Friday 5 April 2013

The Voice - Consumer's Voice

Dear Consumer’s Voice #1

In December 2012, I made a lay-be for a pair of shoes at a shop in Game City Mall, Gaborone. As per the receipt issued to me, I was told my lay-bye expires on the 31/03/2013. With that in mind, on the 28/03/2013 I made my way to the shop to collect my lay-bye, where I was told by the store clerks that my lay-bye has been put out of the store room and put back in store to be sold. Unfortunate for me my shoes were bought by another customer. The said these orders came from the store owners in South Africa.

I would like know the steps I can take against the shop and also why I was not made aware of this. Usually when any of my previous lay-byes were about to expire I would receive an SMS alert, please explain why a similar courteous SMS was not sent to me.


I'm sorry to hear of your problem. The store has clearly mistreated you and you have every right to feel abused. However I suspect it would be difficult to force the store to give you the shoes if they've sold them to someone else. Nevertheless you are clearly entitled to a complete refund of the money you paid, as well as an apology. You had an agreement with the store and they broke it. They should at least say sorry, after they’ve given you back your money.

I’ll get in touch with the store and encourage them to get moving. Even if it’s a decent apology it’ll be a start. Maybe the owners will remind their staff about contracts, promises and decent service?

Dear Consumer’s Voice #2

I bought a Lenovo laptop on the 9th August 2012 on credit. This agreement is to end after 24 months with this month being the 8th month. I bought this laptop with the hope that it will last my entire years of studying as I trusted the quality that I was promised by the store. In February I noticed that the laptop had lost a screw from beneath it which I found and replaced.

Earlier this month I encountered the same problem but only this time I did not manage to find the screw and so I decided to take the laptop back to the shop to alert them of the problem. When I got there it came to my attention that the shop knows very well of the manufacturing fault of the laptops having the tendency of losing screws. When I asked why the shop would sell such faulty laptops the shop assistant told me that they can only take the laptop for maintenance as it is still warranted. I found this very disturbing as I do not have the assurance that even after the maintenance the laptop won’t continue losing screws. Also I am afraid that the store might charge me for the costs incurred in fixing the broken points of the laptop which were as a result of it losing screws.

Please follow this up and advice me on what to do as I now feel I’m am going to have to pay for a laptop that will incur more costs for me because of its low quality that I was not aware of when I purchased it.


I think this is quite a simple situation. Take the laptop back to the store and let them fix it. If, as you say, there has been damage as a result of the screws coming loose then it’s their job to fix it under the terms of the warranty. I found online a number of reports of Lenovo laptops losing screws just as you describe. Clearly you’re not the first person to have this experience. You should remind the store about this.

Let me know how they react.

Celebrations

We heard about Neo, an employee of Choppies in Mogoditshane who we’re told “is a super star” who offers “superb customer service”. Another reader told us about Moeng at the Total filling station at Game City for “being helpful and knowledgeable”. Finally we were told about Candy at Debonairs at Rail Park Mall and her “beautiful service and smile”. Well done to them all!

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