Sa School Furniture has bad customer service

I am Operations Manager at a small school in Johannesburg. On the 15th November 2017 i ordered a number of desks and chairs from Sa School furniture also known as Indaba plastics, Plastic chairs SA and Restaurant furniture. I was promised that the tables and chairs would be delivered by the 15th January 2018 which would have been just in time for school to start.

On the 15th i was phoned and told that that two vehicles were on the road delivering furniture and that ours was on the list. On the 16th our order had not been delivered where i then opted and offered to collect the tables and chairs as we were quite desperate for the tables and chairs as schools started on the 17th and we would not have had space for 50 students.

I was then phoned by the business manager who told me that the warehouse had burned down on the 15th December 2017 and that numerous other schools will also not receive orders due to the error.

This was very disappointing because i was told the chairs and tables were on the vehicles on the way on the 15th already and i get told on the 16th, a day before school started that we will not have chairs and desks..

To make up for the issue, the manager offered to lend us chairs and tables until our would be ready. This was delivered at 19:30 on the 16th January.

On the 19th January i followed up as to when our chairs and tables will be ready. The manager ensured that we would receive them by the 23rd January. I decided to again ask on the 22nd and was told that the chairs were ready and not the tables.

Upon arrival of the chairs we noticed that the chairs were too small. I contacted the manager and asked if it was possible that we swop the chairs for bigger chairs. It took him 3 days to get back to me to confirm that he can exchange them but only if we agree that they take 10 working days lead time to manufacture the chairs. I agreed and placed the order on the 29th January for the new bigger chairs.

On the 9th February the trapazoid tables that we had ordered were delivered and the loan tables collected. This was not ideall for us because our students now had to use trapazoid tables with big black chairs.

On the 19th February, i again asked about our chairs and receiveed no response from the manager until the 22nd February where he only responded that he needed to get hod of his courier company. I again asked on the 23rd February and he rep**** that the chairs were not ready when they arrved at the warehouse to collect and that he cannot do anything about it. He also said that we will have to wait until next week which we did.

I sent messages on the 1st and 5th of March but only received a reply on the 6th saying that they are struggling to get up to date with chairs and that he would later the same day confirm with me.

I had to again ask on the 12th of March about the chairs and received a reply saying that they are still behind...

On 20th of march I asked again and he promised to give me a final date by Thursday 23rd. I then asked on the 23rd and he agreed that the chairs will be delivered before school closes on the 28th March. Today is the 29th March. I have sent two messages already and he is not even responding.

This is terrible customer service.

Please thin twie before ordering from these people.

Very disappointing