The Voice - Consumer's Voice

Will she be paid?

Good morning sir. There is an woman she has an insurance policy in which she also insured her grandmother. In March 2022 the grandmother passed on to glory then she went to the insurance company and was told to send the death certificate which she did. She was told the policy owes P400 and she should pay that P400. She paid at the Palapye office and she been waiting for them to pay which they failed to pay.

Now she went back to them now they say the policy can't be cashed because its been closed or something like that and they can't help her. What can she do?

I contacted the insurance company who held this lady's insurance policy and the situation is complicated. Without disclosing too much information, they told me that this lady has, for a very long time, only paid her insurance premiums occasionally. Worse still, at the time of her claim she was a year in arrears. Not a single payment in 12 months. She was told that the policy would be reinstated if she paid the arrears but maybe she didn't understand, or perhaps they didn't explain clearly enough that she would not be able to submit any claims for a few months. That's because life insurance policies and funeral plans almost always have a waiting period before a claim can be submitted. Because she was in such great arrears, the policy started again as if it was a new one.

The lesson here is to clearly understand any policy before you sign it and start paying. Conditions like the ones this lady experienced are incredibly important. The simple truth about insurance policies is that if you don't pay the premiums, you don't get the benefit. That can be more than just an inconvenience, it can be a disaster.

I need my money back!

Hi Richard, I need your help. I contacted a guy selling bricks on Facebook in Kanye to deliver some bricks for me. He came to my plot in Jwaneng when I was not there and confirmed the place with him and he confirmed he will deliver. This was in January 2021. I paid him P4,000 as deposit so that after delivery I could pay the rest. The guy never delivered the bricks despite communication with him that I needed the bricks. It was an excuse after excuse about car breakdowns and all. I kept on contacting him and he said he will deliver.

The last conversation was this year January were he promised he will bring them but failed again. I told him that I no longer need the bricks but I need my money as I had bought bricks somewhere else. He promised to give me my money back but till now am still waiting. I need help to recover my money, as now he is not answering my calls. Please help.

I really don't understand how some businesses think they can operate like this. How do they sleep at night? Don't they have a conscience?

Luckily the people who wrote the Consumer Protection Act had this situation in mind. Section 14 of the Act says that:

"Where a supplier undertakes to perform any services for or on behalf of a consumer, the consumer has a right to … timely performance and completion of those services (and) timely notice of any unavoidable delay". 

He should have been constantly updating you on the delays, what was causing them and what he planned to do to speed things up. He obviously failed to do that. 

The Act goes on to say that if the supplier fails to deliver the services they promised they must either: "remedy any defect in the quality of the services"

or

"refund the consumer a reasonable portion of the price paid for the services performed and goods supplied, having regard to the extent of the failure". 

In simple terms, you deserve your money back. All of it. Now. No more excuses and delaying tactics.

I contacted the guy and asked him what he was planning to do but I haven't yet received a reply. I won't give up.

UPDATE: He says he'll refund you.