VN
Vusi N
Active since Aug 2010
9
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Reviews
9 reviews30 months ago
I WOULD NOT recommend The Venue on Leslie
I WOULD NOT recommend The Venue on Leslie. It is not worth all the stress and anxiety that come with it. The space is beautiful but the attitude of staff and management are appalling and atrocious. I first made contact in March 2023 to book my son's 1st birthday party. We agreed that seeing I am UK based I'd fly in to view and venue and finalise. I did that in April 2023, agreed on dates and rates and I left for the UK. In June they were not responsive to my messages as I could not make phone calls due to the geographical distance, only to find that the manager I dealt with had been fired and a new one was in place. I reached out to the owner Wendy Alberts and she right away told me to deal with Tayla which I did. This is was the beginning of my horror. Tayla insisted hiring of decor be from them and it was compulsory. But my communication with the previous manager was that hiring from them is an option, and that is what drew me more to the venue as I could use the blank canvas to dress it up myself. Tayla was such that she was pushing so much despite me saying the party is themed and I have my decor in mind and she wanted to give me picnic style benches which were not part of my theme. She insisted that tableware (cutlery and crockery) must be hired from them and I said NO because I have my own and the venue was sold to be as self catering, no corkage space and besides not everyone coming to the party would need this so why would I waste money on that if the catering which as done from my office as an event company we had this in our storage. I partnered with a caterer who would from their end bring additional cutlery and crockery. She was almost forcing me to hire even ice buckets branded Moet and I said NO because I am bringing Veuve and Mumm champagne so why would I need a branded ice bucket? Then the rates suddenly changed because she could not lock me in all the hiring. She did not pay into account the communication exchanges that I had with her predecessor until such a point I had paid my deposit. Their venue terms suggest that once you pay a deposit you are agreeing to the rates and to the dates and terms. But she said her predecessor did not charge the correct rate so she had to up the rate to R2000 per hour. The previous manager said it was R1500 per hour and we negotiated the rate down to R1200 per hour with a set up fee of R500 per hour. But now that she was no longer there the rate went up to R2000 and I fought this to which I escalated to Wendy the owner and she said speak to Tayla she deals with that and capable of adjusting, but Tayla said her boss refused on the rate which tells me the communication that was happening between them in the background was not honest. Weeks later she came back to say ok I am doing you a favour I will discount to R1500 per hour. In fact the R1500 was not discounted, it was the actual going rate. While I was back in the UK dealing with this atrocity, I could no longer get hold of both Wendy and Tayla which potentially suggested they blocked me. I escalated this to my lawyer in South Africa who then called Tayla and indicated that they are actually in breach and if this was not remedied we would go full on legal. Tayla then unblocked me. Did she apologise? No she did not, instead she said she felt harrassed by me not taking her word despite her helping me and doing me all the favours, but me wanting to always tell her about what I had agreed with her predecessor. So she was helping me and I am paying client who is simply sticking to facts and I was not supposed to stand up for myself and let them walk all over me? Fast forward to the event, I added an extra set up time and asked to finish the event one hour later. This was arranged a week prior and I paid for that. On the day of the event just before we vacated the space, Tayla brought me a document I signed for the closing and I asked when my deposit will be paid back. Tayla in her own words said 5 days later. We are now a month later and my deposit has not been paid and I messaged her a week ago 3 times and she did not reply, only to reply today saying there is no refund because we overstayed but we left at 19:45 for what should have been a 20:00 finish. I am not interested in reasoning with these people because surely it's a trend and they get away with it all the time. I am looking at their reviews now which I should have looked at before booking, and the reviews have a common thread: bad attitude, sudden change of rates midway, bad communication, passing the buck, bad management issues, bad team issues etc. So I will leave it here but I would not recommend them sadly.
0 replies
35 months ago
Laughing Lizard / Pattern Dynamics
Bernadette left a very bitter taste in my mouth. I feel exploited for my money that every time you commission something to her she wants money first but at time of delivery gives excuses. She did my patterns, two CMT's sampled them and they came out wrong and she suggested to sample them herself which I got extra fabric at my own cost for that. After she sampled I wanted my files which intellectual property is mine because I paid for them. She gave one excuse after another. She doesn't take ownership of the flaws she had which could have been avoided had she been reasonable enough. I will never go back to her ever again. She herself strained the relationship by not wanting to be honest and fair in her dealings. More of this is saved in my texts as evidence to show.
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38 months ago
Terrible, poor, appalling and horrible
Terrible attitude from Gift. He came to my house to measure the space and confirmed how much grass was needed and the cost. I paid for that and he delivered. My garden guy came to lay the grass and we had half of the grass left over. I called Gift to notify him and requested a refund on the left over grass he miscalculated and he said he will refund. He’s now changed his tune that it’s our fault we didn’t lay all the grass. Lay it where, when we’ve filled up the space. He asked for my banking details and since given me a run around I’ve even told him to keep the refund because it’s been since last year September this has been going on and I can keep up with his excuses. Wouldn’t recommend him.
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44 months ago
DO NOT trust leather aid
I’m writing another review to let people know that Leather Aide still owes me money months after they failed to deliver on my job. Phillip said in July he will refund me within 2 weeks and it is now 8 weeks later he has not bothered to refund me.
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45 months ago
Leather Aid is avoiding my calls
Empty promises yet again by this company. They said they will refund my money but they’re now avoiding me. It’s been weeks and they’ve blocked my calls.
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45 months ago
Unprofessional Leather Aid
I am fighting to get my R5000 money back from Leather Aid which they are avoiding my calls following them collecting my couch for nearly 9 weeks for restorations and it was dumped in their Joburg container while they told me it was finished. Everyday they gave me excuses on delivery for weeks such that I had to go to the police and I was able to get the couch and send it to another company. Phillip said he would refund my money back but he has since blocked my calls and not answering my messages. No one in their office is responding to my concerns.
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45 months ago
Leather Aid are crooks
Don't be fooled by some of the positive reviews from this company. They are crooks. I am fighting to get my money back which they are avoiding my calls following them collecting my couch for nearly 9 weeks for restorations and it was dumped in their Joburg container while they told me it was finished. Everyday they gave me excuses on delivery for weeks such that I had to go to the police and I was able to get the couch and send it to another company. Phillip said he would refund my money back but he has since blocked my calls and not answering my messages. They are crooks
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46 months ago
Avoid Leather Aid by all means. Worst service ever
Avoid Leather Aid at all costs. It doesn’t matter how desperate you are but never give them a job. I commissioned Phillip 9 weeks ago and paid him full. The first excuse was the collection of the leather couch for restoration. The second excuse was load-shedding, and the third excuse was him being at a dentist and didn’t take calls for a week. Another excuse was that he uses third parties- information he didn’t divulge to me when I commissioned the job. 9 weeks later my couch is not back and I’ve opened a police case. The police spoke to him. He doesn’t even seem to realise his flaws but thinks I’m unreasonable to demand a couch that’s been 9 weeks out of the house for a job he promised would take 1 week. His employees are also rude and they speak over you as a clients. As far as I’m concerned I’ll never give him business nor recommend him. Sadly I saw reviews after my couch was taken, else I would not have given them business in the first place.
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91 months ago
Appalling service - Way below substandard
Signed up for fibre. I was stood up twice for installation when I had to be the one asking why technicians did not arrive as scheduled. Upon installation and router delivered, there was a problem with splicing which had to be fixed and it was left indefinite. I was again the one doing all the follow ups. Once this was fixed after countless calls to them and no decency to feedback, internet was not working and I reported this only to be given a one liner: Your service is active. Did you perhaps even bother helping me connect and have a password/user name which I did not know where to find? No! I figured that out myself. Took screen shots of the connectivity and emailed them to the info email address but tickets just get closed without solutions. Today, Saturday 20 Oct 2018, I rang up at 09:00am to ask what the issue was and was told router timed out and they'd get back to me in 5 mins, by 11:00am I was still waiting to be called which I called back and I was told in the next hour. It is now 15:00 and no one still called, left all stranded and working on my 3G. I am taking this to ICASA, Competition commission and National Consumer Commission because I want my full installation refund and cancel this appalling service. You can't charge me R2000+ installation and 5 days later we we still battling with connection and you get away with keeping my money.
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9 (100%)