Chris A

Very disappointed with Braai culture, will not recommend to anyone.

I placed an online order and paid for it on the 24th of September, for a 4 gas burner braai, with a premium cover. The order said it would be delivered in 5-7 working days. I phoned on the 12th of October to see what had happened to the delivery- now 12 days after the order was placed. I spoke to a lady called Chrisna, who said they had no record of my payment, and they were still waiting for that, I told her it was paid when the order was placed, and gave her the order number. She phoned me back, and said no there had been some delay, and the braai would be delivered later on in the week, but there was a shortage of stock on the cover. She said she would get Joanna from Weber to give me a call as to when the cover would be in stock. I received another call from Chrisna on the 14th of October, to say the braai would be delivered on the following day, the 15th. I asked if they would assemble, and she said she could arrange, but the payment had to be done immediately, and then the assembly would be done the following day. She still said that Weber would phone me about the cover, which they hadn't. The delivery came the following day, on the 15th of October- with one driver and one assitant. They told me that the box was far too heavy to offload, and went around to several of my neighbours to ask if there were any extra people to help them offload. I phoned Chrisna and asked her why only two people were sent when they needed 4 people, she said she was shocked and would get Weber to call me, eventually of several more phonecalls wanting to know the status, I got a call from Weber to apologise, and to ask if they could deliver the following day, I said that would be fine, if they could send an installer who I could pay cash- they agreed. They delivered the following day, and the braai was tested and working. The following Monday I phoned Chrisna again, and enquired as to when the cover would be delivered. She said she didn't know and would get Weber to call me, after not getting called again, I phoned Weber themselves, and they said they didn't know when they would get, as they had no idea as to what is stocked new containers until they got opened. I phone Chrisna again and said to her that we would prefer to take accessories to the value of the cover, and buy a cover in stock from somewhere else. She said she wasnt sure that could be done, it was the part of a special that couldnt be separated and it wasn't there fault etc. She phoned back the following day to say yes it was fine, that could be exchanged- so I asked if she could give me the value to purchase accesories. She told me it was R 559.36. I then went on to their website to see what they offered in the line of accessories. All the braai covers I saw were far more expensive than the figure she had given me. I then phoned again and asked why- she said no it was a discounted braai cover sold with the braai- I pointed out that they couldn't supply the cover, so the accessories should be similarly discounted so it was a fair exchange- she then told me it would then be better to give the money back and I could get it elsewhere. I said then I wanted to escalate the issue and speak to someone more senior- she said I could email her, and she would forward a mail to the company director, but she would not give his contact details. So I have no option but to post on this forum, with the hope that it will get seen by the right people, and resolved amicably.