Broken Promises

On 10 November 2020 I received a quotation from Mckeller the owner of said company for work to be done at my restaurant. He came recommended and i have seen his work first hand. Because of this i had at the time no need to concern myself with this particular contractor in not fulfilling his part of a job, or so I thought! I accepted the quotation in part that Mckeller do renovation work to my bathroom and put up shelving in my service bar. He requested 70% deposit (R14,910.00) upfront which was promptly paid on the 24 November. 25 November we requested of Mckeller as to an ETA. 1 December we asked again when can we expect the installation and the rain was blamed for delays. 3 December we again asked and Mckeller advised he'd be there the 4th December to do the installation. 15H00 on the 4th, he told us he'd be late his just collecting mirrors we had ordered. The 4th came and went and when asked, Mckeller said he'd be there the Sunday the 6th to do the installation. Monday the 7th I called Mckeller, we had a civil conversation and we settled on him coming through the 8th to do the job. The morning of the 8th I received a text advising me he simply cannot do the job as his overloaded with work. He proposed that he refund the funds. Besides the mess around from Mckeller the time of year was most compromising for us as we were to late to have any new contractor come and do the work so we had to open without any renovations we wanted and had paid for. Did we receive the refund he said he'd do. NO! It seems Mckellers word carries very little in terms of substance and weight! It's been literally excuse after excuse with Mckeller from blamming the weather and now more recently CoVid. He simply avoids all attempts to contact him via phone or text. I have literally a plethora of texts, voice memo's and broken promises going back weeks which I do plan on using in further action. Not telling you the reader what to do here but for me its clear that even if you think because they came recommended your money is safe, well guess again!