Master Kitchens and Home Renovations - unprofessional

Note: no work was done (thankfully). This is just about the initial communication which was aggressive, condescending and extremely unprofessional.

I needed a DIY kitchen installed and simply asked if it could be done for under R5000 – I know this is extremely low (my reasons are outlined below). I was expecting a simple ‘yes’ or ‘no.’

This email is verbatim what I received in response: “Can you explain why you want to go so cheap on labour but you want to use expensive high gloss and hinges? I can tell you some truth now. In this country you get what you pay for. So if you want to use some cheap labourer to do this job you are going to get low quality work. Why not use cheaper materials that still look nice and then get someone who knows what they are doing and pay them better?”

My response explained my reasons for the low price: its common knowledge that you negotiate from the lowest possible price point. In addition to this, contractors are not known for their integrity – halfway through the job there’ll suddenly be some kind of surprise cost.

Then I received this response: “Seth via Gumtree to me You are just a cheap skate haha.”

This is not about money, it is about communication. I can own that I may be a ‘cheap skate,’ but Seth is a bully. He is immature and unprofessional. If this is how he communicates I can only imagine the trouble he would cause when working for you.