Ripple C

Unethical business practices

I intended to revamp an old kitchen and install a new very small kitchenette upstairs. I received a quote around January and Wentzel Herbst told me to make payment quickly so that he can schedule the job as his order book was filling up. The job was supposedly scheduled for the second week of March. I started getting worried during the second week of March when I heard nothing about MasterFit or Wentzel. On the 9th March I contacted him notifying him that I will no longer be having a new kitchenette installed and that we have now decided to rather build a new kitchen downstairs. He said there is no problem and not once during the call did he mention that he cut materials for the top kitchenette. During the same week of the 9th March he came out to my house and took new measurements and again never mentioned anything about having cut boards for the top kitchenette. Due to a lack of funding and also not feeling comfortable to use MasterFit I contacted him via email to let him know that I will no longer be needing the services of his company and that I would like a refund. He telephoned me a day or so later and pretended not to have received my email, in any case I again explained the situation that I did not have the required funding and we did not want to go for cheaper materials. Once he realized I was not up for him reducing the quote to make it cheaper (which was actually a steal at the current price given we wanted stone tops installed) he then told me that he already cut the wood for the kitchenette. This was an obvious lie as he never mentioned it before. It is now 3 months since I paid the deposit and more than a month and my money has not been refunded. My lawyer sent him a letter of demand which gave him until last week Thursday to pay back the money which he still has not done. I will now continue pursuing the legal route. I am also intending to approach the media and hopefully prevent others from falling victim to his unethical business practices. If you would like to join me then please contact me via facebook.