Here is my story. We have purchased two tombstones for family members from a supplier. We made full payment, unfortunately they made mistakes in the writing and they refuse to fix it. It's been two months already and we are preparing for the unveiling. First they said they have to take it back to South Africa and we said it's fine at their expense because they acknowledge that they made the mistake. Then they said no it can be fixed here after installing because it can be fixed by a tiler. Now they are refused to help us. May you kindly send them an email or if you can call them.
This is simply unacceptable.
Do we really need to explain to these people what the law says? Is that necessary? Surely it's obvious that tombstones should have the names of the deceased spelled correctly? Do we even need laws to tell us something so simple?
But let's tell them about the law. Section 14 (1) of the Consumer Protection Act says that when a supplier offers services they must do so "in a manner and quality that consumers are reasonably entitled to expect". It goes on to say that if a supplier fails to do this, they must "remedy any defect in the quality of the services" or they can "refund the consumer a reasonable portion of the price paid". The same section of the Act says that any goods supplied must be "of a quality that consumers are reasonably entitled to expect".
Even though it shouldn't be necessary, I'll contact them and explain this to them and let's see if they want to incur the wrath of the law and face a fine of up to P100,000, a prison term of up to five years or even both. Or maybe they want to do the decent thing?
Must I pay so much?
I have pawned mi car and they borrowed me P7,000 with 30% interest. I paid interest rate last month being on January. In February I didn't have money to pay for the interest they took the car to their place but they are saying that the interest is still accumulating 1% of the whole amount daily.
Is this true or they trying to cheat on me?
The bad news is that this is all true. The terrible news is that it's even worse than this.
Yes, the contract you signed says that if you default, you "will be charged a penalty fee at an interest rate of 1%, compounded daily on the outstanding amount".
'Compounded' means that each day the previous day's penalty is included in the calculation of the interest. If, like you, a customer owes P7,000, the interest after 30 days won't be 30 x P70 = P2,100, it will be P2,435. That's on top of the P7,000 which they still owe. After 60 days, won't be 60 x P30 = P4,200, it be P5,717.
The only piece of goods news is that the so-called 'in duplum rule' says that the interest they charge at the time the debt is settled can't exceed the capital amount you still owe them, in this case P7,000.
However, it gets worse. The contract you signed also says that if the debt isn't settled within 30 days the car will be sold and whatever money they make from the sale will be deducted from the amount you owe. However, they say they'll also charge you "Legal Charges" "Repossession Charges" and "Marketing Charges" and who knows how much they might be? One thing is certain. Your debt will only get bigger and bigger the longer it is before you settle it.
The lesson? Please only consider pawning your goods as a last resort. It might seem convenient and an easy way to raise some temporary money but it can very easily go horribly wrong. You can easily end up a lot poorer than when you started.
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