The Voice - Consumer's Voice

Dear Consumer’s Voice #1

I was recently involved in road traffic accident when I bumped into a vehicle whilst reversing. The Police were called and I was charged with driving without due diligence and care. The other party’s car was insured and mine was not, so I had to fix mine at my own cost. I thought since the other party’s car was insured, the Insurance Company would pay for the cost of the repair. I recently received a demand from the Insurance Company that I should refund them the whole cost of repairing the vehicle.

My question is whether it’s procedural for me to pay the whole cost of the repairs or any of it? If it was expected that I should, why was I not involved in identifying a suitable garage/Panel Beater to negotiate the cost of repairs? I think the amount I am demanded to pay is way too much for the damage that I thought occurred.

Need your advice.

Unfortunately for you, yes this IS how things work. The insurance policy that the other person paid for is there to protect her against any losses from accidents and theft, not you. At the end of this story she shouldn’t have suffered financially as a result of something beyond her control. The insurance company have now paid for everything to be repaired, that was their side of the deal with her.

However they ARE now entitled to try and recover their costs from you. It was you, after all, that caused the accident. Where possible insurance companies are entitled to attempt to recover their losses from guilty parties and that’s why they’re now chasing you.

However I do think you’re entitled to ask them to justify the amount they are trying to recover. Presumably they would have got several quotes for the repairs and chose the best value one. You’ve a right to see how much it cost and a right to be charged a sensible amount of money for the repairs.

Dear Consumer’s Voice #2

I have a problem with my employer. Last month I didn’t get my salary as usual I ended up getting paid by a cheque on the last day of the month which was on the 30th of June, but our agreement with my employer was that I must get paid on the 25th of every month.

Unfortunately my bank charged me because there was no money in my account for the stop orders on the 27th and 29th, now I don’t have money. The bank charged me P560 because I didn’t have money in the bank on those dates. My employer’s accountant says it’s not their problem because they deposited my money on the 23rd, I went to the bank with my query and they told me that they didn’t receive any money to my account from my employers bank. Our accountant just says I cant get my money so I must forget about it. The thing is its not my fault, is it?

It most certainly is NOT your fault. It certainly seems from what you say that your employer has massively failed you. The single biggest obligation an employer has towards his or her employees is to pay them the right amount of money on time. A decent employer understands that employees have their own obligations like stop orders that go out at the end of the month and they must do their best not to ruin their employees’ lives by paying them late.

With your permission we’ll get in touch with your bank and we’ll ask them to trace the payment and to confirm exactly when they received the money from your employer’s bank.

If it turns out that your employer did indeed pay you late and therefore caused you all these problems they’ll have to compensate you for the bank charges you incurred. Simple as that.

If they don’t I think you should approach the Department of Labour and ask them to intervene. If not, if you’re feeling really mean we can always call them for you. Do you think they deserve that?

On the other hand, if it turns out that one of the banks was at fault, well, they have lots of money, they can afford to compensate you.

Dear Consumer’s Voice #3

I got an SMS from a UK cell phone number (+44 7425 219 870) stating that I have been awarded 2,000,000 pounds by RIM-Blackberry. I was then asked to email my name and country which I did and then later I was sent an email asking for my personal details like my passport number. Is this a scam or am I two million richer?

It’s a scam, no doubt about that. There’s no point in responding to the scammer unless you want to waste his time. Just make sure that you don’t send any money to anyone connected with this scam.

If you feel like wasting a Pula why don’t you send him a really, incredibly rude text message telling him what you think about him?