Written Disrespect to Customers is Apparently Acceptable

<div>At the beginning of the year, I went to Hirsch's in Milnerton to buy a fridge/freezer combo. From the outset the process began to go wrong: I was assisted by a packer not a salesperson, who had no experience and had to keep asking others for advice. At invoicing the salesperson wrote down the incorrect model number( I was unaware of this at the time), they messed me around with the delivery day and then ultimately arrived at the beach house some 80 km away from Milnerton, with the incorrect model. This was a Sat afternoon and I had guests arriving on the following Tues. When we called the depot, we discovered that they had no stock of the unit I had ordered and I was forced to accept their offer of a demo model with a meagre discount of R200. They also offered to absorb the cost of the delivery at R350 (no provision made for my wasted time or fuel) and eventually I was refunded R550. I laid a service complaint with the manager of the Milnerton branch and felt that his response neither covered all of the issues or seemed very sincere. After being given several incorrect email addresses I was given Mrs Margaret Hirsch's email address (the CEO).

In her correspondence with the Milnerton branch as to why I was dissatisfied she accidentally copied me in on an internal email to her staff where she says and I quote: " She's told me she isn't Mrs Bedford ( She can't find a husband-why am I not surprised?)" A statement I find unnecessary and unacceptable. ( I use Ms as a form of address)

I have taken this matter from regional to the national level with Complaints at the National Consumers office but as I have been refunded they have decided to close the case seeing no offence in the statement made by Mrs Hirsch.

So over a period of 6 months this company has been given numerous opportunities to explain their misogynist comment and what they intend to do about it and have chosen not to address it properly which as far as I am concerned requires a personal phone call and letter of apology, a training plan to avoid it happening again, and monetary compensation to myself and a donation to a charity of my choice.

A company I once greatly admired has degraded themselves and were given every opportunity to keep this out of the public domain. I also feel that going through the long tedious process of writing to the Consumer Board , attaching ALL the correspondence was a waste of time as they don't appear to understand the insult.</div>