Paid in full and upfront for a service not rendered

<p>We went to Douw Steyl attorneys & conveyancers as they were supposedly specialist’s in issues related with sectional title contracts. We were told there was an initial fee for the first consultation, which we agreed to. </p> <p>At the first consultation we presented our side of the case with all backing documents which included contracts and every email that was sent and received up until that point. </p> <p>Douw went through them with us and came to the conclusion it was straight forward and we indeed had a case worth defending. He said initially he would send out two letters to the opposing parties involved with our case.</p> <p>We paid for the consultation as well as the two letters immediately on receipt of the invoice, the day after the first and only consultation. And that was as far as we got.</p> <p>The next two months were spent calling and emailing his offices to check on the progress of the two letters. We were continually told they would get onto it soon and then eventually we were told they were busy with a high court case. Then finally calls were being ignored and the usual brush off that someone would get back to us, which of course nobody ever did.</p> <p> </p> <p>Finally we came to the realization that this company had no intentions of carrying out the work we paid for as our case was too insignificant to waste time on, the 'high court' case was clearly more lucrative for them as we were consistently told about it.</p> <p>For falsely advertising their services (setting up an appointment for the consultation and writing the letters) and wasting our precious time, we asked for a full refund. </p> <p>A week later we got our first letter from Douw, only it wasn't a letter we paid for but rather a letter to us saying we wasted his time, it was our fault he couldn't write any letters as there wasn't enough information, the high court was again mentioned. Lastly (and this excuse I've heard on countless occasions from substandard contractors) there would be no refund as he thinks the money we paid covers all the time he has spent on our case, even though we have to this date other than the consultation, never received anything we paid for.</p> <p>On the positive side, this experience has led me to the conclusion I will never go to a lawyer for any issue that may arise in the future. These people supposedly study many years to up hold the law, they are supposed to find solutions. I'm afraid this small company, instead of solving our problem has become part of the problem.</p>