Thursday 28 January 2010

The Voice - Dear Consumer's Voice

Dear Consumer’s Voice #1

I would like to take this opportunity to share my experience of bad customer service and seek advice and assistance towards the matter.

I bought bricks from a General Dealer in Moshupa sometime in 2008 on three separate dates. I bought a total of 1,327 bricks. 880 bricks were delivered on two separate occasions in the same year.

As of now the outstanding number of bricks (447) has still not been delivered and it is more than a year now. I have contacted the sales person on several occasions and what she told me is that the manager/owner is always out but she keeps on reminding him and it seems to fall on deaf ears because he never says anything. As a result I ended up purchasing bricks from another Dealer.

All I want is a refund because they have failed to honour the sale and I no longer need bricks because the house is being roofed.

Can u help?


Sometimes the Consumer Protection Regulations aren’t the best weapon you can use to protect yourself. Yes, the Regulations offer you protection in this situation. They say that a supplier must deliver a service with “reasonable care and skill”. They say that a supplier must supply goods that “match any sample or description given to the consumer”. They also say that a supplier has failed to meet minimum standards of performance if they fail “to promptly restore to the consumer entitled to it a deposit, down payment, or other payment”.

All of these protections could be used to deal with this general dealer but I’ve got a better suggestion.

I think you should write your general dealer a letter explaining that he has failed to deliver the bricks you paid for. In the letter give him the number of bricks you paid for and the number you received. Do the maths and work out what he owes you for the bricks he failed to deliver. Then give him 7 days to give you the money you are owed. Warn him that if he fails to do so you will take whatever legal measures you see fit.

Then sit back and wait. If you get your money then everything’s fine. If not then you should go to your local police station and accuse the general dealer of stealing. Mention Sections 263-281 of The Penal Code to the police officer. Give the officer a copy of the letter you wrote to the general dealer and leave it with them.

Let’s see if a visit from our boys and girls in blue will encourage the dealer to do the decent thing!

Dear Consumer’s Voice #2

I received an email saying that I had won a prize. The email said:

“MICROSOFT COOPERATION MANAGEMENT WORLDWIDE LICENSED LOTTERY PROMOTERS ARE PLEASED TO INFORM YOU THAT YOU ARE A WINNER OF OUR ANNUAL MS-WORD LOTTO LOTTERY CONDUCTED IN AFRICA BEING THE HOST OF THE EVENT FOR THIS PRESENT YEAR 2010 SOUTH AFRICAN FIFA WORLD CUP MEGA JACKPOT LOTTO WINNING PROGRAMS… YOU HAVE THEREFORE BEEN APPROVED FOR LUMP SUMS OF US$M 1,900,000 00(ONE MILLION NINE HUNDRED THOUSAND UNITED STATES DOLLARS) PAYABLE IN CASH”

Can this be true?


Thanks for sending this very long email over to us. Firstly, no, it’s not true. This is a scam.

The clues are there.

Firstly, Microsoft and FIFA don't give away money to total strangers. They never have done, they never will do. They certainly don't contact people out of the blue and offer them money.

What’s more, lotteries don't work like this. The only way you can win a lottery is by actually entering it. You simply can't win a lottery you haven't entered.

All of the email addresses they are using are either free ones (like live.com) or fake ones. One of the addresses they give is "info@standerdcharteredbanknet.com". Look closely and you'll see they haven't spelled "standard" correctly. I checked the address and found that it's from a domain name that they've registered with Google. I forwarded details to Google for their action and heard back from them that they’ve “taken the appropriate steps as necessary to resolve the issue”.

If you look closely at their email they also give a postal address. However the address has a UK postal code but says it's in South Africa. Also the phone numbers they quote are all re-directable cellphone numbers, they don’t seem to have a single land line. Hardly what you would expect from Microsoft and FIFA, don’t you think?

Like all scammers their English is very poor quality. There are many spelling and grammatical errors in all of their messages, again curious if they really were from such big companies.

This is just another example of a "419" or "advance fee" scam. At the very last minute, just before you think you are about to receive this non-existent money, they will demand money from you as an "advance fee", either a bank charge, a lawyer’s fee or some sort of transaction cost. That's when they disappear with your money and are never to be seen again!

Do yourself a favour and delete the email, and all other emails like it immediately.

Friday 22 January 2010

1st, 2nd or 3rd?

This might seem like a ridiculous question but where would you want to finish in a race? I can’t imagine anyone saying they’d want to come second or third, can you? Surely everyone wants to come first?

So why, as a nation, do we accept not coming first?

I’m not talking about sport, that’s obvious. Although we’re a fairly large country if you measure us in square kilometres, we have a very small population so it’s always going to be a bit harder to excel in sports. Countries with bigger populations are more likely to breed those occasional freaks of nature who can run faster than a horse or who can lift huge weights. It’s always going to be less likely for a country with a small populations such as ours to produce these creatures.

I’m not talking either about our economy. Despite our efforts to diversify we’re never going to be China or the USA. We’ll always need to concentrate on a fairly small number of industries, that’s just our fate. The challenge is to find those industries that can keep us afloat.

No, what I’m talking about is our mindset. Our expectations, our image of ourselves as a nation. I mean how we present ourselves to our customers and to the rest of the world. Do we want to be seen as a first world country or something less than that?

Before anyone gets technical and points out that we are a “developing” nation and cannot be seen in the same category as the USA, much of Europe or Japan, yes, I know that, of course I do. Clearly we still have a long way to go as a nation. We still have people living in poverty, yes, I know. But that’s not what I’m talking about. I’m talking about how we perceive ourselves and how we are led to perceive our nation.

I think we can decide whether we want to be seen as a nation that delivers 1st world service. I truly believe it’s up to us to decide how we want to be perceived. I don’t want to sound like one of those ghastly, New Age, “The Secret”-reading loons who think that you can make good things happen just by thinking about them, but I DO think confidence shows itself, both in people and in nations.

So how can we do it? Well, I think we can begin by forcing our suppliers to do it for us. Better still we can tell suppliers when they are behaving like we’re a third-world basket-case nation.

For example, why do we accept out of date technology? Why do we accept suppliers selling us devices that are out-dated and almost obsolete elsewhere in the world? For instance, Orange Botswana still offer the Apple iPhone 3G for sale. Almost everywhere else in the world cellphone providers offer the much improved iPhone 3GS. The 3GS was launched by Apple in June last year and is available by now all over the world. Everywhere, that is, except Botswana.

Bizarrely, Apple themselves seem to think that it should be available here. In an official announcement Apple said that the 3GS would be launched in Botswana on 9th August last year. There’s even an Apple web site that talks about the 3GS specifically in connection with Botswana. Look closely at this web address:


See the “bw” in the middle? That page announces itself as follows:
“Apple (Botswana) – iPhone – View all the features of the new iPhone 3GS”
So why don’t Orange know anything about this? A cynic might suggest that they are just trying to clear the stocks of the older models but if this is the case why don’t they do what every other cellphone provider in the world does and offer both models? Even Apple still offer the older model but at a much cheaper price. The irony is that according to rumours on the Internet an even newer iPhone will be released in a few months. Will Orange still be selling the oldest model then do you think?

Yes, I know this is just one example and I don’t mean to pick on Orange more than anyone else but I do think it’s a good example of us being seen as a sleepy backwater of the world. Not by the world, but by our suppliers who I often suspect think they can get away with lower standards than they would be forced to deliver in other countries.

Let me stress again that it’s not just Orange who I think are letting us down. It’s almost all the technology service providers but also supermarkets and restaurants. They seem to think that just because we have a small population they can give us bottom-of-the-range choices. I fully understand why they have to give us a slightly more limited set of choices but why must they just be the crappier ones?

I think that can be our collective, national, New Year’s Resolution. Let’s stop accepting third-rate choices. Let’s demand to be treated like a first world nation by suppliers. Let’s only accept 1st world quality service. Let’s also be practical. In a year when there will be football fans from around the world in the Region, don’t they deserve the same level of service as much as we do?

This week’s stars
  • Everyone, yet again, at the Ramotswa border post for showing that even without high-technology, decent buildings and fancy facilities service can still be delivered with a smile and a laugh.

The Voice - Consumer's Voice

Dear Consumer’s Voice

I saw an advertisement from a company called Dalberto Sponsors that said they could get people jobs abroad and would pay for flights, accommodation and visas, all for P3,500. Can this be true? It reminded me of the scams you had written about in the past. Is this another scam?

Do you think I should respond to them?


No, you certainly should NOT respond to them. This is a scam.

In fact a number of people have contacted us about these advertisements that appeared in at least two newspapers in Botswana (not The Voice though, perhaps they know that Voice readers are more skeptical than others?). They all asked whether this was “another scam” and they were right to be suspicious.

The biggest clue was that what Dalberto Sponsors offer is simply unbelievable. How on earth can they get you a job, pay for your flight, give you accommodation and sort out visas and paperwork for as little as P3,500? They don’t even say where the jobs will be so how do they know what the flight will cost? Assuming they mean Europe then the numbers simply don’t add up. There’s no way you can get a flight to anywhere in Europe these days for less than P6,500. The airport taxes alone come to over P2,500. What they claim is simply unbelievable.

It becomes even less believable when you start doing some research about this company. They have a web site that looks very professional but strangely for a company that claims to have been operating for years, this web site was only registered on the 29th October last year. What’s more, almost everything on the web site had been “lifted” (that’s a polite way of saying “stolen”) from other web sites. Word for word.

They even show pictures of the people they claim run the company but it’s curious, don’t you think, that none of these people actually seem to exist in real life. None of them has left a trace of ever having existed before, other than on the Dalberto web site. You’d think that at least one of them would have a Facebook page at least, don’t you?

Things becomes just ridiculous when you look at the jobs they claim to be offering. They claim they can find you a job as a “Human Resources Administrator” in the UK with the truly astonishing salary (sit down before you read this) of P1.9 million per year!

How stupid do they think we are? Obviously the salary is insane but remember that they claim this job is in the UK, the country still in a recession, when people are being retrenched rather than hired and where they certainly aren’t offering jobs to foreigners like us.


It didn’t take too much detective work to confirm that this bunch of crooks really are, in fact, a bunch of crooks. The business address they quote in the UK is in fact someone’s house and presumably just an address they chose at random.

We phoned Dalberto Sponsors several times on their South African cellphone numbers (the only numbers they have that actually work) and pretended to be interest in the jobs they claim to offer. Each time it was the same message. Just give us your money and we’ll get you a job, guaranteed. Even when we called and pretended to be a unqualified as possible we were offered high paid jobs.

We gave up pretending eventually and got in touch with them and asked them to justify their claims. They couldn’t. All they could do is threaten us. In one angry email they said:
“we are a powerful company that is prepared to spend hundred thousands of pula to expose you so watch the news and papers soon.”
When I asked for the name of just one person they had successfully placed in a job abroad, or the name of just one company who had used their services, anywhere in the world they said:
“Please stop harassing my staff and wasting our time... we will talk through media.”
This is a scam, it’s a simple as that. Please don’t get abused by them, don’t have anything to do with them!

An update

Last week we responded to an email from a consumer who felt she had been abused by Prokard. This worthless hotel discount scheme employs telemarketers who call people and apparently sign people up for their scheme without their explicit permission. We heard from several people who had given their credit or debit card details to Prokard. That might sound foolish to you but one said she had only given the details “to establish if I would be Gold or a normal member”.

However she later found that she had been charged over P1,000 and was now a Prokard member.

We got in touch with Prokard who have now decided to refund one of the consumers everything she was charged. Hopefully this will happen with the others as well.

Our message remains the same. Never, EVER give out your personal and banking details to anyone you don’t already trust. Don’t also sign up for hotel discount schemes unless you know exactly what you are guaranteed first. Finally, if you want to get a cheap hotel stay in South Africa go to Bid2Stay where you tell them what you are prepared to pay for a hotel. You can save a fortune and, most importantly, it costs you nothing.

Sunday 17 January 2010

Prokard - an update

Last week we responded to an email from a consumer who felt she had been abused by Prokard. This worthless hotel discount scheme employs telemarketers who call people and apparently sign people up for their scheme without their explicit permission. We heard from several people who had given their credit or debit card details to Prokard. That might sound foolish to you but one said she had only given the details “to establish if I would be Gold or a normal member”.

However she later found that she had been charged over P1,000 and was now a Prokard member.

We got in touch with Prokard who have now decided to refund one of the consumers everything she was charged. Hopefully this will happen with the others as well.

Our message remains the same. Never, EVER give out your personal and banking details to anyone you don’t already trust. Don’t also sign up for hotel discount schemes unless you know exactly what you are guaranteed first. Finally, if you want to get a cheap hotel stay in South Africa go to Bid2Stay where you tell them what you are prepared to pay for a hotel. You can save a fortune and, most importantly, it costs you nothing.

Friday 15 January 2010

Our first scammer of 2010

Here we are, barely into the new year and the scammers are back. They certainly don’t hang around, do they?



Last week there were advertisements in various newspapers from a company calling itself “Dalberto Sponsors”. The two advertisements I saw were slightly different but the message was basically the same. I’ll quote the shorter one. I haven’t changed any spellings or grammar.
“Are you bored with your present job? Have you no career prospects? Why not think of getting a job abroad? Welcome to Dalberto Sponsors.

We are a recruiting company that sponsors individuals to work, study and volunteer all across the world. We work closely with employment agencies, schools and government organisations to make sure that each individual meets the necessary requirements. Dalberto sponsors is now recruiting people to work, study or have a cruise ship job for as little as R3500 we sponsor visas, accommodations, air tickets and many more for more information visit www.dalbertosponsors.com where you can fill in our application form.”
So far so good you might think? No. This is a scam. Here’s why I think this so.

Firstly this is the latest in a long lone of schemes we’ve seen that claim to get people jobs in far flung parts of the world and which require an up-front fee. All of those turned out to be scams. I know I probably shouldn’t judge these people by my experience with others claiming to do the same thing but it’s a clue, I’m sure you’ll agree.

Then there’s the company itself. Their web site is fairly glossy, looks well-constructed and suggests that they are credible. Until, that is, you do some digging. The web site suggests that the company has been operating for a while, but their web site was only first created on 29th October last year. What’s more, almost all the text on the web site seems to have been copied from other web sites. Pick almost any sentence on their site and do a Google search for it and you’ll find it’s been “borrowed”.

The site also has brief profiles of the staff they claim to employ. First on the list is one “Adam Sewall”. This apparently highly qualified American attorney claims to be a member of the Maryland State Bar Association. Sorry, no he’s not, I’ve checked. It’s the same for every other “employee”. None of them actually seem to exist.

Let’s move on to the jobs they are offering. At one point they say this about engineering positions in the UK:
“For most recently graduated or qualified individuals (one to three years experience) the average starting contract rate is usually between £10000 to £16000 per month.”
Per month? Do you seriously believe that a recent engineering graduate can earn over P2 million a year? That’s not all. Elsewhere they say that a Human Resources Administrator can earn P1.9 million a year. This, let me remind you, is in the UK, a country in the depths of a recession. UK companies aren’t hiring anyone at the moment, they’re firing people left, right and centre. They certainly aren’t offering vast fortunes to under-qualified foreigners.



One rather amusing thing is that they give a supposed business address in the UK: “Unit 115 Lockwood House, London SE11 5TD”. However scammers these days seem to be a little behind the times. Using Google Street View I was able to take a look at this address. It’s a block of residential flats, certainly not a business address.  (That's the place on the right.)

Finally there’s just the sheer nonsense of their claims. They say they’ll get you a job, pay for your accommodation and even pay for your flight, all for R3,500? Come on, how credulous do they think we are?

We phoned these people, on their South African cellphone number (the only numbers they have are cellphones) to investigate further. One of our team was told they could guarantee her a job in a bank in the UK. Another, who was under instructions to sound as unqualified as possible, was told that she could get a highly-paid administrative job there.



Finally we got bored of undercover calls and phoned them, announced who we were and asked them a few critical questions. They said (warning - medium size mp3 file to download - don't forget to admire his fake London accent!) they had placed people with various UK banks including Barclays and claimed that they could afford to fly people all that way by having bulk bookings with South African Airways. Later, we started getting emails from them and you can see all the emails on our web site. I promise I haven’t changed a word they said. In one hilarious email our scammer friend “CJ” (that's his picture on the right but frankly I think he's stolen it from somewhere on the web) said:
“You have a go ahead to publish anything you want about our company we have "no comment" but we have done a little investigation about you and we are a powerful company that is prepared to spend hundred thousands of pula to expose you so watch the news and papers soon.”
Scary!

I then proposed a simple idea to them. All I wanted was a little bit of evidence. I asked for contacts in companies in the UK where they had successfully placed workers. Just one would have been enough. His response to this simple request?
“Please stop harassing my staff and wasting our time Mr. Richard we will talk through media.”
So here we are non-existent CJ and Dalberto Sponsors, talking “through media”. You’re scammers, crooks and liars. Your offers of employment are fake and you are trying to cheat people. Over to you.

This week’s stars
  • Sam and Nonofo at Orange for brilliant customer care and for “going the extra mile”.

The Voice - Dear Consumer's Voice

Dear Consumer’s Voice

I read the articles on your web site about credit card scams and I think I may have been a victim.

Some while ago a sales person called me and said she was calling from Protea Hotels and Prokard Midrand. She was selling a product but I didn’t quite understand what it was. I asked for more clarity to be emailed to me so I could think about it.

She asked a couple of questions including how and where do I celebrate my birthday and when it is. She also asked if she could send information to my address so I gave it to her.

She proceeded to ask about my banking details which I questioned initially because I was not buying anything and I did not quite understand. I was foolish enough to give the details anyway, but I did not authorise any transaction though.

Instead of getting more information as per my request my credit card account was debited with P1,000 and I never got the information I needed nor any product.

I made follow up to ask why my account was debited, but their response was very casual. I also wrote them an email but had no response.

Can you help?


You probably don’t need me to tell you that giving out your banking details was unwise, do you? What’s worrying is that they also got all those other details from you, such as your date of birth and address. With all these details a crook could clean you out. In a way you’re lucky that it wasn’t just a crook calling and instead it was a legitimate company who took your money. However if what you say is true you have still been conned, in my humble opinion. It’s curious, as well as outrageous, that Prokard charged you money without any confirmation, without any membership details and without your clear, unambiguous authority.

So who is Prokard anyway? Here’s some background for you. Prokard is a membership scheme that offers a range of frankly rather dubious rewards. Their web site says:
“PROTEA HOTELS Prokard is a status travel club that offers all members exclusive accommodation, dining and partnership privileges throughout Protea Hotels and African Pride Superior Deluxe Hotels, Lodges and Country Houses to which only our PROKARD members are entitled.”
However I’m skeptical about these apparent benefits. For instance you might expect that if you are a Prokard member you’ll get cheaper hotel accommodation? Let’s see. I went to the Prokard web site and selected a hotel in Johannesburg at random. According to the Prokard web site I could stay there for R998 whether I was alone or with a friend. However when I checked whether rooms were available on dates I chose at random the web site said “Rooms Not Available. The special offer you have requested for the selected dates is not available.” This happened for various dates I selected.

Here’s a curious thing. At the same time I tried to book a room in the very same hotel from several non-Prokard hotel booking sites. I asked for exactly the same type of room on the very same dates. They all offered me rooms at around R1,340 if a friend was with me or R1,150 if I was alone. However, most importantly they DID have rooms available on the dates I chose whereas Prokard did not.

However, more importantly, I went to Bid2Stay and tried to book a better hotel in a similar area and what did I get? For as little as R700 I could stay in a suite (yes, an entire suite!) at a significantly better hotel. I didn’t have to join a scheme, I didn’t need to pay P1,000 to join and I got the exact dates I wanted without any hassle.

I suspect that this is the case with the other supposed benefits Prokard offers. They’ll either be of negligible value or they’ll be unavailable anyway when you want them. it’s the same story with all these discount schemes and holiday clubs. They offer very little of value, very little that you actually want and almost always they leave you feeling abused and cheated.

I suggest that everyone should steer well clear of all schemes like this, particularly the ones that cost you money up front. Instead do some research before you want a hotel stay, you’ll be surprised how much money you can save, entirely for free. You’ll end up feeling great rather than feeling ripped off.

In your particular situation we did some web searching and you are certainly NOT the first person who has experienced exactly this situation. We’ve had a few complaints about them before and your experience is the same as many, many other people throughout the region. We eventually found a contact person at Prokard who has promised to investigate your situation. We’ll let you know if we hear anything.

Meanwhile I suggest you contact your bank and tell them, in writing, that the credit card deduction was done without your authority and that they are not permitted to pay Prokard anything else. You should also demand from them evidence of how the payment was made.

Thursday 7 January 2010

Yet more from Dalberto Sponsors

Again, verbatim.
"Harriman,
   I think our company has a lot more to do than emailing you so please do feel free to put any assumptions on your blog. Our story for the Consumer Watch Dog will come out in front page papers soon. Keep in mind that Consumer Watch Dog in Europe and other countries respond to clients who make complaints NOT write blogs and tarnish companies. Please stop harassing my staff and wasting our time Mr. Richard we will talk through media.
PS: The blog is very untrue but then again we all just want to entertain the people and readers don’t we. One more thing what this purpose of your blog does it serve your clients (which from my point of view there are NONE who have any case or reports against us) or does it serve your alter ego 
Warm wishes,
CJ York"
My reply was simple:
Hi "CJ"
So, just to confirm this, you won't (or can't) provide any evidence that you are a legitimate company that actually delivers what it offers?
Regards
Richard
And finally:
 "Dear Richard,
    As far as I am concerned you seem to have demonstrated by your theoretical point of view that you are a smart enough man. No time to bicker with you I have spoken to my media contacts in Botswana I'll answer you with my story soon be patient.
Warm wishes,
CJ York"
Can't wait.

Our reply to Dalberto Sponsors

Hi "CJ"

Thanks for your response which, in the interests of fairness, I've posted to our blog.

In answer to your questions:

1. No, nobody has claimed you have stolen their money but we have been asked by several sceptical consumers to investigate your services.
2. Thanks.
3. If you have "evidence" then please supply it.

I have two specific requests for evidence that should be very easy for you to provide and that might persuade people that your services are genuine.


1. On your web site you show a picture that you claim is you, "CJ York" (picture attached). Please send me another, different picture of yourself. I'm sure you have a cellphone that takes pictures, don't you?

2. The other thing you can do is supply us with contact details of companies in the UK where you have successfully placed workers. On the phone earlier you mentioned Lloyds and Halifax banks. They would be a good start. I'm sure that a genuine recruitment company would be able to give references from happy customers.

Regards

Richard

We get an email from Dalberto Sponsors

Quoted verbatim, no corrections or amendments, including no corrections to their spelling.
" Greetings Richard And Kate,
You have a go ahead to publish anything you want about our company we have "no comment" but we have done a little investigation about you and we are a powerful company that is prepared to spend hundred thousands of pula to expose you so watch the news and papers soon.
A few ques:
1. Has anyone in the city complained that we stole thier money and we are false?
2. You are making assumptions with your theory thats very impressive.
3. We have evidence and you dont. I wont say much enjoy your day!
Regards,
CJ York"
Scary.

Dalberto Sponsors - scam!

Consumer Watchdog would like to warn the public to be extremely cautious if they see advertisements offering either work or education abroad. We have encountered many scams masquerading as recruitment companies in the last year. All involved offers of jobs, flights, accommodation and even visas to people who paid an up-front fee to a fake company. In all cases there were no real job, no flights, no accommodation. The only genuine thing was the money stolen from the victims.

Recently we have seen advertisements from a company calling itself Dalberto Sponsors. There are several reasons why we believe this is a scam. Firstly they only give cellphone numbers in the UK and South Africa, they appear not to have any land-line numbers

They also seem to be a very recent creation. Their web site was only first registered in October last year and it seems to have been copied almost entirely from other travel-related web sites. The web site also gives short profiles of the various senior managers they claim to employ but none of these people seem actually to exist. We can certainly find no trace of them.


Dalberto Sponsors give what they suggest is a business address in the UK from which they claim to operate (Unit 115 Lockwood House, London SE11 5TD, United Kingdom). However this address is actually a block of residential apartments in South London (that's it on the right).

Most importantly the claims they make should make anyone suspicious. We phoned their South African number and pretended to be interested in a job. They claimed they would find us a job working for a bank in the UK, get us a visa, accommodation and a flight all for P3,500 which we had to pay them in advance to a bank account in the UK. This is clearly ridiculous.

This is a scam and we urge readers not to respond to them.

UPDATE: We've now phoned them a few times and on each occasion they claimed they could get us any job we wanted in the UK.  But remember that the UK is in a deep recession at the moment.  Why on earth would British companies be searching for foreign workers these days?

Eventually we phoned Dalberto Sponsors in South Africa and told them that we'd seen through their lies and they weren't too pleased.  After various insults they almost threatened us but luckily it takes a little more than that to scare Consumer Watchdog!

We'll keep you updated.

Monday 4 January 2010

Letter to Micro-IT

Micro IT
P Bag 00254
Gaborone
Botswana

By fax to [xxx]

4th January 2010

To whom it may concern

As you will be aware we were contacted by [xxx] regarding the HP Compaq laptop that he bought from you on 29th October 2009.

As he reported shortly after his purchase there was a crack on the screen that he maintains was not caused by him. I am told that you sent this laptop for investigation last year and when it was returned you advised him that the damage was caused by his misuse of the device.

I would be very grateful if you can send us a copy of the report that refers to this misuse so that we can advise Mr [xxx] further.

As you will be aware Section 13 (1) (a) of the Consumer Protection Regulations 2001 states that:
“Any supplier who offers a commodity or service to a consumer fails to meet minimum standards and specifications if … the commodity sold … is not of merchantable quality.”
Cleary a broken screen would render a laptop “not of merchantable quality”.

Furthermore, the customer is clearly entitled to see evidence of any reports made that suggest he might have caused the damage. Section 15 (10 (b) of the Consumer Protection Regulations 2001 says that:
“A supplier of a commodity or of a service shall fail to meet minimum standards of performance if … the supplier quotes scientific or technical data in support of a claim unless the data can be readily substantiated”
Finally, Sections 17 (1) (d), (e) and (f) of the Regulations states that the following are acts of “unfair business practice”:
“(d) causing a probability of confusion or of misunderstanding with respect to the authority of a salesperson, representative, or agent to negotiate the final terms of a transaction;
(e) causing a probability of confusion or of misunderstanding as to the legal rights, obligations, or remedies of a party to a transaction;
(f) entering into a transaction in which the consumer waives or purports to waive a right, benefit or immunity provided by law, unless the waiver is clearly stated and the consumer has specifically consented to it;”
I would like to cover this issue further in a forthcoming newspaper column either in The Voice or Mmegi so would appreciate your rapid response.

On behalf of the Consumer Watchdog team