Incompetence, or just plain indifference. He clearly doesn't want to be paid.

---------------------------------------------------------------------- *** Thu 2021-05-13 12:47 Mark, you can wait for the statement and the new invoice until I am ready to send it to you.

In the meantime I will engage with the executor to remove the firearms from our premises, once payment has been made. ----------------------------------------------------------------------

That was Johan Potgieter's (Franchise Owner FYI) response to my request. He clearly didn't like being told to do his job and what he promised to do.

Essentially this is about storing two firearms after the passing of my father about 2 years ago. The estate was wrapped up and the company doing it directed us to Legally Armed. IT was obviously a hectic time and we accepted them and 6 months of storage fees were paid up front.

During this time I was preparing to emigrate so this particular issue fell to the back of my mind while we prepared for that endeavor. The 6 months came and went, and we received no invoices and roughly about the time I was about to leave South Africa I realized we still had this loose thread.

I made an arrangement to view the weapons and settled the account in full (not ideal given that nobody wants to pay such large amounts out of the blue). I requested that Johan please email me invoices monthly to avoid this situation again, and confirmed with him again before I left. He assured me it would be done as I warned him about my plans to leave the country and that I will be incredibly busy and that this would likely fall to the back of my mind once again. That was in September LAST YEAR.

On April 22, 2021 I followed up with him again via email and with a little irritation but none the less as courteous as I could muster I asked him to please correct the issue. He responded and claimed he had some staff changes (not that really matters to be honest, you either want to be paid or not) but that he would attend to it.

3 WEEKS go by AGAIN, and on 13 May 2021 I let loose. Granted it was a little sarcastic, but at the core of it was that I am not going to fight to pay you if you don't want it:

---------------------------------------------------------------------- Johan,

It's been another 3 weeks! Unfortunately, my experience with your business to date has been appalling to say the least. I need only look back at the email's I have sent you in the past to notice a trend of exactly this behaviour. Commitments to do something followed by weeks of no action, only to have me follow up yet again. While there were cases of me having forgotten to follow up it's clear you don't want to be paid, and if that's the case then so be it. Who am I to argue on your behalf? We will get back to you at a later date once we've decided what to do with the firearms but don't then come ask us for payment for storage fees as I asked to be invoiced monthly for that!

If however you do decide you want to be paid, here are the email addresses to be used for such invoices: ***********gmail.com ***********live.com

Mark ----------------------------------------------------------------------

Essentially, in his mind I should be grateful and keep quiet until he is good and ready. I will say, this is one of the main reasons why I left South Africa. It's because of poor, tactless service offered by people like Johan. The man may be knowledgeable about his trade, but he clearly has an attitude to match and acts with impunity. When I informed him that I would escalate he responded with indifference and doubled down on his stated course of action which is to have the weapons removed.

This just rubs salt in the wound of my father's death. Such a wonderful human being this man is!