Atrocious Service !!!!!!!

I have NO WORDS to describe the atrocious service received form ACDC Head Office. I purchased ACDC 60 LED Emergency Lights when our load shedding became a day to day situation awhile ago. At that stage they advertised their products but did not have enough stock to deliver. I only received my back order after around 3/4 months. As you know our load shedding issues come and go, so once all my lights were in place there was no load shedding.

Once loading shedding timetables started I noticed that the lights purchased did not last the duration as marked clearly on the box (4 hours). This seemed like a fair duration taking into consideration how long our loadshedding is. However, the ACDC Emergency Light does not last 4 hours as specified, but only lasts for +-45 minutes. That’s right 45 minutes!!

I went back to the ACDC branch where I purchased these lights and told them the problem. The branch was kind enough to replace 6 of the lights for me at no charge as they saw the product was NOT delivering as indicated. This exchange was done only a couple of months after my original purchase, not even a full year. Loadshedding then calmed down, but I had the new lights ready to work. Several weeks passed and load shedding started, only to find that the new ACDC Emergency Lights also only last +-45 minutes as the previous product.

I once again got into contact with the branch regarding the new emergency lights that were NOT working correctly. They then gave me a number for a guy named Clive from Head Office who would be able to assist me as this seemed like a manufacturing issue. I contacted Clive explaining what has been happening since my original purchase. He then agreed to come to my house and inspect the lights for himself after several weeks. All invoices etc. were sent to Clive as proof. He took the Liberty of taking 2 lights to get tested by Head Office.

Days had passed and I had no response from Clive. When trying to contact him or send a message, he never answers and only responds with “I’ll call you back”. Which he never did. I then took the liberty of lodging a complaint on the ACDC website, hoping that someone else will be able to assist me regarding this ongoing issue. After my complaint lodged on their website, a lady named Chante contacted me and asked for all correspondence with Clive and what my query was about. All details were sent to Chante who escalated this complaint to the relevant parties. Later that week a lady named Eloise then emailed me asking for all information regarding this matter, which I had to give again. After the email received from Eloise, I then had a guy named Bertus who contacted me and made High and Low promises that he will do his best to get this matter resolved and he will give me feedback soon on how far the inspection on the lights are.

Not having any feedback for days after his call, I then emailed Eloise back to tell her that Bertus has also failed to respond. Surprisingly Bertus phoned me stating he was surprised that his name was mentioned in the second email but he will look into the matter. Are the staff at ACDC Head Office so busy that they don’t remember who they talk to, or don’t they actually give a damn to help customers and solve ALL COMPLAINTS PENDING ???

I then had to give Bertus ANOTHER rundown again about my complaint and that I have not received any report back on why the Emergency Lights kept on failing and what solution are we coming to. A day or so later after speaking to Bertus, I eventually had feedback from Clive (the original guy that assisted me in the beginning) but just for the record this matter has been ongoing for 12 to 18 months from the first complaint.

This is very confusing, but it had to take numerous complaints and speaking to different people just to get a conclusion on the matter as Clive & Head Office was probably hoping that I will give up regarding this matter. Sorry to all ACDC staff and Head Office, but I will NOT leave this matter hanging as I’ve purchased 13 x Emergency Lights from them expecting the service from the units as stipulated on the box. Firstly its false advertising and also infuriating products supp**** to the public.

The final report sent to me via email is a report/email from a guy named George (the workshop repairs manager). The feedback from George was quite rude as he stated that the purchase was made more than a year ago on these lights and that basically that is why the lights were not lasting for 4 hours and that there is NO WARRANTY on these lights. Not knowing that this was a problem from day one and the product NEVER DELIVERED THE SERVICE AS STIPULATED!!

So, the products from ACDC states one thing but does not mean you are going to get the service delivery as promised. Secondly they will drag the investigation out till all warranties/guarantees are invalid and let's not comment on their customer care!!!

I will be putting a complaint in by the ombudsman regarding this matter.