*****sters or Incompetetant? Time will tell

I found O’Kelly Interiors on a local Whatsapp group as I was looking for furniture for my 4 year old, just graduating to his ‘own stuff’ – with his birthday coming up in October. Wanting to support small business I ordered a chest of drawers and a child’s bed from them on the 12th and 13th of July 2025. I was told by O’Kelly Interiors that the turn-arround time would be: ‘Turnaround time 10 to 15 days’. I paid the 50% deposits demanded on both items upfront immediately without question.

On the first of August, O’kelly Interiors assured me that the child’s bed ‘will be completed next week’. After much back and forth, the chest of drawers was delivered on the roof of a car on the 8th of August 2025 and was terribly made. The drawers did not work and it would not have held together for any period of time. The facing of the one drawer fell off on the second day. They collected the item (after rescheduling 4 times) and returned it it better condition on the 15th of September with the promise that the childs bed would be ‘delivered next week’. (Still in time for my son's birthday so OKAY!)

I had now paid in full for the chest of drawers and awaited the bed with some trepidation as the drawers had been so bad. On the 23rd of September I got the message: ‘ Went past factory guys still bust with painting and artwork on your police car bed. Still on production line.’

On the 15th of October - three weeks later with no follow-up and no product delivered with the child's birthday in the past, I gave up and requested the return of my deposit. My son’s birthday had come and gone without the promised new bed so I just wanted to go to a mainstream manufacturer and buy him the bed he had been promised. O’Kelly Interiors now bows out of the process and refers me to the ‘manufacturer’.

CUSTOM COUCHES of 6 Kyanite Street, Sundowner Randburg are apparently the manufacturers of the items and it is to their bank account I paid the deposit. CUSTOM COUCHES (Pty) Ltd with a gmail address of robynnepereira@gmail.com so you expect a Robynne Pereira to be involved but no, a ‘Mark’ sends a recalcitrant and unapologetic message to O’Kelly Interiors who forwards to me that after THREE MONTHS of ‘next week’ , ‘next week’ and ‘next week’ that they refuse to return my deposit for the bed and will pay me off over 4 months (which I don’t believe at all since their website listed on their TikTok account and their Instagram account has been suspended for non-payment.) https://www.instagram.com/customcouches/?hl=en https://www.tiktok.com/@customcouches https://za.pinterest.com/robynnepereira/ https://www.okellygroupinc.co.za/cgi-sys/suspendedpage.cgi?page_id=205 O'Kelly Group Interiors presents themselves as 'separate' to the 'manufacturers' but seem to use the same web provider and BOTH of their websites (as of todays date) are suspended due to non-payment. What you wont get from EITHER of these two is an HONEST STRAIGHT ANSWER. O’Kelly Interiors don’t seem much more reliable with mutiple web-presences under O’kelly Interiors, O’Kelly Group Inc or Kelly Furniture House etc. But they don’t seem to actually MAKE anything but are distributors for the Custom Couches débâcle – who are at best wholly ***********, at worst complete ****mers.

The intention was clear, new furniture for a 4 year old who was turning 5 and this lot O’Kelly Interiors and the ‘manufacturers’ they purport to represent have completely disappointed this young man. As a parent, I’m enraged. As a business-person, I know things happen and had they not insisted on b’sing their way through 3 months with ‘next week’ always ‘next week’ or at least been decent enough to know when their BS had been called and just returned the deposit, I would not be going to the effort to share this horrible experience, but they clearly are not people of integrity or any measure of honour and so please, save yourself the headache and drama and find yourself a source of quality furniture that has SOME integrity and has AT LEAST a passing relationship with honesty – they guys – from O’Kelly Interiors or O’Kelly Group Inc or to Custom Couches (Pty) Ltd do not. Elsewhere you find the same opperation representing itself as Kelly's Furniture House in Northlands Corner, same opperation, just name-shuffling. https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61550246926046

I do believe taking my deposit was *****ulent so I will be pursuing my legal options but for now – good hearted consumers wanting to support small businesses should look elsewhere. If they ever do return my deposit, I will post a follow-up to answer the ultimate question - are this lot ****mers and *****sters or simply incompetant?