Friday 23 January 2015

The Voice - Consumer's Voice

I want my Blackberry back!

Last year around the first week of December, my Blackberry Bold 9900 died and a friend managed to connect me with a guy who was said to be really good with Blackberries. Indeed he is good because he fixed the phone that several technicians said it cant be done. Around the 15th of December he couriered the phone back to me in Francistown and upon receiving it I noticed the speaker wasn't working. I called him back and because it was still under the agreed 3 months warranty, he requested that I send it back to him of which I did and by the 19th he told me he is done with it and will courier it back to me and he never did. Since then he has been taking me from one pillar to another post, doesn't answer my calls nor respond to my texts. First week of January I called him with a different number and he answered and I requested that he send the phone back even if he hasnt fixed the speaker, we agreed, and it is now 2 weeks later, still havent received the phone.


It’s such a shame that someone who started so good has turned out to be unreliable.

I think it’s time to stop being nice and start giving him some deadlines. I suggest that you write him a letter giving him 14 days to return your Blackberry otherwise you’ll take legal action against him to recover both the phone and the money you have wasted by hiring him to fix the phone.

If he doesn’t respond in that time you should then go straight to the Small Claims Court with all the facts and seek an order against him.

Meanwhile we’ll get in touch with him and encourage him to do the right thing.

How do I get my money back?

I need help, I took clothes in one of the shops on credit and I failed to pay the installments. Last week I received a call from one of the Debt collectors asking for payment and they told me that I can't get any assistance from the banks if I need to apply for a loan because they have blacklisted me and my name has been submitted at ITC. I want to know whether it's possible for them to ask for payment and blacklist me at the same time, because to me it's like a double punishment.


I’m sorry, this is how things work if you fall behind with store credit payments.

The bad news is that you are in breach of your store credit agreement because you did fail to pay your installments. The company is entitled to record your failure to pay with credit reference agencies like Transunion so that other companies can assess how good a risk you are before they decide to lend you money. They feel (and this is often true) that someone who fails to pay off one debt is very likely to fail to pay off another. The sad news is that you have become a bad risk.

The best thing you can now do is contact the debt collector and meet with them to agree a repayment plan. It really is in your interests to do this as soon as possible. Debt collectors aren’t unreasonable, they’ll agree to a plan that you can afford. I’ve even known debt collectors reduce the total amount to be paid for people who are open and honest with them.

When you’ve finished paying them you then need to get something in writing confirming that you’ve paid off the debt. You should then ask the store to make sure your record has been updated to show that you eventually paid off your debt. They won’t remove the record of the debt but they will show that you paid it off. This might take a few weeks but it’s in your interest to know that your record is now complete.

Then promise me that you will do whatever you can never to buy anything on credit again? It’s such a dangerous way to buy things.

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