Nerves of steel and endless patience required with Elitech

One of the worst experiences of my life! Most of the 5-star reviews for Elitech are from employees of this Turkish-owned company, so don’t be fooled by their high average rating.

Our project (replace all doors and windows in our 2-storey house with PVC product) was promised to be completed before Christmas 2021, but installation only started at the end of January 2022 due to poor internal coordination, as was explained to me. I was told that the installation would take max. 10 working days, but we ended up living on a construction site for more than 3 months. No planning, poor communication and zero accountability from this company.

Elitech's staff turnover is so high that I have dealt with 5 different sales managers since I first approached them for a quote. Each new employee blames everything on his predecessor with no sense for company responsibility. Customer queries and complaints get lost in translation because no-one in management speaks English. Again, no accountability! All employees will readily throw their colleagues and superiors under the bus before they take any responsibility unto themselves. The quality of hardware leaves much to be desired and when you query the shoddy installation, they blame it on the South African labourers. The labourers get zero guidance because the Turkish foreman on site doesn’t speak English and communication is done mostly by hand gestures. Personal items have disappeared from our house during installation and our newly renovated bathrooms got damaged. No apologies and no remedies offered. Sub-contractors that Elitech appointed to do specialised work on the project have asked me for money because Elitech hasn’t paid them in full. Needless to say that those sub-contractors are no longer available to answer for their workmanship defects. According to former employees, there are more customers in the same situation. Two employees have told me that they would leave Elitech due to payment disputes and management’s incompetence.

As at September 2022, Elitech refused to install the seven remaining external doors because I said that I will only pay them the due balance once everything has been completed and all snags are resolved because I don’t trust them to finish the job properly if I let go of that leverage.

This company is a total disaster and I predict that they will have left the country before they attend to defects under warranty.

[Edit:]

After I posted the above review in October 2022, Elitech management contacted me and proposed to complete the job if I deleted my review.

So I took the review down and the doors were installed. I withheld the final payment pending the many snags that still persist, some of which cannot be resolved without removing doors and windows again.

We are back at the point where they refuse to address the snags until I pay them in full, but I have now made my peace with the situation, being poor finishes, damaged doors, leaky windows etc., so I am re-posting my review.

It is unlikely that I will let them onto my property again as some of the issues are unresolvable. This company still has a lot to learn, but they are doing it at the expense of their customers.