Alex Onyeka of Contonou and John Neweze of Contonou Benin Rupubli
Complaint 8326 Details

On July 15, 2011 I purchased a refrigerator from Alex. I found his advertisement on Craigslist.com. I made a $100.00 down payment on the refrigerator with the agreement that he would have his technicians check the refrigerator and make any necessary repairs before we picked it up on July 18 so that the refrigerator would run like new.

On July 18 I picked up the refrigerator He sold me a used, ten-year-old GE Artica refrigerator along with a one month warrantee that the refrigerator would run properly, or he would replace, or repair it. I brought the refrigerator home and installed it 24 hours after moving it, per instructions from a refrigerator installer. Two days later the refrigerator had not yet reached the suggested temperatures of 37 degrees in the fridge, and 0 degrees in the freezer. I called Alex and could not receive a response for the bulk of one business day. I called and left several messages.

After a following series of tense text messages over several days he agreed to send out his repairman to repair the refrigerator.

On July 28 the repairman finally arrived and pulled a part from the compressor stating that he had replaced it with a new part and that would solve the problem. I asked him to put that in writing on a receipt. He told me that he was unable to write so I wrote the repairs and he signed off on the work done. After he left the temperatures in the freezer and the refrigerator both continued to rise. I called and texted the information to Alex and received a list of belligerent text messages stating his feelings of absolution from responsibility for the refrigerator. He told me that I could return the fridge (at my own expense) for a refund (not including money paid for moving costs and repair estimates that I had to get from a separate agency since he admittedly agreed that his repairmen are UNCERTAFIED and not trustworthy).

On July 29 I contacted a refrigerator repair shop to come out and repair the refrigerator. The repairman arrived and stated that the necessary repair would be to replace the computer board. He also told me that the work that Alex’s repairman did was fraudulent because there had been no parts replaced in the refrigerator. Alex agreed to send out his repair technician a second time to replace the computer board. The repairman arrived and I asked him to return the part that he had taken on the previous day, he gave me a completely different part, claiming that it was the part that he had removed. It looked NOTHING like the part he took on the previous day. He blatantly lied. After his repairman left the refrigerator temperatures rose fully to room temperature. At this point we asked that Alex simply come pick up the refrigerator and refund our money. He now stated that he does not give refunds (not posted anywhere in his guarantee, or at his garage where he sells the refrigerator), but after I persisted and would not give up he stated that he would make a “special case” in this situation and refund us our money less moving costs because he had spent $100.00 on the “new” computer board (my certified repairman told me the day before that a new computer board would cost $235.00, I don’t know where he bought this new computer board). At this point I just wanted the drama to end because Alex had initiated screaming at me over the phone and I told him to send a mover to pick up the fridge and I would take the hit on the moving costs. All in all I paid $100.00 to move the fridge from his warehouse to my home, $35.00 for repair estimates from my personal repairman, and $100.00 to return the fridge to his warehouse. $235.00 for a refrigerator that does not work, and that I didn’t even keep in the long run. This is a dishonest dealer and he does not honor his guarantee on paper, he was unwilling to stand by his product and seemed put out that I would ask him to actually fix or replace a refrigerator that he sold with a guarantee that it would work. He actually said to me over the phone, “What do you expect? You bought a used refrigerator!” This was a nightmare and I’m glad it’s over. I hope anyone considering a purchase from Alex will seriously reconsider after reading this message.

I just found a new post on craigslist.com from Alex dated 7/30/2011 (the date we agreed to return the fridge) for the exact refrigerator we returned to him. HE IS RESELLING IT!!! And for $500.00.

Reference: Craigslist.com PostingID: 2521856013