Devan M

Nashua Durban - Misrepresentation and Clear Violation of CPA

I have been a loyal client of Nashua Durban from 2012 and we renewed our contract in 2016. We have a system that catered for 16 phone lines, CCTV and Access Control. We sold our business in 2017 and while negotiating the terms of the deal, I contacted Nashua to see how we can "downgrade" our system and pay a lesser amount to them. Our billing at the time was approx R4600. A sales consultant advised us in writing that he will be able to reduce our bill to R2500 per month. We agreed and then he advised us that we would have to do a "new" contract. Once all paperwork was done, I was debited for an amount of approx R4500. Not understanding why, i immediately contacted the management of the company for an explanation. I was told that certain items were excluded which was their mistake. Then, i asked for them to cancel everything and get back to our original contract which had a lower settlement figure that the new one. (Old settlement approx R160 000 - New Settlement - approx R245 000. I was advised that this was impossible and cannot be done. I was furious and demanded answers from their general manager of sales who flat out refused via email that he cannot help me further and the new contract stands. I was duped and mislead into signing a contract that put me in a worse off situation. They refused to reason with me and handed me over to their attorneys. I received incorrect advise from Nashua and was put in a situation that I did not ask for. They say that cannot go back to the "old" contract and have to pay this new one, but the new contract signed has old equipment that was re-financed which means i pay more for. This whole case of misrepresentation and a clear violation of the CPA prompted me to inform their attorneys that I declare this contract null and void and asked that they inform Nashua to remove their equipment from my premises immediately. Their equipment was sealed and unopened. They instructed their clients to comply with the request, but only to half of it as they now advised that I still owe them a settlement amount of approx R260 000. How crazy is this? I need to pay for services that they removed from my premises and still expect me to pay? I lost faith and would not want to deal with them at all. I have written to the Communications Ombud to review this matter and declare my contract with Nashua null and void. this process was started in October 2017 and to date have not got any finality. I would like to cease all communications and dealings with this company.