The Voice - Consumer's Voice

Must it take so long?

Please intervene here. I had bought a phone at a furniture store in Selebi Phikwe and enrolled on insurance. I was mugged on May 26 and filled a claim form with the store for replacement. I was told to wait 3 days to 3 weeks maximum. After 4 weeks I started calling the store at my expense with no satisfactory response even from the supervisors. Please assist.

Firstly I'm glad you had insurance cover for the phone. When you buy something on hire purchase the deal often includes an insurance policy that covers the item you're buying against theft or damage. However, it's important to note that these policies often protect the store more than they do the consumer and the cost of this insurance is often incredibly high, much higher than an insurance policy you could've got yourself. It's incredibly important, if you can afford it, to get a basic home contents insurance policy. This will cover all of your belongings in the case of a disaster and not just one item such as a cellphone.

Insurance claims do sometimes take a while to be processed and it depends very much on the details of the claim, what was lost, and the circumstances of the loss. The insurance company has to double check everything to make sure the claim is legitimate before they can pay out. That's why I suspect they told you it could be between three days and three weeks. However, in your case, it's taken more than four weeks and that's excessive. I emailed the store and they contacted the insurance company and they told me they were missing the police case number from your claim. However, when I contacted you, you told me you'd long given them this. Maybe they should read the claim forms more carefully in future? Also, haven't they heard of cell phones? They could and should have called you if something was missing. They shouldn't wait for me to contact them before they told you this.

If this takes much longer I'll remind them that Section 14 of the Consumer Protection Act says that when a supplier performs:

"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". 

In simple terms, they should pick up the phone and call you to reassure you that things are happening. It's the legal and polite thing to do.

Where's my refund?

I need your advice about my issue with a tracking company. On Wednesday I paid a tracking company to track my laptop and paid them P900 the same day. Before the end of the day my laptop was returned back to me by a stranger. I notified the tracking company the same time that I found my laptop and they promised to return P600 of the amount I sent which we agreed. Now to date they are not responding, they even blocked my numbers.

Please advise on how best you can assist?

I'm very suspicious about many of these companies that claim to be able to track stolen or lost devices. Many modern cellphones and laptops have built-in tracking features that allow us to locate them very precisely if they're switched on. Whenever we buy such a device it's very important that we switch on these features in case we later have a problem.

However, I suspect some of them are using a different approach which, I suspect in many cases, is illegal. This company is more complicated. I checked their registration with CIPA and the company was deregistered late in 2023. Something even more suspicious is that on their Facebook page they've posted several pictures of cellphone thieves they claimed to recently help catch. A quick search showed that these pictures were all from Nigerian news sites from a few years ago.

I contacted them about your refund and it was quickly processed. However, when I asked them about their company registration and the photos they became very defensive and argumentative. Do you think they have a guilty conscience?

The Voice - Consumer's Voice

What should I do?

Good morning. I need help. I bought a car at a pawn shop, after the disk expired I found out that it has been flagged with the Police and also the disk on the car was fake. The Transport system shows that the car long expired in 2022 whereas the disk on the car was for 2023. I have tried to get them to rectify this but they are just sending me from pillar to post. Please assist.

The first thing we should all learn from this situation is that whenever we buy a second-hand car, it's important to get the seller to prove that the car hasn't been flagged by the Police. This is a process where the Police record a car as connected to a debt that an owner incurred when they failed to pay a Police fine. The problem occurs when the car is sold and the new owner then has problems registering the vehicle in their name. The Police should be flexible about this because it's obviously wrong to charge you for someone else's debts but it's clearly an inconvenience.

However, what worries me more here is that the car was sold with a forged registration disk. That's a criminal matter and the pawn shop management needs to take some responsibility for this. I know they didn't forge the disk but they neglected to check that the car was legally registered. That's something that any company selling a car should do.

I contacted the pawn shop and he responded quickly, saying: "Hello sir ...I understand the case....that car I also bought from another guy who has been promising to pay and cover all the necessary needs .I even gave him the guys numbers and they were talking and still promising to pay …"

I'm not impressed. You didn't buy the car from "another guy", you bought it from the pawn shop and it's their responsibility to fix this matter. I'll keep chasing them.

Finally, I think you need to speak to the Police and explain everything that happened here, most importantly about the fake registration disk. They need to understand that you are the innocent party here.

Update: The pawn shop manager persuaded "another guy" to compensate the consumer and this has started.

Can they do this?

Hey Mr Richard. One of requirements for this cash loan is a picture of your bank card including CVV. Is it allowed?

No, it most certainly is not.

Every part of your bank card is important and needs to be treated with great care. Obviously the 16-digit card number is important and you should be VERY careful how you use it and who you share it with. The Expiry Date is also critical but the most important thing is the 3-digit CVV number on the back of the card. This Card Verification Value number is used to prove that the card is in the possession of the card holder when they purchase things over the phone or online. Giving this to anyone is incredibly risky and giving it to a microlender who asks for it is dangerous. Incredibly dangerous. You are giving control of your money to someone who can't be trusted.

It's also illegal. NBFIRA, who regulate the microlending industry, have repeatedly said that lenders may not take any borrower's identity documents or their bank cards. I don't think it matters whether a lender takes a bank card physically or just a photo of it. If they have the CVV number, they've crossed the line.

I'll contact NBFIRA about this and I'll also contact the loan company. It might be just one employee that's breaking the rules or it might be company policy. Either way they ned to stop it immediately.

The Voice - Consumer's Voice

Can't they fix it?

We have a phone here, a refurbished iPhone 11 we bought for P6,000 but recently the phone keeps going off and it doesn't not recognize the battery. The store owner is saying that it's because the software was changed.

They mentioned that the phone was not supposed to be updated but the software update was automatic. They said they can only fix it with P800 which I feel it does not make sense as it also does not recognize the battery.

Firstly, I suppose we should recognise that at least this store were open about the phone being refurbished. That's what the Consumer Protection Act requires. There's nothing wrong with buying and selling refurbished phones. In fact I think it's a very good idea, so long as suppliers are honest about this. I'm also pleased that the receipt you were given confirms that the phone had been refurbished.

However, despite being honest about this, I'm not sure they've been so honest about other things. The story about you not updating the software is complete nonsense. In fact it's incredibly important that you load all the software updates that your cellphone manufacturer releases and as soon as possible. They're there to protect us. Any store that says you shouldn't is behaving very strangely. It's even stranger that their receipt even includes a stamped statement saying, "No warranty when you upgrade software".

Section 23 of the Consumer Protection Act say that a contract between a supplier and a consumer may not "impose terms and conditions that are unfair, unreasonable or unjust". Not allowing you to keep your phone safely updated is, in my humble opinion, "unreasonable". And silly.

I've contacted the store and asked what how they suggest this can be resolved.

Readers might remember that we recently asked the Competition and Consumer Authority to investigate the cellphone industry because so many cellphone stores are either illegally selling second-hand phones as new or either ignoring or avoiding their legal obligations. We'll keep you updated on the progress they make.

Can I get a refund?

Mr Richard. Ke kopa thuso. I bought a sofa at a furniture store in Broadhurst but it came in a bad condition. It had marks on the arm and the corner was torn. Now they refusing to pay me back. The sofa was bought for P27,000 as new. I return the delivery guy with it and continue to ask for a refund. I sent all my bank account and confirmation letter like they asked but nothing. I can't get my money.

Please help with way forward.

This is really unacceptable. If we spend P27,000 on a sofa, it needs to be the best sofa in the world, delivered in perfect condition and by the politest delivery guys you've ever met. For that money we have a right to expect perfection.

However, it's debatable whether you can demand a refund. Section 15 of the Consumer Protection Act says that consumers are entitled "to receive goods which are of good quality" and clearly this sofa isn't that. Section 16 says that when goods are not of good quality, the consumer may return those goods "within six months after the delivery of the goods, without penalty and at the supplier's risk and expense" and that then the supplier must "repair or replace the defective goods; or refund the consumer".

However, it's up to the supplier to choose which of those three options they want to do. They are entitled to try to repair the sofa if they can. But the Act also says that if they try to repair it and the same fault happens again with in 3 months, they can't try to repair it again.

I'll contact the store management and see if they can deal with this more helpfully.