix done was going to cost me about 75% of what I owed on the car so made absolutely no financial sense to me.
I asked about the warranty and all the things you kind of take for granted as a car owner (the things that get covered in the fine print of the contracts we all gladly sign) because this was a mechanical failure. I was told unfortunately my car was out of warranty and the quote would, unfortunately, need to be paid in order for Renault to fix my car. This was due to the mileage and the fact that I had lost the service book and could not really prove I had kept the car up-to-date with services (which I hadn’t to be honest so this wouldn’t have helped either).
What I then did is I started asking friends for any ‘back-yard’ mechanics or dealers that they could refer who might be able to at least give me a better price somehow. I got more than a few referrals which I duly contacted. Each time I contacted them it really felt like I was dipping my hand into a lucky packet!
People who needed to have me tow my car to their shop at my cost before they would even be prepared to quote me…
People who quoted me but were (to their credit) open that they are not really Renault turbo specialists…
People who quoted me and then went on holiday and never returned my calls to actually get the work…
People who were prepared to come to my home to check the car (which they did) and still quoted me figures maybe only half of what Renault did but double what other (from my perspective more specialist) people were quoting me…
People who stripped the car to check what was wrong and kept stripped parts (which I had to ask for later and to their credit everything was returned)…
Needless to say I learned a lot about the car care and maintenance industry over this period!! Eventually, I managed to find someone (by absolute chance really) who was a Renault specialist technician, came very highly recommended, called the parts supplier in front of me and quoted me on the spot, did the work to a phenomenal level of quality and provided awesome after-service support and on top of it all did the entire job for a fraction of what I would have paid had I just gone with the dealer.
While I had toyed around with the idea of Fixxr before this experience really solidified in my mind that there must be a better way of providing a convenient, transparent and quality service to car owners whose vehicles are out of their service plans or warranty periods yet still want to keep their cars in tip-top shape. This is what Fixxr aims to achieve!
I ask you to join us on this journey we are on to provide you as a car owner a convenient service (at your home or office) using only the best mobile mechanics (or Fixxr’s as we like to call them) at prices that don’t necessarily burn a hole in your pocket just because you ‘look rich’ (or any other arbitrary reason given for giving difference quotes)!
Our goal at the end of the day is to make car care affordable, convenient, and transparent.
Having to worry about that pesky service light is not only a time-consuming and frustrating experience, it is often expensive (people take chances out there). As a car owner, you often lack visibility regarding the quality of mechanics or fairness of the price. At the same time, the mechanics who put in the hard work fixing cars make peanuts at repair shops and definitely don’t get the recognition they deserve.
We want to change all that with Fixxr!
If you want to get involved, have any suggestion whatsoever, have tried Fixxr and want to tell us about your experience feel free to contact us.
As the Head of Consumer and Operations, Bayabulela is responsible for continuously serving our customers, increasing our supply base, and driving the next phase of our business growth.
What that means is highlighting the Fixxr opportunity for as many potential mechanic partners as possible. The role also includes broadening and deepening our platform in existing markets, scaling into new markets and continuing to set the bar for safety and compliance in our industry.
He typically starts his days by diving into customer data and mechanic partner feedback. He also has to consistently evaluate Fixxr’s business strategy and drive governance and accountability in concert with our cross-functional partners.
Bayabulela has built a breadth of skills and experience across operations, strategy, marketing and product development.
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