***** taking money off account, unprofessional communication, poor customer services

Some property companies in Cape Town wield their power in dark ways due to the immense wealth that's available in the property game in Cape Town.

Problems arise because property management companies such as Trafalgar have virtual monopolies once they get into a building's management. To get consensus and fire them is hard if you have that many owners.

With these pseudo monopolies a service attitude culture develops because they believe they don't have to provide actual customer service. Unless there is this consensus reached they will always be the manager for the building and you are always beholden to them. The Customer is Not Right.

In the case of Trafalgar, we moved into a new property a few months ago and promptly signed up on debit order expecting things to be smooth sailing. At first things were fine.

Then to my shock on the 25th of January I suddenly got a WhatsApp demand for my personal number from Merchil Thompson-Johnson Sectional Title Debt Collector stating that we owe them R 3,607.43.

I rep**** within minutes saying we have a debit order. Merchil assured me that she would reply the next day about why the amounts are due. Nothing followed so I did an email follow up on the 27th. Again, no reply. I thought it strange that someone would demand money, and then stop responding. Attitude problem? Too busy? Don't care? No need to respond to email? No need to follow through on commitments in writing?

On the 6th of February, almost two weeks after I had followed up this issue a few times, I got a formal letter of demand. This letter of demand was for R R 1,317.58. If you've been keeping track of the math, please tell me how these amounts differ? Why would I get a demand for a higher amount, then get a demand for a lower amount? Maybe someone is making some mistakes, and doesn’t want to account for it?

In two works, this is how I would describe the kind of service you can expect from Trafalgar: NO REPLY. It's very similar to them broadcasting they are right and you are wrong and NO REPLY IS NEEDED. In total three follow ups were requested and none followed. Not even a request for a statement and invoices.

At this point I requested an escalation to "higher" management, but alas, NO REPLY. People who provide poor customer service don't have managers or they don't have to escalate. They are always right and you are always wrong. Don’t bother asking for a manager because you won’t get one.

Only when my business partner intervened by phone on the 9th of February did the situation move forward. Apparently we owned money for gate remotes. Had Merchil engaged with her supplier she would see the record that we told them to also take the remotes from the debit order, but huh-uh, Mercil doesn’t need to reply or correspond. She is always right. She wields her power of formal letters and blacklisting and that’s the end of it.

I requested invoices and statements again. I finally received a statement where to my shock and horror they had added a charge for the letter sent on the 6th. Hullo?

If you've been keeping track of dates, by the 6 of February we had already asked for feedback three times with NO REPLY.

Here is my suggestion. Do not get Trafalgar to manage your building. If you are a tenant, start a group action and create a WhatsApp group and get them ejected. The only place reserved for property managers is the place for the ones that give actual customer service.

Another suggestion is to cancel your debit order, because they will rip you off with frivolous charges. They will make mistakes. And then you'll have NO REPLY and NO ESCALATION.