DJ Pools (Deveraux Landman)

Beware! Stay away from this pool services guy! Deveraux Landman operates as DJ Pools with a little advert running in the Tygerburger local newspaper. This is one of the typical "bakkie brigade", employing untrained, cheap labour to do the "actual work" while he stands around to "supervise". My 1.1kW Quality pool pump developed a leak and I was referred to DJ Pools by a friend. Devereaux inspected the pump and advised that it needed to be replaced. I accepted his quote and scheduled an installation date. They arrived with the new pump and motor and the 2x labourers went about removing the old pump & motor and installing the new one, while Deveraux stood around. When the work was finished, I was told not to turn on the pump for at least 24hrs to allow the PVC Weld (glue) to set. Things got really busy at work and I didn't test the new pump for a while. When I did turn on the new pump/motor, it caused the circuit breaker on my home's main distribution board to trip. I reset the breaker and tried again to be certain it was the pump causing the trip, and confirmed it was the case. I opened the cover to the electrical cord of the new motor and saw that the wiring had been connected wrongly by Deveraux's labourers. I contemplated calling Deveraux for him to correct the problem, but decided to "save him the effort" and reconnect the wiring properly myself (after all, at my age one knows the colour coding for Live, Neutral and Earth). The pump then worked when I switched it on - it went on briefly before it lost suction and I detected a smell of burn. I switched the pump off immediately and contacted DJ Pools (Deveraux), via whatsapp, explaining in detail what happened and requested that he please come out and attend to it. Deveraux called me and proceeded to argue with me on the phone, denying any responsibility and insisting that there was "no way" his guys would have connected the pump incorrectly despite me repeatedly telling him that the pump had caused the circuit break to trip before I swapped the wiring. He claimed that the lack of suction was probably caused by a blockage in my suction line and that he'd have to charge me to come out and attend to it. The tone of his conversation very quickly became very abrasive and completely unprofessional with him talking over me and eventually he hung up on me while I was still speaking. This was a classic case of not wanting to take any responsibility whatsoever for the shoddy work done. I am quite sure that none of his labourers are electricians and yet he left it up to them to install & connect the new pump & motor. Our whole family contracted Covid and several weeks passed before I could get another pool comoany out to give me an independent 2nd opinion. Bali pools (based in Durbanville) came out and advised that the new motor had been damaged and internal wiring of the motor had burnt out because it had been connected incorrectly. My " new" motor intalled by DJ Pools, and which I hadn't been able to use once yet, had to be replaced. I contacted Deveraux once again, informing him of the 2nd opinion obtained from Bali Pools, and asked him to assist to try and have the motor replaced under the 24-month warranty before I considered installing a new pump/motor once more. He once again refused to accept any responsibility for what happened and said it was the first time that something like this happened. He asked me to send him pictures of the pump and said he'd log a call with his supplier and that I should deal with them directly from then on - he sent me a contact no. to phone if I didn't hear back from anyone by the following day. Shocking quality of work, and a pathetic, abrasive and defensive approach to dealing with after-sales issues related to the workmanship of his labourers. Do yourselves a favour and stay away from DJ Pools. Burnt my fingers trying to support the wrong "small business".