Builders and Lalela

To whom it may concern,

I am writing you this email to express my dissatisfaction about the way you operate as a big reputable company.

I purchased an inverter around the 14th of January, it was a brand from Lalela. On the day we made the purchase I made sure to ask 1 or 2 members of the store about the quality of the brand as it was my first time seeing it, and they all assured me that it was the best this also included the Lalela ambassador. They told us that the battery last over 4 hours depending what we plugged in.

We had for the first 2 months and it worked great, then it started deteriorating, it went from 4 hours to 30mins. Please bare in mind that we literally only plugged the TV, WiFi and DStv decorder.

I called the shop and the gentle whom works at the return/exchange department or electrical department told me to return the item and Lalela will replace the battery as it was still under warranty. But he also mentioned a few things that left me uneasy as customer.

1. He mentioned that alot of the clients bring back this problem due to the weak battery - Again this was very concerning as to why builders continues to sell this product. 2. He told me that within 6 Months of having the product it's guaranteed that our battery will be replaced as alot of clients are having similar issues, and I say ARE having and not had is because I checked the shop and they are still selling this nonsense of a product. 3. What's worse is that now the price has gone up.

A week and a half ago I took back the inverter, let's first discuss the customer service at the branch, pathetic is an understatement but none the less I am not going to dwell on that.

I went to the return department and I was assisted by a lady who seemed very unbothered by my complaint because...wait for it. I am not the first one to bring the product back, she deals with them alot and it never gets solved, she says the way she knows how this will play out we might aswel replace the battery ourselves because, the technicians from Lalela will be contacted telephonically and he will give a diagnosis telephonically as power surge and give us a quote to replace the battery. Oh the cherry on top is that builders accepts no responsibility because it's from a different brand.

Again, the million dollar question arises. Why is Builders selling this product when they know it's a **** product and they don't intend on assisting their customers?

Furthermore, I asked the lady what the SLA with Lalela, her response was 21 working days. How????????? If you already know that they will say it's not their fault.

I asked her to get the manager to contact me so we can discuss this and to date I have not received a call.

She said she would call us the Monday after she had spoken to Lalela and to date no feedback was given to me or my husband, I will take it as though she has not done anything.

1. I am a client of Builders and not Lalela, Builders is a client of Lalela therefore I expect you to fight my battles.

2. Why/how are you still selling this product when you know it's ****.

3. I want feedback regarding this matter by close of Business Friday 19 May 2023 before I escalate this matter to the NCC and CGSO.

4. I want a new inverter because I don't even trust that they would fit a new battery and even if they did I don't trust that would last. Or my money back and I will find a reputable brand to purchase an inverter from.

Lastly, I don't want to hear that loadshedding also has an effect on these products because it is utter nonsense due to the fact that these products are designed for loadshedding and the manufacturers instruction is that it needs to be plugged in at all occasions so that it charges, so why would it be affected by power surge in top of that we took extra precautions by using the power surge plugs..but the biggest reason is that it's less than 5months old.