Duo properties....never again!!! Romantic Margate weekend spoilt!

I was absolutely horrified with the service my boyfriend and I received during what was supposed to be a romantic road trip. On Saturday, 21 July 2017, my boyfriend and I decided to spend the last night of our road trip in Margate. We found Duo properties but they were closed. We called the phone number on the door and a lady named Elsa answered the phone and said she wasn’t far from the office and we should wait for her. She mentioned she had an apartment available for R550 per night. My boyfriend and I considered this a great saving since we had been spending anything between R800 – 1200 per night for the three nights prior. Once Elsa returned to the office, she began telling us about the apartment and that she had two available in the same block of flats. We were expected to choose an apartment by being given flat numbers instead of photographs or even being taken to see the place. Whilst talking to Elsa, she prepared the paperwork and to our shock we ended up paying a total of R1650. We were given the keys and made our way to the apartment. We had to figure out all the keys and codes on our own!

Upon arriving at the apartment, we were absolutely disgusted that people will rent out property with bedding that looked over 2 decades old. It even had cigarette bud burns. We were definitely not going to sleep on that bed and we were not prepared to pay for the apartment. Without even spending fifteen minutes there, we phoned Elsa to tell her we weren’t going to be staying there. When we called the first time, the phone just rang…a few minutes after that we tried again but the call went on to voicemail. I left a message stating we are not happy with the venue and please return our call as soon as possible so we know what’s the procedure. We consulted the documents but Elsa's number was the only one to contact in case of emergency. My boyfriend and I did not even stay for more than 15minutes in the apartment and then decided to go to a hotel. We spent the night there and had a much cleaner, neater venue. Only the next morning around 9am did Elsa return our call. We told her we would meet her at the office a short while later. We had a very pleasant meeting with Elsa who totally understood our predicament and she said she will arrange for a refund and if we could give her our banking details. My boyfriend smsd these details to her whilst still in her presence. She saw the message on her phone and then bid us farewell. From 22 July until today (September) we have contacted Elsa over 10 times and have even made contact with one of the senior people at Duo Properties named Marietjie but no one is interested in assisting. I am now at the height of frustration! I think we have actually come to terms with the fact that we won't be seeing a cent of our refund, however, it is important to get the word out there.....stay away from Duo Properties...this agency is just bad news.