Kevin Meineke, Hout Bay
Living in Hout Bay I feel it makes sense to support the local economy as much as possible. Therefore, I buy as much as I can in Hout Bay, such as petrol, food and hardware, and I generally support local merchants etc.
So, when my 10-year-old fridge stopped working, I asked a local “appliance fixer” to attend to the problem.
After requesting a call-out fee of R450, (Hout Bay to Hout Bay), which I thought was a bit
much, he told me the fridge’s compressor was broken and that he could replace it with a new one at a cost of
R2 200.
As I could buy a new fridge for about R3 000, I did not accept that.
Discussing this issue with a friend, she suggested I consult with a firm in Epping from which she had had excellent service.
On doing this, I was told the call-out fee would be R290 (Epping to Hout Bay, how about that!) and that a new compressor would cost R1 200.
After examining the fridge for about 10 minutes, the Epping man said there was nothing wrong with the compressor and the problem was that the gas had leaked out of the system and that he had also found the leak.
After repairing the leak and regassing the fridge, it has, for several weeks now, possibly worked better than it ever has.
What does all this mean? Well, the Hout Bay man is either incompetent or unscrupulous or both, and I will certainly not be using his services again.
It also drives people away from using local business, which is sad as there is high unemployment in Hout Bay and anything that helps to relieve that should be welcomed and encouraged.