Elouise B

E.coli Uvongo Main Beach

We were booked at Uvongo through Van Heerden Letting from Thursday 26 December 2024 up till 02 January 2025. We got there Thursday afternoon, swam on Friday the 27th, my husband swam on Saturday the 28th . My husband got ill that evening, were vomiting and had diarrhoea all at once. We were up the whole night, Sunday he couldn't get up and Monday we packed to come home. When I dropped off the keys the lady wanted to know why we didn't drive to any of the other beaches then to swim. Why would I go to another beach if I made a booking right on the main beach. They took the keys and did not once mentioned that they would refund us anything. As you can imagine it was a very long and painful road back to home. I got sick at 03:00 on the morning of the 31st of December 2024. My husband got an emergency telephonic consultation with our doctor and she said that according to our symptoms she is certain that the both of us have E.coli. We contacted the agency to ask that some of the monies be paid back to us seeing that we do have E.coli. A lady Karen spoke to my husband and told him that we must forward all the slips / receipts to the lady that I dealt with (Bianca) and see if they could ask the owner for a partial refund. Just the slips emailed to them tal**** up to +R2 269.00. I emailed all the slips and receipts as well as a letter from our doctor wherein she states that we have E.coli to Bianca. I did not get a response. My husband again phoned and Karen was the lady that answered again. She told my husband that they had a meeting and was told that no one will get money back as we are not the only people wanting money back. My husband mentioned that we got sick at the main beach and the flags were up and there were lifeguards while we swam. The lady mentioned that the flags would be down if there were anything wrong, when my husband asked whether she is insinuating that he is lying, she said that is not what she is saying but it is just weird. Firstly this morning there were a video on Facebook about a guy that tested the water at Uvongo main beach and it was the highest count it has ever been BUT he showed that although there is no-one on the beach, the FLAGS ARE UP. I have a photo of his review showing the flags. When we asked when our breakage deposit will be paid back she told my husband that she (Bianca) will get to it. We were paid back R1200.00 (R500 breakage deposit and R700 admin fee). I got an email from Bianca telling me that they are not paying any monies back but that she spoke to her boss to refund us the admin fee as well. To this day myself and my husband are still battling with the E.coli on and off. This is so difficult to work. Surely they or the owners of the units must have a type of insurance for such things or are we just supposed to loose our money?