A Kenwyn woman said she was the victim of a “skelme” microwave repair man, who instead of fixing her appliance gave her an old broken model.
Tina Heston said she took her Defy microwave to Grace Appliances in Lansdowne Road last month but when she got her appliance back, she was the one overheating.
“When I got it back, I thought the microwave looked a bit different but the guys took it to my car so I did not really get a good look at it,” she explains.
“It was only when I got home that I saw that it was not my microwave and instead, it was an older model with the same sticker that I had on.
“I could even peel the sticker off and when I looked inside, it was filthy.
“I was so upset because I paid R500 to get my microwave fixed but now I end up with this piece of rubbish.”
The 46-year-old says when she tried to return the appliance to the store, the owner refused to listen to her and claimed he did nothing wrong, while he used the sticker as proof of his innocence.
“When I tried to argue with the guy about the microwave, he just kept on saying that the microwave I got was the one I brought in and he kept saying that the sticker had the same number as the one I brought in.
“I feel like I was cheated and when I went to the police, they said it was a private matter,” says Tina.
“I had that microwave for at least five years but I think it got faulty from the load shedding so I took it to this guy because I heard that he does good work.
When the Daily Voice spoke to the business owner, who only gave his first name of Sebastian, the Nigerian man stated that Tina was lying while he said the microwave must have broken when she was bringing it home.
“I do not know why she would say it is a different microwave because that is the one she brought to me and I fixed it,” he says.
“It was very old and it could break at any time but I did fix it.”