Daylight Robbery

<p>The only thing professional about this shifty business is their printing.</p> <p>I received a very professional looking pamphlet advisertising a one-stop business for appliance repairs, plumbing, electrical and handy man services.  Exactly what I am looking for as I have several needs for each of these categories.</p> <p>I called and left a message on the "office" number.</p> <p>After not hearing from the for a week, I thought I would give it another bash and called the first cell phone number given on the pamphlet.  I was leaving on a trip in two days and was doing the baking and cooking for the event while we were away and needed the top oven on my built in Defy Oven repaired as neither the grill or oven elements were working.</p> <p>I am quite certain that the Indian man who answered called himself Jay.  He was rather unfriendly but I don't mind that as we are not all good on phones.  The fact that he could come the same day was a bonus.  He said he would come through to take a look and give me a quote and asked if I am aware of the R 100 call out fee, which I said I am.</p> <p>His manner was no better in person and after running through some of the things I wanted doing when I came back from my trip, he started looking at the oven.  His son was with him and I left them to it, waiting for the analysis and quote.</p> <p>I was in a business meeting at the time and when I was done, I walked my guest to her car and was met by "Jay" in the driveway telling me that it was done, the electrics were a mess and he just needed to get some wire from the car.  I said, "Are you done?  But you have not quoted me!  How much will it be?"</p> <p>He stood in silence, presumably doing sums in his head, for minutes, only breaking the silence here and there with "I am going to make this fair, ok".  (What I was hoping for).  I felt like a motorist who was about to be bribed in a roadblock with the anxiety tactic used.  More and more silence and "I am trying to be fair"s - he eventually gave me the (high in my opinion) price.  </p> <p>I suspected that he expected a bargaining process, which I am not very good at but started.  His response led to no further discussion as he make it quite clear that he could add an hourly rate, add this, add that, blah blah.  Asked how I would pay, I said by EFT.  He was not happy with an EFT from Standard Bank so I asked who he banks with and he said FNB.  I have an FNB account with a little money in it so gave him half in case and half by EFT from FNB (he received the confirmation SMS which is what he wanted).  When giving me the invoice before payment, he still added the R 100 call out.</p> <p> </p> <p>When we tested the oven, I was aware that he was not sure on how the dials work, confused by what the grill is and what the oven is and how to turn them on.  At first, it didn't work but, as luck would have it, it came on the second time around.</p> <p>When it came for time to bake, the oven would not come on at all and neither would the grill.  Later the following day, the oven did work, so I realised that the problem may be intermittent. </p> <p> </p> <p>When I came back from leave, I called "Jay's" number, without joy and then spoke to Mark on the office line.  He said there are no Jays working there.  I gave him my invoice number and he said he would trace it and come back to me. </p> <p>A week later, my husband wanted to use the oven and put on the bottom part of the oven, which we did not have a problem with and there was a loud bang and flashes of light, leaving us with a shorted out oven and in a position worse than we were before they "fixed" our oven.</p> <p>I called back again and spoke to Mark, who had no recollection of the call.  I was a little irritated and said that we would then obviously have to start again.  I gave him the same information and asked him if there are several contractors working under the banner, which he confirmed.  I asked his position in the business and was told that he was one of the partners.</p> <p>When asked for his surname, he told me that it is not relevant.  I said it is as I would like to know who I am talking to and he got rather irritated.  I handed the phone to my husband (who handles these things better than I do) who told Mark that "Jay" caused more harm than good and asked for Mark's details, at which point. Mark hung up the phone.</p> <p>Since then, our calls are not answered and we are not able to get answers or another visit to repair the oven.</p> <p>These are a shifty bunch of con artists in my opinion, who have no clue as to what they are doing.</p> <p>I will cartainly not go anywhere near them again and hope that this message gets out to others who may fall victim of this nasty bunch.</p>