You need to watch these guys. They are not as capable, honorable and reliable as meets the eye.

I am not sure if their aim is to rip you off as much as possible or if it is a case that they just don't know what they are doing, but let's start from the beginning and you decide for yourself.

I have to include that on a previous occasion, a few years earlier I have a similar situation with Gergen's, however that was with a much older oven and I thought, well maybe this time would be different.... different technicians, different mindset, maybe different management. In other words, give them the benefit of the doubt.

I have a double door Defy Gemini Cordon Bleu oven, the top oven is working 100% fine, so no problem there. The bottom oven has three elements... a grill at the top and then a top and bottom element for baking that work together and turn on together. The grill element works on its own and is working.

It so happened that both the top and bottom baking elements stopped working at the same time, which made me think that it is either a thermostat or switch or something like that to make both elements fail at the same time.... something common to both elements, since the likelihood that both elements would fail at the same time is very unlikely and the chances of that happening is almost zero.

So, I call Bergen's to come and have a look at my oven. The cost of the callout is R695.00 which includes 30 minutes of labour. I accepted the quote and made an EFT payment into their account for the full amount.

A day later two technicians arrive and I explain the situation to them as above. They turn the oven one, then continue stare at the oven for 10-15 minutes, debating the situation between them and periodically in-between they feel if the elements are actually heating up... which obviously doesn't happen, because if they did get hot, I would not have called them for a repair in the first place.

After this period of time the one technician told me that both elements are faulty and that they both need to be replaced. I then asked and said that I do not thing that it is the elements that are at fault, since it is virtually impossible for both elements to fail at the same time. The replay I got was, and I quote, "We know what we are doing. This is our job. It is definitely the elements that are faulty" I again commented that I do not think that it is the element, upon which the rely was. "100% it is the elements." I left it at that. They then left and quoted me on replacing the elements and obviously the labour associated with the replacing of the elements.

The quotation came to R2593.60 for which again I made an EFT payment. By myself I thought that it was rather expensive since the cost of the elements, I have to buy it myself, would cost me around R500, but needless to say, I now already spent R695 on a callout and at this point selecting someone else to attend to the problem would cost me another callout fee and probably the same price to fix the problem.... so, I excepted the situation for what it is.

Two days later they arrive with the elements and again I asked, are you sure the problem is with the elements. The reply was a resounding ""Yes, we am 100% sure". After a huge battle in trying to force fit the top element, it turned out that it was the wrong element. With all of my elements now removed, I took a multimeter and measure the impedance (resistance) of the so called "faulty" elements and compare their resistance to the new elements. Needless to say, the impedance of all the "old" elements all three of them, were exactly the same as the new ones. If an element is faulty, you will not get a reading on that element and definitely not the same reading as a new element..... similar to a light bulb that is blown.

I then again posed the question, are you sure the problem is with the elements since the reading on the so-called faulty elements are the exact same as the new ones. The answer again came back as "The problem is definitely the elements... 100 percent".

They then left, leaving here with my working elements to go buy the correct new working elements and returned that afternoon with only their newly purchased elements. They fitted these elements, all three of them, and to their shocking surprise the oven did not work.

Now it was time to take the oven out of it's cavity and actually do some faultfinding as to why the oven does not work. It turned out that it was a single wire that was faulty hence the elements did not turn.

The one technician then preceded with a massive elaborate story as to why the elements was replaced and, and, and, to justify their incompetence and me having to pay for the replacement of parts that did not need replacement... all absolute nonsense in my opinion.

The end result being the fact that I now paid a total of R3288.60 to have a broken wire repaired, together with a very long bull**** story, trying to justify it.

In other word, if the technician, during the callout on the first attempt did some fault finding to establish what the problem was, I would maybe have spent the cost of an additional 30 minutes of labour over and above the initial callout fee of R695 including 30 minutes labour instead of spending R3288.60.

Hence my opening comment that it is either about seeing how much they can milk a customer for and get as much money out of him, since they believe the customer does not know anything about electricity or electronics and that they can tell him whatever they like because he will be none the wiser. Or it is a case that collectively between two technicians they are totally *********** in fault finding a problem on a standard oven, or maybe it is a bit of both.

You be the judge.