Aircon repairs by Alcablez

1. On 24 September 2022 I paid R2 550 to Alcablez for repairs to our aircon that had stopped cooling. The cause was a leak in the system resulting in the loss of gas.

2. Three weeks later when we used the aircon for the first time since the repairs were made, we discovered a recurrence of the earlier problem.

3. We notified Alcablez of the problem. Technicians came to our premises a second time, and on 25 October 2022, quoted us a further R4 430 to repair our aircon. I accepted the quote, but subject to the amount of R2 550 which we had paid for the earlier failed attempt at repair, being deducted from the new quote.

4. In email correspondence with the company, and in response to my conditional acceptance of their new quote, I was told that they would deduct only half (R1 275) of the amount we paid for the original failed repair. When I asked for confirmation from them that they would be prepared to reimburse this half-portion of R 1 275 (which I still believe is insufficient), they appeared to backtrack further, stating that they would in fact be reimbursing none of the R2 550.

5. The reason they proffered for their refusal to offer any reimbur*****t was that they could not guarantee the welding that they had to do on our old piping. When pressed further on this, they stated that they could only guarantee repairs to stock that they had installed.

6. For a company that advertises its services as an aircon repairer (and not just an aircon installer), it is extraordinary that they are not prepared to guarantee their own repair work, not even in cases where their attempts at repair fail within a few weeks.

7. This position might have been acceptable had we been alerted at the start to the risk that repairs to the piping might fail. However, no limitation of guarantee on any component of the repairs was issued, nor were we alerted to such a risk. Indeed, had we been aware of the risk, we would have asked for a more permanent and reliable solution to be found.

8. All of the above points were communicated to Alcablez, but these appeals failed to persuade them to change their position. This complaint to Hello Peter is the consequence.

John van den Berg (Brooklyn, Pretoria).