"Thank you so much Sowetan. May God Bless you," said a grateful father of eight after receiving his refund from Geen and Richards.

"Thank you so much Sowetan. May God Bless you," said a grateful father of eight after receiving his refund from Geen and Richards.

Themba Mnguni bought sofas from the furniture store in December 2005. Including finance charges, he paid R22000 within 18 months.

But four years later, he had no sofas from the store in Market Street, Johannesburg, said Mnguni.

The store manager wanted to refund him R13000 or to replace the damaged furniture they had delivered to him with allegedly repossessed furniture, said Mnguni.

But he is now a happy man. He was refunded R38000, which included interest and legal costs.

"I also got a R300 voucher," beamed Mnguni.

Mnguni wrote to Sowetan a month ago after reading the story of Sibusiso Magwaza, who had complained about his experience at Morkels Furniture.

Magwaza received a brand new set of sofas worth R21000 this week and an apology from the furniture store.

When Mnguni received the damaged furniture he complained immediately, but continued paying instalments while politely persuading the store to replace the damaged furniture.

Mnguni said the branch manager, Willie Swanepoel, came to his house and promised to replace the damaged furniture after inspection, but this did not happen.

"After paying the account in full in October, I waited for them to replace it, but they never did," he said.

Mnguni said in December 2007 he met a new manager who told him to choose other furniture because Geen and Richard's policy did not allow them to refund clients if the store's supplier cannot produce the goods. But this was not communicated to him when he bought the sofas.

Mnguni then employed the services of an attorney and parted with a further R5800, but this did not help him get his money back.

"At the beginning of March around midday I received a call from Swanepoel requesting that I should come and choose what I want because they were not prepared to give me a refund even though I never used the furniture.

"I think I have a right to demand my money back, because they are the ones who failed to deliver the goods I wanted since 2005," said Mnguni.

Eugene Beukes, a managing executive who has been in his position only seven months, said it was unacceptable for Geen and Richards clients to go through the experience Mnguni had endured.

Beukes acted on the complaint promptly and refunded Mnguni's his money.

He also assured that disciplinary action would be taken against those people who caused Geen and Richards such embarrassment.

After his investigation, Beukes found that various staff members had tried to exchange the furniture, but their efforts were fruitless because Mnguni was hard to please.

"On one occasion the customer was personally invited to the warehouse to view the goods prior to delivery, which he did. Despite his personal inspection and approval of the goods, he nevertheless returned them for no apparent reason, stating that he wanted his money back, he said.

Beukes advised readers to complain immediately if they felt they had not received value for their money.