Poor service and unvetted bad providers

On Thursday 11 September 2025, I called Santam emergency home assistance due to my fridge not switching off when reaching temperature. They appointed K & R service providers. They came out a bit later that day and indicated that my fridge required a new thermostat and a bit more gas. They gave me a quotation of R1350 to do the repairs. I paid the provider R1350 to commence with the repairs on Friday 12 September 2025 which they did. After they left the fridge still had the same issue, which tells me it was not the thermostat or the gas (as there was no gas leak before) as they indicated. They returned on the Monday; the technician added more gas and changed the wiring of the thermostat that they installed (he was not sure if it the wiring was causing it not to switch of at desired temperature). I was told to only switch it back on at 12h00 after they left and told me to let the fridge stand for 1h30m (till 12h00) the fridge was then doing absolutely nothing. I called them and they started accusing me of saying and doing things I never did and said I was the cause of the compressor now being busted. Cooling was never the problem or an issue, up until this point. Now the fridge is not even cooling. The provider now says my motor is busted, it was running perfectly before they arrived– the bottom freezer was freezing and the top was ice cold, the fridge was just not switching off when it reached temperature, which they said was gas and the thermostat – nothing was said about the motor. Before they came for the repair, they indicated that I need to defrost the fridge (another indication that the fridge was doing its job – now the ice is melting while the fridge is running). This is ridiculous and a waste of my time if your provider does not know what they are doing, they have been here 3 times and the situation has gone from bad to worse from a fridge that is cooling and doing what it is supposed to do to a fridge that is now doing nothing, this is unacceptable. You are supposed to have providers who know what they are doing and are able to assist us but instead the technicians are *********** and make situations worse. I don’t see how I paid these people to fix my fridge according to their initial assessment, now it seems my fridge is broken, and they are drumming up a busted motor that was perfectly fine before they arrived. Euro assist then appointed a second provider who came out and indicated that there was no gas in the system, he cut a pipe coming from the compressor to test it and indicated that it was working fine (previous provider said it was busted) and quoted me R1800 to fix what the previous provider broke. He left the pipe he cut as is. I am not receiving any response from anybody at Euro assist as well as having to call in everyday due to not receiving any update or response have spent nearly 30mins on a call with Euro assist everyday since this started which means an even further expense on my part. They kept me on hold for more than 30mins on 3 of these days. The first provider they appointed messed up my fridge and now nobody is taking responsibility, I am being left with the problem which is now much bigger than it was, I have spoken to 3 people at euro assist already -Ntswaki – no help -Lerato – no help, promised to call back but never did -Tshidi – promised to escalate but never did according to Lerato This is disgusting service, for more than a week now my fridge is not working, and it worked perfectly, it just did not switch off. The second provider you appointed came out – cut a pipe to test the compressor and just left it like that – even worse off than it was, he is also charging me R1800 to fix the previous providers mess up. Now I am not getting hold of him to fix the pipe he cut and just left, I don’t see why I must pay to fix the previous provider’s errors. As I am doing this application, I am again on the phone with Euro Assist and I have been on hold for more than 40 mins now