Complaint against the conduct for two staff members (Marisca & Maria Blom)

Dear Hello Peter,

Hoping this email finds you well.

I write to express my extreme disappointment and dissatisfaction with the conduct of the two aforementioned staff members of your establishment; Ms. Marisca Buytendag & Ms. Maria Blom, both of whom displayed their disregard for one of my Constitutional Rights; my right to dignity and to be heard.

I received a call from Marisca Buytendag on the 15th of August 2018 at 09.15am. During this 3 minutes and 36 seconds exchange with the Portfolio Assistant I was lambasted for "not wanting to pay for the damages I had caused to a common area" outside the house I own in Crescent View, number 2. Considering that I have numerous email addresses I then asked Marisca Buytendag to "at least summarise the contents of the email as I was clearly unaware of what is required from me".

Anyone who had the intention of not paying would not have even taken her call nor would they still be on the line liaising with her after finding out from where she was calling from. She then told me that on the "11th of July 2017 I damaged their property whilst fixing a black Citroen", to which I responded "yes, that's my car" (again, if I had the intention of foregoing any payment for the damages, I do not think I would have been so forthright). Nonetheless, she proceeded, now her voice escalating and her tone advancing into a very crass and impatient one, to tell me "what am I going to do, are you going to clean it, are you going to respond to my email, are you going to let us send some one, what?" as though I have been running away for eons and she has been trying to get a hold of me incessantly with no success...yet this was the very first call.

I then asked her why she suddenly sounded very frustrated by the phone call when it was my first time hearing about the damage. She then yelled at me, spoke over me and would not let me get a word in. In essence, I found Marisca Buytendag to have been very rude and I found her conduct very distasteful and unprofessional especially for someone whose primary role entails liaising with clients of various backgrounds and statures. She spoke to me as though I was not worthy of any respect, as though my opinion /response did not matter to her and she, from her evident grandiose complex, felt that she was had some form of authority to exact unto humankind (that is how erratic her yelling rant sounded). Marisca Buytendag undermined me, undermined my integrity and my credibility as she proceeded to insult me over the phone. She then told me that "she does not have the time to talk to me if I won't listen to her"- at this point I was perturbed at the insinuation that I was at a level that required listening to her as though she was a mother speaking to her child. I then told her if there was anything that could be learnt from this was me "teaching her how to conduct herself with a sense of decorum and professionalism", but instead she hung onto the word "teach" and went off on yet another temperamental tangent saying she would not "learning anything from the likes of me" (That is the type of staff PRETOR recruits in client relations? I am flabbergasted at the calibre of staff that is permitted to interface with clients). She then hung up whilst I made frequent attempts to answer her questions and assuring her that I have now noted the contents of the email. As a practising Attorney I found that her conduct was very distasteful and as a woman, I found her exchange to have been very discourteous and one that was founded on a sense of self-entitlement and self-righteousness- as though she had the prerogative to speak to another woman in that manner.

I then called back (after her hung up) at 09.19am using my landline and the call was picked up by the same Marisca Buytendag, who I requested to direct my call to her line manager. A Maria Blom received the call with the same distasteful crass gusto as her subordinate. Maria Blom she persisted to inform me of "how irresponsible I am for not reading my emails and that it is not their job to ensure that emails are read and that I should have seen my emails!". Issues, that were not contested, yet she strongly felt needed to be repeated to serve an unknown purpose, since I had called her to escalate my dissatisfaction with her subordinates conduct. However, it would seem that at PRETOR, like-esteemed staff are employed in the same department.

There was no salutation, no client relations, no respect conveyed, no professionalism, no sound etiquette and no sense of maturity from even the manager herself. I then explained to her, since she wanted to also discuss the matter of the damages rather than tending to my complaint, that I have numerous email addresses and that my call back was not in any way in an attempt to defer responsibility as I acknowledged that it was my car that had leaked on the parking area and I had no problems incurring the costs. Instead what was very evident from both ladies was the assumption that when you send an email, the recipient has automatically seen, read and reviewed the email- which is a very incorrect and dangerous assumption to make more especially for a Manager, who is expected as at any management level, to apply critical thinking. There was therefore an assumption that this "lady is just trying to be difficult because we sent her the email and today is the last day". How true can that be, when I have only heard about the matter today? Instead of the ladies asking which other email addresses can we use for future purposes (proactive problem solving), they insisted on displaying their inapt bravado over the phone (a faceless medium) much to their delight and satisfaction. Instead of hearing me out they both jumped to senseless conclusions and in the processes not only put PRETOR's reputation in disrepute, but they displayed their much needed training in client relations.

Being a property owner of a number of properties overseen by PRETOR I am bitterly aggrieved at the uncouth manner that your staff deals with clients; having also noted the numerous complaints across other forums. By the time I got the call from Marisca, it would seem that a preconceived notion that I was a black owner, who was a ***** and therefore did not deserve an ounce of respect or dignity. To further exert her sense of callousness and disregard for me, the manager also hung up the phone whilst I was mid-sentence- again, is this the type of behaviour that is celebrated at PRETOR? Does your staff get gold stars for acting like untrained and undignified individuals?

Let your staff not confuse one's calm disposition and professionalism as that person's weakness and inability to fight for their rights.

This matter has been referred to my Legal team and I will ensure that some recourse is achieved from this discourteous exchange from your two employees; one of which, disappointedly, was a Portfolio Manager. Moreover, this complaint will also be flighted on Hello Peter, the management team of Pretor (the Directors: Mr von Broembsen, Weir, ***ie and Potgieter. If they have changed, I will locate the new ones), the ombudsman responsible for rental and owner agencies, the management team at Mooikloof Ridge and the EXCOM of Pretor.

I will not tolerate being spoken to like a delinquent by individuals who in themselves lack the aptitude to facilitate a mature exchange and those who have the sheer inability to conduct themselves as the professionals they deem themselves to be.

Your promptest response would be greatly appreciated as I require that action against the two staff members be succinctly taken.

Thank you

Regards,

Ms. Rakau