Kwikot's questionable sub-contractor - SYMS Plumbling

Our geyser burst on 21 July. We informed the insurance company. An assessor came out on the morning of 22 July who informed us that they geyser that was replaced by Kwikot two years ago, is still under warranty and it is thus not an Insurance claim.

Kwikot sent out one of their sub-contractors - SYMS Plumbing who arrived at our home just after 3pm on 22 July.

My laptop is always on the kitchen counter which is where I work from as my husband uses the study. I never move my laptop as this is where I work from every day. I had a Seagate 1TB external hard drive plugged into my laptop. I saved my last document at 14:22 on 22 July. The next day 23 July, I wanted to open a document on my external hard drive. It was no longer plugged into my laptop. I was frantic as it contained documentation dating back to 2011, including copies of our IDs, bank statements, all my backed-up emails, everything that I had been working on, our family pictures since 2011, etc. At first I looked everywhere but I KNEW it was still plugged in as the last document I worked on was saved at 14:22 and SYMS Plumbing arrived just after 15:00. I NEVER remove my external hard drive. The reason I KNOW that I did not "misplace" it is because I am one of "those" people who NEVER removes an external hard drive or a USB from my laptop without following the correct steps. You "eject" it from your laptop and a message will pop up "Safe To Remove Hardware. I made that mistake before and the USB was *******ed and I lost almost everything on it.

The ONLY other people that had unsupervised access to my laptop and hard drive were these two individuals from SYMS Plumbing. I first called one of the senior employees (I since learned that he is the owner) to report the matter. In my opinion, he hesitated before denying that he knew anything about it. I was so desperate that I asked my husband to contact him again the next morning to convince him that we would not take this any further if the device is returned to us. I would have paid to have it returned. We don't care about the cost of the device, it is all our information on the device.

I then contacted Johann Coetzee (Inland Manager) at Kwikot to report that my external hard drive went missing and that the only two individuals who had unsupervised access to it, was the two employees from SYMS Plumbing. He was very abrupt and suggested I search for it as I might have "misplaced it". He told me that it is a very serious accusation and that I need to open a case at the SAPS which I did.

I sent two emails to the insurance company and I copied Johann Coetzee on both. The second email included the case number. He did not bother to reply. It is very simple - all he SHOULD have done was to launch an internal investigation. They could have taken the two individuals' laptops and simply looked at the "history" to find out whether files or folders on my external hard drive were accessed. Instead he apparently spoke to them and was satisfied when both denied taking it. No polygraph test - nothing.

I searched for SYMS Plumbing and they don't even have a website. They have a Facebook page with very little information or activity. The owner has a Facebook page (where it states he is the owner of SYMS Plumbing), Twitter and Instagram profile. I find that very concerning.

I escalated that matter to the Insurance Company who assured me that they have already started an internal process in terms of re-assessing the sub-contractors that they use.

Kwikot use sub-contractors like SYMS Plumbing who I now know is a small company owned by one of the men that was at our house that day.

The public need to be very careful which service providers they allow into their homes so this does not happen to anybody else.

We are extremely disappointed in Kwikot who didn't bother to respond to emails or had the decency to contact us.

I know our external hard drive will never be returned but at least we have a case number for possible identity ***** in future.