The Voice - Consumer's Voice

They listed me as a bad payer!

I would like to share with you the bad, awful, unprofessional services I received from a furniture store.

We entered into agreement last year, I bought the couch on credit at their store. And they delivered a damaged couch, I immediately informed them and they took a step and came to inspect the couch, they did conceded that it is indeed damage. They agreed to help me by repaired it, after repair, the couch came in the same condition.

There was no proper communication from their part as to what will happen after they failed to repair the couch. I expressed my displeasure many times at their store, about the slow and awful service I received.

The issue was dragging for long and decided to cancel the deal. They did agreed on January this year, I furnished them with a letter of cancellation and they did agreed and refunded me while took their couch. Since January 2015, till now the authorities have not cancelled my credit. My name is currently appearing in the system showing that I owe about P13,000 and it has closed door for me on my other dealings.

I appeal to you to help me, make the authorities understand the urgency of the matter, as well as my credit reputation, help by push them to clear my name on the system because I currently do not owe them anything.

My credit reputation is dented because of their slow, unprofessional way of doing things.

Firstly accept my congratulations on standing up for your rights, demanding solutions and, above all, for finally cancelling the deal.

I contacted the MD of the furniture store and his team confirmed that your contract had indeed been cancelled on 13th January. One of the team said “I do note that the customer was not happy with the quality of the couch he purchased and the after sale service. I will investigate the poor service and take the appropriate action immediately. I will also check why the system still shows that he owes us even though the contract was cancelled in January.”

I’m sorry that you had to endure months of frustration but I’m glad that things are now sorted out.

Can I get my car repaired?

I bought a second hand car at a garage in Mogoditshane in December and now its giving me problems. They say my guarantee was three months so now they can’t help me because my guarantee is expired. Thing is this problem has once occurred back in February but it was not as bad as now plus it was not occurring often. So the problem starting reoccurring and becoming worse sometime in April, I took it for service because I had thought that maybe it needed to be serviced.

So from the service there was a report that stated the problem thats when I contacted the garage where I bought the car. I explained everything but they said they can’t help me because my guarantee has expired. The receipt states that all cars are sold as is; customers are allowed to do thorough checking of the car before buying, there is guarantee stated.

Please help me because I don’t know what to do now.

I’m sorry to hear of your problem.

Many garages say that things are sold “as is” which provides them with some limited protection but this one seems to have been slightly better by offering the three months.

Unfortunately you should have reported to the garage during the 3-month guarantee period, as soon as you noticed the issue, rather than waiting for it to get worse. Ideally you should have given the vehicle a thorough test before buying it and than again on the day you drove it away. Any problems should then have immediately been raised with the seller.

I’m sorry but I’m not sure there’s much you can do.