Buyers beware!
Online buying is fine - when all goes well - but beware when what you ordered doesn't work and you have to return it. Particularly be very careful of ordering from sustainable.co.za! On the 12th of December I received delivery of a Ecoboxx 160 Portable Solar Power Kit for about R3200. I was going on holiday to an off-grid farm between George and Mossel Bay for 4 weeks and wanted the unit to provide light. On the 15th Dec we were at our destination and I charged the unit for a whole day. That night no power. So I charged it for another day - no power. I called sustainable.co.za and told them they had supp**** a faulty unit and I needed a replacement urgently. Here is where the shocking service began - "sorry sir, there is a procedure we need to follow and first you have to return the unit for testing". Surely proper service would have been "we will send another unit by courier, please return the existing one as soon as you get back to Cape Town"? I was told there was no chance of that - and this is not the first purchase I have made at sustainable.co.za so I was already an established customer. So after 4 weeks on holiday with no lights through no fault of my own, I returned to Cape Town and drove to Westlake to return the product for replacement (no one ever offered to collect it or otherwise assist). A week later I am told that the workshop is busy and the unit will be REPAIRED as soon as possible. I do not want a repaired unit - I want a brand new one that I paid for. So in frustration I asked that the unit not be repaired or replaced but that I am now returning it for a refund. 3 days later no refund and I contact sustainable.co.za again. I am told that the unit has to be evaluated first before they can refund and the workshop is still busy! So if you are thinking of buying from this company take this as a warning that they care little about you or your problem once they have your money in their account. I certainly will never buy from them again and will be very cautious about buying this type of product online from anyone!