Will he fix my TV again?

I requested for a TV repairs service from a gentleman who advertises on Facebook.

On 27th March, he came to my house and fixed the TV around 1pm and I made P600 payment for the service. Same day in the evening, around 6pm, the TV went black and back to the state it was before it was fixed. Basically it only worked for less than 6 hours. I remember clearly asking after it was fixed how long I expected it to operate before I experienced the same problem and he said I shouldn’t worry about the problem anytime soon.

I called the gentleman the same day it shut down after he did the repairs and he agreed that he would come the following day to attend to it. Ever since that day we have been going back and forth, with him telling me how busy he is all of a sudden and never comes through whenever we make appointments. I even suggested to go to his home so that he can attend to it there and he agreed to meet only for him to not respond to my calls and texts when I arrived at the agreed place.. He is now ignoring my calls and texts and I have tried to plead with him to bring back my money since he failed to fix the TV as per the agreement and he said he did not have money to pay me. Please help me on how I could be assisted in getting back my hard-earned cash from this gentleman as I feel robbed.

I think you have a right to feel robbed. You paid good money for a job to be done and the job clearly wasn’t done properly. You have a right to get your TV working properly or to get your money back.

Section 14 (1) (b) of the Consumer Protection Act says that when a supplier “undertakes to perform any services for or on behalf of a consumer, the consumer has a right to …performance of the services in a manner and quality that consumers are reasonably entitled to expect”. Surely it’s quite simple? If you pay someone to fix your TV, then your TV should work.

The Act goes on to say that if a supplier fails to perform a service adequately, they must either “remedy any defect in the quality of the services” or “refund the consumer a reasonable portion of the price paid for the services performed and goods supplied, having regard to the extent of the failure”.

I contacted the TV repair guy and he told me he has transport problems but he promises that he’ll come and fix your TV. Let’s hope it works this time.