The Voice - Consumer's Voice

What do I owe them?

Greetings, may I kindly request advice.

My story is, I hired this company to do a deck for me. They quoted P45,000 and required me to pay 50% deposit to commence work, which I did in July 2024. They then did a deck frame but could not complete the job. In October they confessed they have difficulty with cashflow and asked me to pay the remaining balance so that they finish the job. I did but they did not complete the job.

It's been 5 months waiting but still no progress. I now don't know what best action to take. Please advise. Thank you.

I think you need to escalate this situation and give them a deadline. They've done some work already so they deserve to be paid for that but they need to understand that they can't just abandon this project without consequences. Tell them that they must either complete the job or refund you a suitable amount. They must understand that if they fail to fix this problem, you'll take legal action against them to recover the money they owe you. Then, if they fail to fix it, you can go to the Small Claims Court for an order against them for the money you paid them, minus the value of the work they've done so far.

This is an example of how it really helps if you have the agreement in writing that explains when and how they will get paid for the work they do. You'll then have evidence to use if you start legal proceedings.

I'll also contact them and see if they can avoid any unpleasantness.

Who broke it?

I don't know how you can help with this one. I bought an 86 inch TV on Friday for P22,000. It was switched on and everything seemed alright. It was when I got home and switched it on to find out that it had a crack on the top left corner. This is so surprising in that the TV never fell nor mishandled at any point in time, even the road I used had no bumps and it was tightly secured on the bakkie. I'm so devastated since I bought it for cash and they can't believe my story. I don't know what to do at this point. I might go mad.

I'm really sorry for how frustrated and disappointed you must be. After spending all that money, it must be incredibly irritating.

I suspect that once you took the TV from store it became your responsibility to care for it and the store will then deny any responsibility, particularly as the TV was working before it left the store.

It's probably no help to you but this might have been different if you had paid the store to deliver the TV and install it for you. That way they would have taken responsibility for any damage that might have been caused while it was being delivered. It might have been worth a few hundred Pula to avoid this difficulty.