TERRIBLE CUSTOMER SERVICE at NEW WORLD MENLYN

My family received poor and unprofessional customer service by staff members of New World, Menlyn. 1. On 30 November 2018, my mother handed in our router for repairs at New World, Menlyn. She was received by a staff member by the name of Lerato. Lerato took my mother’s details and told her that the router would have to be taken in by New World to the manufacturer/ distributor for repairs. 2. Throughout December, we made numerous phone calls to New World requesting feedback on the router. On the one or two occasions that we were able to speak to Lerato we kept on being promised that the router would be fixed and returned to us in due course. 3. On 14 January 2019, I returned to work and phoned New World to find out about the status of the router. I was then informed that it was taken in and would be ready for collection by Friday, 19 January 2019. Unfortunately, I received no call to inform me of same nor was I was able to physically come to Menlyn and verify for myself. 4. During the week of 21 January 2019, I made a follow up phone call to New World. At this point I was very upset at the lack of communication from New World and told Lerato that I was less than impressed by the service that I had received. She told me the router was in fact not yet fixed and had not yet reached the distributor/manufacturer because there was no driver to take it there. She then assured me that it would be ready by the end of the week. At this point, I was very annoyed by all the misinformation that then I asked my mother to physically go to the store and meet with Lerato. 5. On Wednesday, 23 January 2019, my mother was at New World, Menlyn and was able to speak to Lerato who informed her that the router would be ready on Friday, 01 February 2019. 6. Today, 30 January 2019, my mother went to the store again to follow up on the progress. She was met by a colleague of Lerato’s, Tsholofelo. Tsholofelo informed my mother that in fact our router was only sent in for repairs the day before – being Tuesday, 29 January 2019! Tsholofelo reassured my mother that she would do her best to follow up with the distributor/ manufacturer and that she would call her once she had more information. I made serval calls after lunch to get ahold of Tsholofelo but I was unable to reach her as she was not in the store. I then left a message with a gentleman. 7. At 16:30, I then decided to go the store myself to try and understand what was going on. I met with Tsholofelo who tried to explain to me that the feedback from the distributor/manufacturer was that the router is unrepairable and uneconomic, and the warranty will not be able to cover the repairs as it was an Act of God. Shocked by this, I then requested to speak to the manager. 8. A gentleman by the name of Mack came to speak to me and reiterated that there was nothing that could be done. When I probed about the lack of communication and complete disregard for customer service, Mack rudely told that “I don’t know where you work but in our market, distributors are unable to take in goods for repairs and have them done during the period of December. If at all, your router would have only been attended to around the 7th of January.” If that is indeed the case, then was this NEVER communicated to us, secondly if it could only be attended to around the 7th of January, then why did we find out that our router was only taken in YESTERDAY, 29 January 2019? After waiting for 8 weeks for our router, suddenly in ONE day, the distributor/manufacturer is able to report back. This is completely unacceptable, and New World must take responsibility for this extreme lack of respect for customers.