Daniel3 weeks ago
I deal with law firms professionally on a regular basis, but Simon Dippenaar & Associates was the worst firm I have ever had to work with.
I am from Germany and spend two months a year in Cape Town. For this purpose, I bought a BMW which was stolen from me by a dealer. Instead of repairing the vehicle as agreed, he sold it without the necessary documentation to a bona fide purchaser. When the purchaser refused to return the vehicle to me, I instructed Simon Dippenaar & Associates to handle the matter.
Although I provided the firm with all available relevant information from the outset—including details of the case, the dealer’s contact information, the purchaser’s contact information, and the investigating sergeant’s details— I saw no real progress in the first year. During that period the purchaser of the stolen car was not even aware that we were trying to get the car back. I constantly had to push Jaylee Feldmann to act. There was no initiative, neither by her nor by her supervisor. She usually responded to emails only after repeated reminders, and her supervisor, Rayaan, came to every meeting completely unprepared. Every time we met, he asked me what was new and where the case stood, as if he had no knowledge of the file.
After c. 18 months, I flew to Cape Town to discuss the case and arranged an in-person meeting. Once again, Rayaan came completely unprepared. I asked how it was possible that, after 18 months, they had not even contacted the purchaser. Their response was that they only had the purchaser’s name and phone number, which they claimed was insufficient information.
During that very meeting, Rayaan instructed an investigator to locate the purchaser’s address. Ironically, the investigator managed to do so within a few hours and when we contacted him, the purchaser responded immediatelly. Unfortunately, by that time the purchaser had already disposed of the vehicle because nobody had contacted him regarding the matter.
When I later spoke to the purchaser’s attorney, he asked me why my attorneys had hired an investigator at all, since the purchaser’s full contact details had been available from the investigating sergeant the entire time. It turned out that Jaylee had never bothered to request them.
The one thing she did exceptionally well was bill every minute imaginable, always in the firm’s favour and often excessively. Three examples among many:
1. I requested a conference call with Raylee and Rayaan. Jaylee billed me for scheduling the meeting, even though she herself cancelled it at short notice because of Rayaan’s scheduling conflict.
2. Whenever I pointed out mistakes she had made in her own emails, she billed me for the time spent correcting them.
3. I was charged for the investigator, even though the relevant contact information had been available from the investigating sergeant all along.
I would stay away from this firm. In total, I paid almost R70k + another c. R 20k for their “service” and, in practical terms, nothing material was achieved.