R & E Refrigeration

Poor Man's Business

On 27 August 2022 we made contact with this "establishment" and requested assistance as our fridge was not working for a few days. We tried to get hold of another so called Port Alfred Technician and he to was not able to assist. Monday the 29th he (Rob Brunette) came and gave us a quote and informed us that it was the compressor that was at fault and has to be replaced. He provided a quote and we were told to pay an upfront fee to order same, which we did. On 30 August he replaced the compressor on-site, and left. On Friday the 2nd of September we called and informed him that the said compressor is making a noise and he must come and take another look. He arrived and spent a total of 5 minutes on site, wherein he confirmed "no it has to make that sound, and will do so for the next few days", and left. On Sunday the 4th of September we informed him once again that the fridge is not cooling, and that not even the ice trays are frozen. Monday the 5th he decided to remove the fridge (Double Door) from the site (house) and replace it in the interim with his bar fridge and a small chest freezer until ours is fixed. No communication at all throughout the course of the time. If you don't get in touch with him you never know what the issue is with the fridge. After making contact with him on the 12th of September, he informed via email that it is no longer the compressor but the Valve that needs to be replaced and there will be additional costs involved. We informed him that we will not feed his bill as he now claims that the new compressor is also broken. *Bearing in mind that when this fridge was removed from the property it was tilted upside down, on its side, and transported in the bakkie on its side.* Anyone who has ever worked on or with a fridge will tell you that when you move a fridge it ALWAYS HAS TO BE IN THE UPRIGHT POSITION. No matter what. On the 16th of September still nothing until we made contact again. He was now blaming HiSense for their delay in responding to his query/ies. I in the interim logged a complaint to HiSense on this same platform (HelloPeter.com) and all of a sudden he miraculously received notification from them that the valve is on its way. 22 September I received notification that the part is on its way. Since the nothing. Not a word, no feedback, nothing from him. On 30 September I requested another follow up wherein I asked when we can expect the fridge back as it has almost been a month?? 3 October I receive feedback saying that he fitted the valve BUT now it is NOT THE VALVE that is at fault??? There appears to be an "intermitted fault on the pc board"?? He has now referred it to PE Electronics and we need to deal with them, to which we replied we will not do so, as he is our point of contact and we refuse to call every Tom, **** & Harry. On 7 October we received communication from him to inform us that PE Electronics are not in a position to repair this, as HiSense has to do this. So we are now back with HiSense for sake of convenience with more than a month later and we still dont have our fridge repaired. There is NO SENSE of URGENCY ito the level of service and to be honest Rob aka R & E Refrigeration has no cooking clue what the problem is on how to fix the fridge. He first accused us as we apparently did not give him a choice to repair the fridge at his place of business, which is utter ****, and we informed him of this. If he had done a proper analysis or diagnostic check on the fridge and the magnitude of the repairs that had to be done, he would not have been in this predicament where he now conveniently sits with our fridge and FULL PAYMENT to date on repairs of something which was not even at fault in the first place. He himself (Rob) was not even on-site when the fridge was opened and repaired. He dropped his worker here and left, and came back to pick him up hours later. In no shape or form was this man even remotely aware on the scope of work, nor does he know what it entails to repair fridges. In our experience he should not even be allowed to trade as the service level is non existent, and he clearly has no clue on what he is doing. Service levels like this should not be entertained in South Africa anymore. He was very quick to send the invoice and ask for payment, a few days later, BUT once the money was paid you have to cope and deal with his small fridges and just manage until he DECIDES it is now time to fix your fridge and to return it. This matter has now gone viral and we will inform everyone on social media platforms NOT to do business with someone as incompetent as this. Again be cautious of people like this, as they have no clue what goes on hence the reason we had to call him back 3 times to come and look at the fridge. He blamed it on the compressor, then the valve, then HiSense, then PE Electronics, and now were are back at HiSense again. **PUBLIC be ware of entities like this! Should this matter not be resolved within the next week, we will go Legal.