Apartments in Central Region, Uganda

We booked a one bedroom apartment. It was agreed in writing by email. On arrival on the agreed date we were told there were no one bedroom apartments available until the next day. So we were given a studio for the night. It was agreed there was no charge for that first night. The next day we went into a one bedroom apartment. It was reasonably OK but nothing in the kitchen actually worked. The cooker didn’t work. A cupboard door fell off. The oven didn’t work and so on. We were given a two ring gas hob as a temporary solution but it took up what little available space we had on the worktop. Despite being promised the cooker would be sorted the next day we were stuck with the “temporary” solution till we left. 13 days before our month was up, we asked to move to a two bedroom apartment. Staff were happy to arrange that but I was asked to pay $700 for the upgrade. I pointed out that $700 was the difference between a one bedroom and two bedroom apartment for the whole month. Surely as there were only 13 days left in our stay it would be fairer to pay, say, $350, instead of a full month’s difference of $700. This was out of the question, apparently. So, I told them we would leave at the end of the month instead of extending it to two months. We picked a two bedroom apartment with a washing machine. Big mistake. Not only did the washing machine not work but neither did both ovens nor the toaster etc. the “washing machine specialist” who came round was a 16 year old girl armed with just a screwdriver. She confirmed the washing machine was faulty - something we already knew. Next day two men came round to fix it. When we got back there was a note to say it had all been sorted. It hadn’t. It was still broken. So we complained again. The following morning, SEVEN people turned up with another washing machine. This one worked but, unfortunately the entire control panel was in Chinese with no English at all. The fridges in our original apartment and this later one had touch screen control panels but they were entirely in Chinese. I discovered they were also counterfeit LG fridges but that’s another story. We were given the temporary gas rings we had in the last apartment as the hobs didn’t work here either. So, when our month was up they were very surprised we were leaving. “What about your second month?” I was asked. Hmmm I thought I’d made it quite clear we weren’t staying when charged $700 for 13 days’ upgrade. So, nice location. But, we won’t be back any time soon.