VR
Varsha R
Active since Aug 2019
48
Reviews
0
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Reviews
48 reviews3 months ago
Extremely bad attitude
I enrolled my kids with Saving Grace Homeschool from the start of the 2024 school year. Dee is the person I dealt with. There were some start up issues as it was the first time online for us but Dee managed to handle it swiftly and with empathy and compassion. The experience on the whole was so good I advocated for them with many people and a lot of them registered their kids here too. From around March 2025 Dee was no longer available but I dealt with Carmelita, who provided just as good service. This was until the 3rd term of 2025, this is when things suddenly changed, they no longer used their call center number and suddenly Carmelita was no longer with them from 1 November. The entire school went down. The individuals that I did speak to at some point were very arrogant and rude, they pick and when and which emails they want to respond to and whattsapp messages. They either don't answer or keep cutting the call and if by some twist you do get a response via any means they refuse to identify themselves by their names and only identify as Saving Grace Education Team, this way you cannot identify who to hold accountable. My son had an exam in November at 11:30am and they use the invigilator app, at 11:36am the invigilator app was still not allowing him access but showing a message saying it can only be accessed on that date at 11:30am. I recorded the issue and sent it to them via whattsapp as that is what they said to do. I only received a response from someone there after 4pm in the afternoon. This was for a final EXAM. Their response was only to ask if he managed to write his exam. I then emailed them and did get a response from "Saving Grace Education Team" in the sweetest manner possible stating they cannot attend to each individual and are using a system beneficial to everyone . They claimed the students are their priority and they doing everything in the students best interest, to "improve" and Thanked me for taking an interest in my child's schooling. They also stated if I was not happy with the way they now doing things I can leave. This is their attitude. I asked them how was responding at almost 5pm to an issue with the exam that was at 11:30am, to date I am still waiting for their reply. They just chose to completely ignore that. Reports very another stress, the last week before closure, they sent out a message saying they using a new programme which will automatically send out the reports. They were due to close on the 19 December and they set the date for the reports by then as well. It was stressful as when you tried to contact them you could not get through, the phone did not even ring. It seemed like they already closed. This institution went from one of the best under Dee and Carmelita to the Absolute worst. This has been my very good to extremely frustrating and disappointing experience.
112 replies
4 months ago
Unfair/ Wrongful practices
E-Mart in Pinetown, KZN is a hardware store and now also have a household/beauty section. I bought 3 sets of taps with the connectors from them. Two (2) of the taps were for the bathroom sinks which once we got home, we realised by looking at the tap size on the sink that the new ones would not fit. We did not even open the new taps out and decided to return them. The next day from purchase, in the morning I went back to E-mart to return them. The attitude was not good by first the security , then the "Manager". He scrutinised the taps and could clearly see they were still new, then asked a number of questions as to why I am returning it, then said I can go pick whatever else I need and go back to him. He kept the slip and everything else. There were a few things I decided to take and went through to pick it up. Some things I was told by their staff that they are out of stock of and new stock has not come in yet. When I got back to the "manager" he said he has to charge me a 10% charge on the refund. I asked him why as the items were bought the day before, it was untouched basically, what was the charge for. To which his response was that it is written on the slip and I should have read the slip, that is their policy/rule. He then also stated very arrogantly that I have a very bad attitude and he is just the manager , he does not make the rules. Nowhere else as far as I know do they charge you for a return, most places even give you 7 days. These people are basically *****ing. He brought a calculator and manually deducted the 10% amount from the price on the original till slip then manually overrode the till to show the price after deduction. This is how these people are. Its a lesson learned. Unless you willing to Unwilling/forcefully give E-Mart your money for nothing, do not buy from them anything you may need to return, rather buy from honest, decent places.
0 replies
4 months ago
Excellent Service
Yesterday afternoon we walked into Dischem Pavilion branch looking for a leg brace for my dad. We were eventually assisted by a gentleman named Leon Ntombela ( Health Consultant as per his badge). We are really taken aback by the excellent, professional and very respectful and polite manner in which he provided assistance. I wish there were more people like him around.
0 replies
6 months ago
Worst Bank by far
If I could rate this bank, their competence, level of understanding, ease of working with and just overall, I would give it minus stars. If you want to be dealing with problems of FICA being incorrect despite doing it in branch and on the app, then being told its your fault as if we the clients punch the info into their banking system, then dealing with staff that don't understand the issue or choose not to and make your life difficult, this is your bank. After all the frustration, explaining to every person numerous times and realising its best to just close the accounts, you have new dramas as they won't close the account. We decided to have both my kids accounts closed so we went into the 1 branch of ABSA that is the Westville branch were they actually do help, to do that, with all documents on hand. To our surprise, we were informed by the very friendly Zama there that she can send the request through but they cannot actually close the account immediately due to their branch not having tellers. She did send the request through and informed us that someone from ABSA will give us a call within 3 working days to confirm the closure. This was yesterday. Today we received that call and ...spoke to a Revelacia Williams ( spelling could be wrong). The call was for my 17 yr old daughters account and she answered and gave me the phone. Despite giving Ms Williams both my ID number and my daughters as well as the email address and phone number on the account and confirming we went in Westville branch yesterday and requested the closure, she also asked what type of account it is, to which I told her we do not know what the account is called but its a kids account as that's the account I opened for them. She then continued to say I have failed the security questions and will need to take my documents and go into a branch. What nonsense. This is by far the worst bank I've had to deal with in a long time.
71 replies
6 months ago
ABSA Pavilion- worst bank and staff to ever deal with
ABSA Pavilion branch is by far one of the worst banks to deal with. Their Pavilion branch especially. Staff are unfriendly and don't know what to do most of the time. The bank is never really full yet you got to wait forever for service. Theres no acknowledgement either. My most frustrating experience for the second time in a few months was today. I have accounts for my children aged 15 and 17 at 2 other banks besides ABSA. Last year we had amendments done to our ID's. My 17 yr old's and mine were ready months ago and we took the new ID document to have it updated at the various banks. Absolute pleasure at the other banks and it took the staff like 5 minutes to do the updates. Then comes ABSA, we waited and waited, eventually the staff member at customer service said they cannot do the update, I need to see a consultant, only they can do it. Theres only 2 places for a consultant as is seen to the public in that branch and both were empty. Then the staff member called Shiksha came in from lunch. By this time my pressure was rising, eventually, Shiksha was the one to help us, we sat and waited, again, just waiting, no acknowledgement nothing while she is having a conversation with other members of staff. Eventually I asked what was going on to which she said her computer takes a while to boot up, she is waiting for that. Nevertheless, she eventually updated both mine and my 17 yr old's details. Today, knowing customer service cannot help from experience we waited for the consultant, one of whom being Shiksha. We were then called in to another lady within a cubicle who said to me I need to go to customer service as only they can do the update. I explained what happened previously but she still insisted and took me to customer service, a lady name "Tobikile" ( I probably have the spelling wrong) who insisted she needs to redo FICA and I have to give her proof of residence and my ID. I gave her my ID but did not have proof of residence on me and was not about to run around and get it as 2 other banks did the updates perfectly well and fast just with the ID document. Nevertheless, even Shiksha insisted yes she remembers but the rules have now changed and they cannot do the update without those other documents to redo FICA. The most frustrating bunch. All banks should be following the same rules/laws unless ABSA is "SPECIAL" as they different and give their clients a hard time. They refused to sort the update out, I was going to close the account to which "Tobikile " at customer service desk sat back and says they cannot close the account, for that I need to go to the cashiers. I just walked out, it can close itself. Absolutely ridiculous, there will be some issues you experience with different banks but its how their attitude is and willingness to help is and if I could give ABSA a minus I would, definitely the worst. But they get 100% or more for making their clients lives difficult. Again, all banks should be governed by the same rules, so if there was no issue with the other 2 banks in updating the details with the original Home Affairs document and it was done in under 5 minutes, what's ABSA's problem? And they did update my details together with my 17 yr old's a few months ago.
159 replies
12 months ago
Further to my POWER OF ATTORNEY Complaint
Further to my POWER OF ATTORNEY Complaint. FNB loans dept, an Effy Mtembi emailed me claiming I need to send through another complaint and attach the Power of Attorney to it also adding they complaint is on behalf of my husband and they don't have my contact details. The only contact details FNB has is mine. He removed his completely after their continuous disregard for the power of attorney and ".harassed" him at work. So, if FNB ever calls, they would be calling me. And this email basically now says that FNB has once again magically lost the Power of Attorney that was done a few months ago for the 4th or 5th time again since 2008. Completely frustrating situation and utterly useless staff
58 replies
13 months ago
An employee of FNB called me today
An employee of FNB called me today. Since 2006 my husband has numerous times done a FULL POWER OF ATTORNEY at their branches because they just "don't see or understand it". We are having endless problems because of this and their employee had the audacity to tell me " ask your husband to give you power of attorney" today. REALLY??? He had to go to the extent of removing his work number as they even started harassing him at work despite him telling them numerous times they have to deal with me. Extremely *********** staff and pathetic service as far as this issue goes.
53 replies
15 months ago
Bonita's medical aid don't care attitude
We have been trying to contact Bonitas medical aid for the past 3 weeks in an attempt to join one of their medical aid plans. It is shocking how difficult it is to get to them. All their modes of contact are for pre existing members, without a membership number you at a dead end. About 2 weeks ago, eventually a lady did call me, Stella, claiming to be one of the agents appointed by Bonitas, she sent me the quote via email and I never heard from her again, despite me attempting to contact her and even emailing her twice to get back to me. Eventually we got an agent to help. The forms were filled out and sent through together with all the documents required. There was no communication from Bonitas, my agent called and was told the application was declined because "there was no agent email address sent". REALLY??? Nevertheless he resent the application and documents clearly showing his email address. Today, after a week even he cannot get any proper answers, the application has not been captured and no idea or reason given. Ive tried their online application twice right now and after having to go through the entire process of adding in the details it says " OOPs !!!!! Internal server error , Please contact the system admins". This is becoming more and more ridiculous. They have all our details now and banking details which means we are stuck as they can at anytime either sort the application out or alot of time will go causing us issues as we have cancelled our previous medical aid in December 2024 and if we go ahead and manage to find another with someone else and then Bonitas starts debiting we have a problem. This is extremely concerning.
106 replies
16 months ago
Saving Grace Homeschool
Last year, 2024 was the first time we enrolled our kids with Saving Grace Homeschool. We were terrified as we were used to the traditional schools but we took the decision to move them to an online/homeschool. I went through many many online schools and decided on Saving Grace. I spoke to Dee and had been in communication with her from the start. As any business, school or basically anything, you will have some issues or "problems" which is inevitable, but whenever an issue did arise, Dee was most accommodating and helpful and resolved it without delay. Issues like the paper not being on my child's profile on time or the canvas app not being set up by us accordingly. Dee sorted them out immediately. Dee spoke to my daughter to help build up her confidence and feel better when she was feeling anxious about her papers. I found this to be very caring. Dee has always answered and put at ease all and any queries or doubts we had in our minds no matter how insignificant it might have seemed to others. I am the kind of person who must be sure and clear as much as possible about anything especially when it comes to my kids and Dee has been very understanding in that unlike Camelita who seemed to have gotten annoyed when questioned about a specific fee. Maybe she was having an off day. I have also spoken once to someone named Promise there, also very friendly and willing to help as much as she could. Dee seems to be the only one who knows what to do or able to help parents in a calm, understanding and friendly manner and she seems to understand where we come from when we do question things which we really appreciate. The lessons are ok but I wish they would put in all the assignments or assessments required for the year or even term early and not at the last minute. The maths final paper had a test run paper that was available only from midnight the night before the final paper till a couple days after. No one really expects to do a test run after they already wrote the finals for the year. The exams are set right up until the last day of the term and school year which I feel would be better if it were held a bit earlier like some other online schools and the traditional schools which hopefully enable us parents to get the child's report when school closes. Reports were set for the 20 December, I got my son's report before 1pm but was extremely stressed trying to get a time for my daughters report which was eventually sent around 5pm. So, if they could hold exams a bit earlier, we could get the reports by the end of the school year. Both my kids will be in the FET phase from this year and in this phase we dont really get an estimate of the outcome of their papers until the report comes, unlike the lower grades. Saving Grace has been very good with responding and clarifying any points we might have picked up from the papers which is great. They understand if there is an unexpected power failure as well and make arrangements accordingly. My daughter loves her teachers/ invigilators, so I can say that whomever they are, they make the kids feel relaxed and good, something that is appreciated especially at a time when their anxiety levels are quiet high. On the whole, Saving Grace is a school I recommend. Dee's service and understanding is what makes me happy with the school as when an issue does arise (which is not that much) she is very efficient in resolving it. If she were not there, I would be prepared to take a chance with another school. I and my kids do wish they would load the assignments/assessments earlier though and even hold the exams a bit earlier so reports especially final reports are out early.
0 replies
20 months ago
One of the worst Insurance companies you can ever have
SA Homeloans Insurance is one of the absolute worst and waste of our hard earned money to have. The excuse used on insisting on having building insurance by them is simply to safeguard against damage in unforeseen circumstances. This is understandable and the reason a lot of people take out various types of insurance. As far as our experience with SA Homeloans Insurance goes thus far, they are just rogues and their "building insurance" is just legalized *****ing. We have had 2 incidents with our roof since they insured the property 5 years ago, both times they use the excuse of lack of maintenance with the added threat that we need to have it sorted out or they will not entertain any further claims. Yet they take the money every month and refuse to cancel the building insurance. The first time they sent a guy who took pictures of the roof so they have those and when they declined we took a loan and had the roof redone. 2 years later, possibly due to ******s, some tiles on the roof are cracked causing some damage to a portion of the roof. We only noticed after the recent rains when it came through the roof. I'm sorry but we don't regularly go onto the roof so we did not suspect anything previous to this. The guy they sent through, also took photos and they have them. The old roof tiles (original) were a completely different kind and actually no longer in production, when we redid the roof about 2 years ago, New tiles ( Roman) were put on. SA Homeloans has these pictures yet still decline using the excuse of lack of maintenance. Their consultants are very rude and arrogant even suggesting we take a loan from them to have the roof sorted. What is the point of paying for the insurance meant to cover you in times like this if they really won't? At the end of it all, all they want it your money and are experts at coming up with excuses not to fulfil their end of the deal and making things very difficult. Yes they have then a grievience route. Besides it being a time waster as it will take you forever to get them to give you any kind of answer, and you will be going back and forth while your property just deteriorates further. You are the only one at a loss, they are smiling as you pay them and still have to dig yourself deeper into debt to sort something out they should have.
106 replies
Review Distribution
5 Star
3 (6.25%)
4 Star
3 (6.25%)
3 Star
1 (2.0833333333333335%)
2 Star
7 (14.583333333333334%)
1 Star
34 (70.83333333333333%)