HOUSE & HOME KOLONNADE - SERIOUS COMPLAINT AND DISSATISFACTION

House & Home Kolonnade.

If I could give a -10 star rating I would. We have had a HORRIBLE experience with House & Home kolonade branch and ALL parties involved with incompetence assistance and feedback.

It started on 23/01/25 when we bought a double door Hisense fridge from the branch and paid the FULL AMOUNT IN CASH, we were promised delivery on Friday as we explained how urgent it was as our current fridge was evaluated and non-fixable. Provision was made to store our food at friends and family while waiting for the delivery. After numerous calls and empty promises for delivery Friday and Saturday, the fridge arrived on Sunday 26/01/2025 in the afternoon. We followed the instructions that it has to stand for 1 hour before switching it on and then allow 24 hours before it will be full functioning. Monday 26/01/2025 the fridge and freezer was yet to freeze and make the contents cold. Whereas at this point all products were defrosted and room temperature and slowly starting to rot in this Pretoria het. We plugged it into a different power supply unit and by 08h00 on Tuesday 28/01/2025 we phoned our sales representative and assistant manager Donald at House & Home Kolonnade reporting the issue at hand. WHILE WE ARE ON OUR WAY TO THE HOSPITAL as our mom and grandma has JUST PASSED. Since 09h00, we had to continuously phone the branch whereas the matter would be discussed with the manager to address and contact us with a solution. By 16h00 the manager had still not phoned us and while back from the FUNERAL HOME, we attempted to visit the branch to sort out the matter at hand, where we had an encounter with a very rude, arrogant and dismissive manager called Alex.

Upon arrival, we asked for the manager, the lady went and called him, where he proceeded to ignore us and walk right passed us towards the staff room, we politely asked him, if he was the manager, where he responded in a rude manner, that yes he was. We then proceeded to attempt to explain our concern and query where he sarcastically said, "Oh, yes, I have heard about this". He proceeded to state that we refused the technician to come out, whereas this was untrue, we refused for a technician to come and fix a brand new fridge that was suppose to be in a working manner, no where were we informed that the technician would only come out to right a report, which we were also told, it would only be in MAYBE 48 hours when the technician would to be arriving. We expressed our concerns about the food and contents that's busy rotting and lots of Money were going to waste, whereas he said, that he apologises but it is not his or the store's problem. When we asked if a new fridge can be brought with, when the technician comes does the report (NOT FIX THE BRAND NEW FRIDGE) he said No, this was not possible, when we asked, if a loan fridge could be provided while we wait, he said NO the company does not provide this service, we then proceed to request a refund, whereas he claimed it is against company policy. We proceeded to inform him that the consumer act outweighs company policy as a fridge that was less than 48 hours in our holding was not working and it is our right according to the consumer act to claim a refund. He kept responding in dismissive ways. I proceeded to ask him, who can we contact above him, where he smirkily said we can contact head office.

We proceeded to do just that, explained our situation to the operator, where she asked for a formal email explaining our dissatisfaction and complaint. The operator proceeded to confirm that she will ensure the urgency of the matter is understood and that it will be sent to the operational manager to make contact ASAP.

The technician arrived on Wednesday 29/01/2025 whereas he wrote a report to confirm that the fridge is in a non-working state whereas gas and oil leak were released and the fridge is non operational. He then proceeds to advise that we should please not light up our gas stove as it could cause massive and destructive damages because of the gas leak. He advised that if we wanted the matter escalated we should contact the store and send them the report so that they can speed up the process, otherwise another 48 hours could pass before the report would be logged. Donald ignored our messages and started ignoring our calls.

By Wednesday 12h40 we have yet to be contacted by the operational manager, we proceeded to phone the call centre again whereas the same lady (as we specifically asked for her) was not even aware of our complaint from the previous day and was yet to even read the email and had to scroll down to find it. She then proceeded to proclaim to forward the email right that moment to a Mr Phillip De Bruyn.

It is now Thursday 30/01/2025 and we are STILL waiting for the operational manager to get into contact. We proceeded to phone Donald again as he was suppose to call us at 15h30 yesterday by his own confirmation, he did not answer and we phoned from a different number and he answered. He claimed after confronting him about not phoning back that HE WAS BUSY and that is not at work today. Dismissing our complaints, concerns and unhappiness.

ADDING TO THIS, We are mourning and grieving our beloved, we have family that travelled from far, and other loved ones supply food. Whereas we aren't even able to store the food and ends up in the dustbin as we have NO WORKING FRIDGE and NO CLARIFICATION regarding our complaints. Not even referring to the R1000s lost in food already thrown away.

THIS IS THE WORST EXPERIENCE WE HAVE HAD WITH A STORE AND STAFF!!!! No compassion, no assistance, no resolutions... only excuses... only incompetence.

It is also impossible to get hold of anyone in a senior management position as it is not permitted to share contact details and we should proceed to send emails which gets ignored.

WE WANT A REFUND, WE DO NOT WANT A NEW FRIDGE FROM THIS USELSS COMPANY... WE DO NOT WANT YOUR BROKEN PRODUCTS, NOR DO WE WANT TO SUPPORT SUCH A USELESS, ***********, SARCASTIC, UNAPOLOGETIC COMPANY.