Amending prices after payment was made on invoice

[Jingertee]

Hi guys.
We have paid an installer (A LOT OF) money to do solar systems on 3 houses. However, all kinds of issues are now surfacing. He's not coming to light with the panels, we find out that he's not registered anywhere, he's done the installations in such a way that it endangers my family, and is generally not practical where it's been installed... the list goes on.

He now reckons to tell me that his quote (we paid on an invoice) has T's & C's which allows him to amend prices of anything he buys from a third party, and that he never gave us an ETA, so "he could take a year if he wants to."

What are our rights from the CPA point of view? Apart from reporting him everywhere that he's supposed to be registered (Dept Labour etc)

What are we to do? We paid over nearly R300 000 2 months ago already (after taking out loans to do this), and it seems that we're screwed.

Thanks in advance for all the wonderful advice that is going to be streaming in!

[Dave A]

Read this article and weep.

[Isetech]

I sent out a few quotes and have had a number of calls infroming me that I am out by around R50 - R70 000.

One customer submitted my quote for the bank to apply to finace the installation. The bank offered an approved installers quote (R180 000.00) at R70 000 cheaper than my quote.

The quote is to supply and install Sunsynk 8 kva, 2 5.1 kwh Sunsynk batteries and 10 x 545 watt panels. AC bypass panels, DC combiner box for 2 strings.

including indentifying all the circuits and marking them, the COC and the cost to split the DB, the return visits and monitoring to optimise the system, if required.

Excluding SSEG registration and original COC for the existing electrical installation.

The rule of thumb at the moment is if you quote is less than R250 000, there is a good chance you going to be paying extra for item not listed in the quote

[Isetech]

People have no idea what a challenge it is trying work deal with stock shortages and prices that change literally by the week.

[Jingertee]

People have no idea what a challenge it is trying work deal with stock shortages and prices that change literally by the week.

Yeah, if he bought everything as a kit on the day that I paid him the money, the hardware would have been delivered in time. Poor planning, incompetence and misrepresentation.

[GCE]

Yeah, if he bought everything as a kit on the day that I paid him the money, the hardware would have been delivered in time. Poor planning, incompetence and misrepresentation.

Unfortunately a large section of the solar market has been hijacked by scammers

Electrical Contractors that have been around for awhile and intend being around and are in for the long game , have relationships with suppliers .
Unfortunately with that said it has become a mess with suppliers wanting payment on order and " forgetting " to tell you that the container will only be docking in 4 weeks

The scams that are appearing daily over deposits are only the beginning - Panels, inverters and batteries are being relabeled to show higher values then they actually are so in 2 or 3 years time is when the scams are really going to come to light.