It never rained, but poured for unhappy camper
I TOOK delivery of an AHA camping unit on March16. The unit was manufactured for us.
We went camping the week after to test it out and see if there were any issues (AHA advised us not to book a holiday before ensuring that all is in order). We returned the unit on Monday, March 28 after our first two days of camping and left it with AHA until the following Wednesday (7.5 working days). We gave AHA a handwritten list of 10 matters to attend to, of which one was repaired and an attempt made with two other items but not completed as we requested.
We had the unit re-installed on our vehicle. When we got home and started packing for our next trip we found that most of our requests were not done and, in fact, that the rain cover section had been replaced with what appeared to be a second-hand one. There was no seam and or lug to secure the rain cover.
Because we had booked and paid for our weekend away, I fashioned a seam with a stapler and glued a lug on to secure the rain cover. On the front side the fastener was missing.
We set off on April 7 for our destination, after a heavy downpour on the Thursday night.
When we arrived at our destination, we found our bedding wet. This was the last straw! We took the unit back on the Monday morning and insisted that the unit be removed from our vehicle as we were no longer interested. The owner, Mr Maas, offered to repair it once again but we declined.
The unit was removed and all loose items (still boxed) handed back and all fittings on the load body of our vehicle removed and all holes drilled to accommodate the unit were blocked off and made good.
The matter was considered complete and we left expecting to be refunded. On April 18, we were advised that we will not be credited and we must collect our unit and, if not, we better insure the unit as AHA does not have insurance for second-hand units. Mr Maas then told us they took the unit back for repairs and not to credit us. This is after we told him at least three times we were not interested in another repair. I quoted the CPA and demanded our refund.
Mr Maas stated that I threatened him and went to a lawyer and now we are threatened with R150-a day storage? He says the unit was custom-built so no refund. Yet we gave back the unit as it was substandard. Gerhard Geldenhuys
Georgie: I contacted Dawie Maas about the issue, pointing out that even though it was custom-built, it was substandard and they were entitled to their refund. He “respectfully declined”, saying the matter hadn’t reached conclusion and then threatened legal action.