The Voice - Consumer's Voice

Where's her refund?

My daughter deposited P56,000 into the account of the sole owner of Awiwi Holdings Pty Ltd to buy her a second hand Honda CRV of 2008 on the 9th December 2017. The agreement was that the whole process will take a total of 3-5 days and that the money paid will include purchasing, transportation and clearance. The company failed to deliver it and the said owner promises to refund the money but still he failed.

He said he has requested for a loan from a microlender yesterday and 2 weeks back he said he requested for a loan from a bank and he promised to pay before làst week Friday but he never did. I am pleading with you to help my daughter get her money back.

Why is it that certain industries have more than their fair share of crooks, liars and, in this case, unreliable business owners? We hear so often about unreliable suppliers in the wedding business, second-hand car dealers and even more often, car importers. Of course, in each of these industries there are some remarkably good, professional, reliable people, the businesses we should all support but clearly this guy isn't one of them. He's one of the unreliable ones. The great irony is that on the sale agreement your daughter signed with the company, it shows their company motto: "client's happiness comes first". Maybe if they lived that idea a little more he wouldn't end up in The Voice.

I contacted him to see if he'd be a bit more cooperative and he assured me that your daughter would get her refund. He told me that he had "promised her to return the money before Friday this week". That was LAST Friday, not this Friday and yes, yet again he's letting you down and now me as well. Frankly I don't care about whether he's trying to get a loan to repay your daughter, he owes her a lot of money.

I suggest that you write him a letter saying that unless Awiwi Holdings repays your daughter the full amount she paid him within 14 days you'll take legal action against him. I doubt anything else will make him do the right thing.

Should they glue my shoes?

I bought a sneaker at a certain boutique for P600 on the 2nd of February this year. I wore it only on that weekend and now its sole is parting with the upper part of the shoe. This morning I confronted the shop manager about the issue and she said the only way she could help me was putting glue in between the affected part and making it stick. So my question is what can you advise me to do because I did not get services and value for my money on the product.

I think the store owner needs to understand that Section 13 (1) (a) of the Consumer Protection Regulations requires suppliers to offer commodities and services that are "of merchantable quality". In simpler terms, they should do what they're meant to do. A pair of shoes that only lasts a few days clearly doesn't pass this test. However, that assumes that you've treated the shoes with some care. If you'd misused them then it's a different matter. Nevertheless, from what you say it seems like there's a fault with this pair of shoes.

When something isn't of merchantable quality you're entitled to one of the three Rs: a refund, repair or a replacement but it's up to the store to decide which of these three to offer you. They're within their rights to try to repair them but just applying a bit of glue doesn't strike me as very impressive. I even wonder whether that complies with Section 15 (1) (a) which requires a supplier to offer services "with reasonable care and skill"?

But here's another question to ask yourself, Were these sneakers genuine? You don't mention what brand they are but it's perhaps worth contacting the manufacturer for their observations. A legitimate manufacturer will take care to maintain their brand's reputation if the shoes are genuine and will want to take action against the store if they're not. Send me the details and we'll see what they have to say!