The worst service - House and Home Cape Gate

I am fuming as I type this complaint Last week Tuesday (the 25th November to be exact), I walked into House and Home at Cape Gate to purchase sofas.

We walked into the store and were greeted by a young woman by the name of Bev and asked if she can assist. I responded with “no thank you, we’re just looking”. She continued to follow us around and I eventually found something I liked. I went ahead and made a debit card purchase of R19999,00 which I soon regretted.

The sofas arrived on Thursday afternoon, the delivery team unwrapped and assisted with the assembling. They were not asked to.

Shortly after they left, I realised that sofas are big for my lounge, thus making them unsuitable. I quickly made contact with House and Home to let them know and was advised I should send and email. I sent an email on the same day to *** to which I received no response. The following day (Friday) I called the store again and spoke to a manager by the name of Morné. He advised they would take a look at and call me back. Later that day I was contacted by Bev, the sales consultant that assisted me.

I let her know of the situation and told her that I would like them returned as I cannot keep them. I had already wrapped them up so they were and still are ready for collection. Bev advised if I am interested in an exchange, they have something in the same price range. She sent me images on WhatsApp and I confirmed that I like them. Bev then advised she will have her manager arrange for collection and an exchange so they will bring out the newer sofas and then take the other ones.

Now because of Black Friday I was told this can only happen on Monday, which wasn’t great but it was okay. Saturday morning I received a call from Bev telling me that the sofas are out of stock due to Black Friday. I wasn’t pleased as this has nothing to do with me. I went into the store before Black Friday and spent my hard earned money. Customer service would have been to keep that set aside and then sell the rest of the units as I was already promised one. Or even contact a different store to find out if they have it and arrange delivery for me. But that wasn’t done. I was just expected to accept that they are out of stock and they cannot say when they would be getting new stock. All they said was maybe in the week. This was unacceptable and at that point I decided and made it known that I want a refund then. Suddenly, they could tell me that they were getting stock Wednesday/Thursday. I stood on the fact that I must want a refund.

I was then promised a collection on Monday (1st December) which obviously never happened. I called and was told the driver called in sick and my collection has been scheduled for Tuesday, you can probably guess already that it didn’t happen. I called today and was told that the driver had a heart attach and other customers haven’t received their sofas. Not my problem! Now I’m sitting in a house with sofas I cannot use and I am expecting people this weekend, I don’t know where they are going to sit. If I am struggling this much to get them collected, my gosh I am probably going to have to move mountains to get my money back. I am a sitting duck because of House and Home.

Oh I called the call centre and after holding for 19 minutes for someone to pick up, I eventually hung up.

I am an unhappy customer filled with so much regret. Yvette May ***