Moving house was beset by problems with suppliers

OUR RECENT move raised a number of issues with suppliers, and here they are:

Items ranging from furniture to kitchenware were delivered to auctioneers by a transporter. No itemised receipt was provided, only a page from their receipt book with “Received in good order” written across it.

I had provided, and kept a copy, of my own list of items, and when I realised, after the sale, that a number of items had not been sold, I e-mailed and phoned a number of times to find out what had happened to those items. I was fobbed off with some or other excuse, until finally my e-mails remained unanswered.

While the items in question would not have fetched a huge amount (R1 000 to R2 000 in total), the way the auctioneers handled the receipt of the goods and then the loss of some of them is unacceptable.

I did contact the Association of Auctioneers about this, but was told that, while they would approach them, the auctioneers were not one of their members.

I used Que-Crew (info@ quecrew.co.za) to disconnect my account for the one house and reconnect the new one.

A misunderstanding arose between Que-Crew and City of Joburg as to whom the outstanding payment (owed to us) should be paid (the conveyancing lawyer or directly to us). E-mails and messages on cellphones to Que-Crew were either answered unsatisfactorily or not at all. We resolved the problem ourselves, though not without a lot of wasted time, effort and money.

I suggested to Que-Crew that they reimbursed us their fee since we did almost all the work that they had been paid to do – in advance. I’m still waiting for a reply.

My third and last issue is with Telkom. Reception, with my service provider, Vodacom, being extremely bad in my new area, I had to move to another service provider. I spoke to a consultant at the Telkom shop in the Cresta shopping mall, and went for their latest and cheapest package. I wasn’t told that Ts & Cs applied, but my application was rejected due to “low credit rating”.

We have had an account with Telkom for landlines for over 40 years, and have never been in arrears for payment of their invoices.

The application was in the name of my husband, who has never had a store account and perhaps that is the reason for the rejection.

I e-mailed Greenstone asking for an explanation as to why a customer of 40 years would be refused a cellphone and internet package to be paid monthly by debit order but have not had a reply.

I have been refused a credit card on the same grounds, “low credit rating”, when, in fact, what that means is no debt. Companies and retailers want to earn interest on debt and are not motivated to take on customers who are not likely to make late payments. This whole question of credit cards and contracts with service providers merits an investigation by your office. Bea Fenn

Georgie responds: Konrad Duvenage from Que-Crew responded: It is not standard procedure to have a refund from a sold property paid into another City of Johannesburg account. A special request must be lodged in writing. The city either pays refunds to the transferring attorney or directly into the nominated banking account of the client. The transfer letter clearly states that any refund must be paid into their trust account. Andre at our office confirmed this in an e-mail to the reader. Que-Crew thus acted on the reader’s instruction and the letter from the attorney.

Georgie: I haven’t heard back from the auctioneers, but Mrs Fenn should have insisted on a proper inventory before the goods left her premises.

About that “low credit rating”: you need to take on credit to build your credit profile because credit providers need to be able to assess your risk and payment behaviour.

We did almost all the work they’d been paid to do