Geyser burst within 5 year guarantee period, but no response from Kwikot!

I have a geyser from Kwikot installed in my house with a 5-year guarantee. The guarantee is valid for another year and only expires in 2021. Early this week (Monday) my geyser burst and I had our complex’s maintenance team verify that the geyser was still under guarantee and that it was in fact a geyser burst. The complex management reached out to Kwitkot and provided them with my details for them to contact me to schedule a replacement. I was assigned a case number (Case no 53-222366) via email and informed that someone would phone me to make the necessary arrangements.

Tuesday 28 July I was contacted by what I can only assume is one of their sub-contractors Black Gravity Consulting. I was told that the geyser replacement would take place the following day (Wednesday) during the morning. I quickly informed by boss that the geyser replacement would take place the following morning and proceeded to cancel all my meetings for the morning. The Wednesday morning came and went with no news form Kwitkot. At 15:00 in the afternoon I eventually phoned the number which contacted me the previous day to find out what was keeping them. I was then told that I apparently phoned them earlier the morning and cancelled the geyser replacement and told them that I would do the replacement myself using a private plumber (I have no idea what idiot would cancel a geyser replacement which is under guarantee and choose to make use of another plumber/company which that person would then have to pay. It just doesn’t make any sense). In any case, I proceeded to inform the person on the other side of the phone that there was obviously some sort of mix up as I did definitely not cancel my appointment with them. After arguing with the man for about 10min, he went through the paper work and confirmed that he had accidentally mixed up two job cards and cancelled my appointment by mistake.

I then reached out to Kwikot again via email (***) and explained the situation late Wednesday afternoon. I received a reply a few minutes later stating that they would send out someone to replace the geyser the following day. I attempted to find out what time more or less what time they would come on the Thursday, but was completely ignored. I then proceeded to cancel ALL of my meetings again for the Thursday. Thursday also came and went with no-one pitching up. I again tried to make contact with Kwikot, but this time was completely ignored. I again have cancelled ALL of my meetings on Friday as I wait for them to hopefully pitch up today. They do not respond to any contact attempt what so ever.

With all of my client meeting that I have cancelled this week, it has cost me a fortune. I wish I had rather just bought a new geyser myself. As I was scrolling though HelloPeter before writing this I came across quite a few complaints around the “5-year guarantee” on Kwitkot’s geysers. It would seem that I am not the only one that they refuse to help when a geyser bursts in the guarantee period. I guess customer service just isn’t important to some companies and they would not hesitate to exploit their customers even though they are legally obligated to do the replacement since it is still under guarantee. I assume their plan is to just ignore me for another year until the 5-year time period has passed and will then very quickly reach out to me to replace the geyser then at full cost. It is sad that people do business like this.