The Voice - Consumer's Voice

Can I get a better bed?

Hi. In 2017 November I bought a bed and a fridge in Bradlows Game City branch in Gaborone which was delivered to my home by Mahalapye branch.

In 2018 I reported the bed because it had a depression in the middle and was sagging in less than 6 months. I was given an exchange and given a new bed of the same brand which did the same thing again and I lodged a complaint which took some months without being assisted. In 2019 October was given a new bed which is a lower quality from the previous one and its worse. In less than 2 years I had used 3 beds which I did not find any value for my money.

I have raised an issue with the managers to no avail. I am being tossed from pillar to post and their call center is harassing me and tormenting me on daily basis. They are telling me the bed is off guarantee therefore they cannot help me.

This is going to be complicated. I suspect the store will continue to argue that they provided you with a bed throughout the period you were paying for it and for much longer than the period of the warranty they offered. That’s one of the most frustrating things about buying things on hire purchase, the payment period is usually two years but the warranty is almost always only one year. If the product goes wrong after the first year you’re left paying for something that doesn’t work properly and there’s nothing you can do about it.

I know it doesn’t seem this way but you were lucky that the store gave you a new bed, even a poorer quality one, nearly two years after the purchase. I don’t think they were actually required to do that if the warranty was only for a year.

Nevertheless, I’ve contacted Bradlows to see if there’s anything they can do but please, don’t be too optimistic.

How can I spot a scam?

Given how many people are falling victim to a variety of scams, several readers have asked how they can spot a scam before they fall victim to it. So here are some ideas.

Whenever someone invites you to join their money-making scheme, you should first ask yourself WHY they’re inviting you. If they have a way of making money, why are they sharing it instead of keeping it to themselves? The answer is very simple. Anyone inviting you to join their scheme is trying to make money FROM you, not WITH you.

Another clue is products. Real businesses have products and services. Scams don’t. Or sometimes they do, or they pretend to have them, but these products don’t really matter. They are primarily interested in recruiting other people and then getting them to recruit even more. You’ll often hear the promoters of these schemes defend themselves by insisting their scheme isn’t a pyramid scheme because there are products. Others will say it’s legitimate because anyone can earn more than the people above them in the pyramid. That’s all just excuses. What matters most is the word “primarily”. Section 9 of the new Consumer Protection Act says that if “participants in the scheme receive compensation derived primarily from their respective recruitment of other persons as participants” then it’s a pyramid scheme. I think that’s quite simple.

There are also some key words you should look for. One is Bitcoin. As I’ve said endless times in the past, Bitcoin is a legitimate but very high-risk cryptocurrency that is a fascinating vision of how money might work in the future. However, it must never be seen as an investment and it’s surrounded by a huge number of scams, pyramid schemes and Ponzi schemes. Just like the BitClub Network, whose founders are being prosecuted in the USA for running a scam that stole $722 million from victims around the world. That actually had no connection to Bitcoin at all, it was just an enormous Ponzi scheme.

The simplest lesson is to be skeptical. Don’t believe anyone, not a single soul, who claims you can make large amounts of money with little effort or just by recruiting other people. Anyone who claims this is either lying, deluded, naïve or desperate. Don’t believe it!