The Voice - Dear Consumer's Voice

Dear Consumer’s Voice #1

I would like to take this opportunity to share my experience of bad customer service and seek advice and assistance towards the matter.

I bought bricks from a General Dealer in Moshupa sometime in 2008 on three separate dates. I bought a total of 1,327 bricks. 880 bricks were delivered on two separate occasions in the same year.

As of now the outstanding number of bricks (447) has still not been delivered and it is more than a year now. I have contacted the sales person on several occasions and what she told me is that the manager/owner is always out but she keeps on reminding him and it seems to fall on deaf ears because he never says anything. As a result I ended up purchasing bricks from another Dealer.

All I want is a refund because they have failed to honour the sale and I no longer need bricks because the house is being roofed.

Can u help?

Sometimes the Consumer Protection Regulations aren’t the best weapon you can use to protect yourself. Yes, the Regulations offer you protection in this situation. They say that a supplier must deliver a service with “reasonable care and skill”. They say that a supplier must supply goods that “match any sample or description given to the consumer”. They also say that a supplier has failed to meet minimum standards of performance if they fail “to promptly restore to the consumer entitled to it a deposit, down payment, or other payment”.

All of these protections could be used to deal with this general dealer but I’ve got a better suggestion.

I think you should write your general dealer a letter explaining that he has failed to deliver the bricks you paid for. In the letter give him the number of bricks you paid for and the number you received. Do the maths and work out what he owes you for the bricks he failed to deliver. Then give him 7 days to give you the money you are owed. Warn him that if he fails to do so you will take whatever legal measures you see fit.

Then sit back and wait. If you get your money then everything’s fine. If not then you should go to your local police station and accuse the general dealer of stealing. Mention Sections 263-281 of The Penal Code to the police officer. Give the officer a copy of the letter you wrote to the general dealer and leave it with them.

Let’s see if a visit from our boys and girls in blue will encourage the dealer to do the decent thing!

Dear Consumer’s Voice #2

I received an email saying that I had won a prize. The email said:

“MICROSOFT COOPERATION MANAGEMENT WORLDWIDE LICENSED LOTTERY PROMOTERS ARE PLEASED TO INFORM YOU THAT YOU ARE A WINNER OF OUR ANNUAL MS-WORD LOTTO LOTTERY CONDUCTED IN AFRICA BEING THE HOST OF THE EVENT FOR THIS PRESENT YEAR 2010 SOUTH AFRICAN FIFA WORLD CUP MEGA JACKPOT LOTTO WINNING PROGRAMS… YOU HAVE THEREFORE BEEN APPROVED FOR LUMP SUMS OF US$M 1,900,000 00(ONE MILLION NINE HUNDRED THOUSAND UNITED STATES DOLLARS) PAYABLE IN CASH”

Can this be true?

Thanks for sending this very long email over to us. Firstly, no, it’s not true. This is a scam.

The clues are there.

Firstly, Microsoft and FIFA don't give away money to total strangers. They never have done, they never will do. They certainly don't contact people out of the blue and offer them money.

What’s more, lotteries don't work like this. The only way you can win a lottery is by actually entering it. You simply can't win a lottery you haven't entered.

All of the email addresses they are using are either free ones (like live.com) or fake ones. One of the addresses they give is "info@standerdcharteredbanknet.com". Look closely and you'll see they haven't spelled "standard" correctly. I checked the address and found that it's from a domain name that they've registered with Google. I forwarded details to Google for their action and heard back from them that they’ve “taken the appropriate steps as necessary to resolve the issue”.

If you look closely at their email they also give a postal address. However the address has a UK postal code but says it's in South Africa. Also the phone numbers they quote are all re-directable cellphone numbers, they don’t seem to have a single land line. Hardly what you would expect from Microsoft and FIFA, don’t you think?

Like all scammers their English is very poor quality. There are many spelling and grammatical errors in all of their messages, again curious if they really were from such big companies.

This is just another example of a "419" or "advance fee" scam. At the very last minute, just before you think you are about to receive this non-existent money, they will demand money from you as an "advance fee", either a bank charge, a lawyer’s fee or some sort of transaction cost. That's when they disappear with your money and are never to be seen again!

Do yourself a favour and delete the email, and all other emails like it immediately.