Almost 50 whānau have come forward to claim that Affordable Headstones’ Jacob Ngarewa, a Hamilton resident, ripped them off.
Together, these whānau spent more than $70,000 on headstones that never arrived or, if they did, were damaged and not what was paid for.
Kawetanga Murray, from Paeroa, vented her concerns on Facebook last week after shelling out nearly $1000 for her mother Charlotte Walker’s headstone.
“We reached out and just asked, oh, can we have an ETA? We continuously were told ‘yep, you’ll get your design. We’ll send it through Kawetanga, we will do this, and then we just got excuses after excuses,” Murray said.
“I got ghosted, nothing. No one was answering the phone the next day, no messages were coming back,” she said. “So by then we had lost faith.”
Kawetanga’s interactions with Jacob Ngarewa weren’t unique. During Easter weekend, Angela Rota and her whānau were due to unveil her father’s headstone they brought and paid for but it too never arrived so they had to cancel the unveiling.
“There’s been a lot of tears this past week, especially from me, but I’m over that tears stage now. It’s anger,” Rota said.
“It’s frustrating because it’s not only just about the headstone anymore. Our whānau have invested money into this. We’ve got my sister coming in from Australia,” she said.
Nikita Joss and her whānau paid almost $5k for two headstones for their unveilings scheduled this weekend.
Nikita was invited to Ngarewa’s house after visiting Jacob in the hospital, where she was given damaged and incomplete headstones as security for the promised reimbursement by his wife.
“It’s quite a difficult situation, I wasn’t sleeping, I’m still not sleeping because, how can he get away with it?” Joss said.
“For people like this to take off, a lot of people. We’re not thinking straight so we’re thinking we’re getting a deal, but really he’s the one getting the deal in the end which sucks,” she said.
In a statement to Aukaha News from his hospital bed in Hamilton, Jacob Ngarewa said, “I am aware that many are seeking clarity and reassurances, and I intend to provide that.”
“Once I am able, I will release a full and transparent public statement, and I will make
myself available for a proper interview to address everything directly,” he said.
As a result of today the Office of the Kiingitanga confirmed that it had no association with Ngarewa. “We are deeply saddened to learn about the impact this situation has had on many whaanau,” said a Kiingitanga spokesperson.
The secretary of the Rātana Church, Piriwiritua Rurawhe, said the haahi is saddened by the matter concerning Ngarewa, particularly the impact this has had on whanau.
“In discussions with Jacob and his whanau, Komiti Matua o te Haahi Ratana has accepted his resignation as Apotoro Takiwa for Waikato Te Rohe Potae,” Rurawhe said. “Te Haahi Ratana has no involvement with the business in question.
By Macie Kuki and Roihana Nuri from Aukaha News
