Smiedt & Associates Attorneys, Cape Town

My wife and I first contacted Smiedt and Associates from the UK in late September/ early October as we have decided to move to South Africa to work and conduct a business as my wife is a South African national. Following a search for a lawyer we were impressed by Smiedt and Associates due to their apparent thoroughness and professionality including a Teams consultation to clarify our situation and advice session. However following this session and after myself taking time to get the first set of fees together and sent to Smiedt and Associates, I found that communication with the company was taking longer and longer and having to send several emails to illicit a response, sometimes with repeating points to which I had already made to them. On 2 occasions I even called internationally from the UK to clarify that the monies had been recieved and to gain acknowledgement of the next stages of the visa process (which I never recieved). Eventually at the end of last week I requested my money to be returned. This was agreed by the senior legal executive admitted that they could not meet my expectations and offered me a refund. However now there are issues with returning the money. I have checked with my bank in the UK that the reason given for not being able to process the refund should not be an issue. This whole matter has now delayed and thrown off our hoped application timeline and left us out of pocket not knowing when or even if we will get our money back to engage someone else. Not happy at all and very disappointed.