I need my money back!

Kindly assist here. I engaged an interior designer for my house on 3rd October. He promised the turnaround time would be 21 days. I kept following with no luck. I sent him a Whatsapp and email demanding my refund and alerted him that I would now be engaging a different designer because I was running out of time only for him to send substandard work on 23rd November, which doesn’t even include everything that was on the quote. I haven’t responded to the drafts he has sent so far as it broke my heart and I already engaged another designer. Please advise on what I should do with him.

I had gone to the police but they couldn’t assist me as they said it’s a civil matter not criminal.

Firstly, the police were right. This isn’t a criminal matter, no crime has been committed, it’s a matter between you and this failure.

Let’s begin with the Consumer Protection Act. Section 14 of the Act says that where “a supplier undertakes to perform any services for or on behalf of a consumer, the consumer has a right to … timely performance and completion of those services (and) timely notice of any unavoidable delay”.

That’s reasonable, isn’t it? It means that a supplier must offer services reasonably quickly and, if there are any delays, they should tell us. It’s just good practice and being polite. That’s not too much to ask.

Section 15 of the Act says a consumer “has the right to receive goods which are of good quality”. You deserve to get what you paid for. Again, that’s not complicated, is it? It’s just good business.

Part of the problem is that anyone can call themselves an “interior designer”. Any of us could create a Facebook page and get some business cards printed. But that doesn’t mean we’re any good.

I think you should contact the guy and tell him very clearly that you cancelled the deal and demanded a refund after his promised turnaround time and long be

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fore he submitted the work. Also, make it clear that what he submitted was not good enough. Give him enough detail that he can’t argue with you.