Saturday 20 November 2021

The Voice - Consumer's Voice

Where's her pension?

I'm not sure if this is the right platform to seek help on but let me just try since I don't know what to do at this point. My mum retired last year October and it's been a year and a month now. She has not gotten her retirement package, she has made countless calls and visits to offices and she is told her file is going to BURS and even to date nothing has been done.

This has led to her not being able to keep up with payments for her policies and her credit card and loan that she should have cleared by now. Interest has been added and she gets calls from collectors. Her medical aid payments are also behind and her funeral policy. She is accumulating debt that could have been avoided. The administrators have been no help and the officer who is in charge of her file never picks calls or relays messages when she calls. We are left helpless now and I just resorted to this because she is getting old and this is taking a toll on her. We'll appreciate all the help you can give us.


This isn't the first complaint I've had about this situation and about this company. They seem to take quite a relaxed approach to processing retirement packages and have clearly forgotten that pensioners have a right to see things done properly and promptly.

I'm sure we all understand that there are procedures to be followed and BURS certainly have a role to play but that's no excuse for being so inefficient.

I'm no expert but I can't see why this process should take a matter of weeks, certainly not more than a year. That's just useless.

I contacted the pension administrators and they responded quite quickly. They said that "have escalated the complaint from the client to the relevant authorities. They will be assisted accordingly."

Let's hope that all the other retirement packages they're processing will be treated better. 

Update: The pension administrators tell me: "I have escalated the complaint from the client to the relevant authorities. They will be assisted accordingly."

Won't they fix my phone?

I need help with a phone i recently bought at Rail Park Mall. I bought an iPhone 7 128Gb end of September with 12 months warranty and on the 30th October the phone started glitching and showing lines in the screen. Also the touchpad wasn't responding. It was on a Sunday so I waited until Monday to take it back to them but what I am getting from them is a poor service and their technician is telling me that there isn't anything much they can assist me with as it seems like it's a manufacturer problem. But I bought it from them and it's still under warranty also at some point he was telling me he can refer me to another technician of which I will be the one paying if they manage to fix it.

The salesperson also suggested that I get help somewhere since they have lots of such complaints in their store.


No, No, and No again.

This is incompetence and neglect of the highest order.

The situation is actually very simple. They sold you a phone that should work. Section 15 (1) of the Consumer Protection Act says that we are entitled "to receive goods which are of good quality, in good working order and free of defects." This phone is clearly not that.

Frankly I don't care whether they think it's a manufacturer problem and neither should you. Section 16 (1) of the Act says that the "producer or importer, the distributor and the retailer each warrant that the goods comply with the requirements and standards". No longer can the retailer blame someone else and deny responsibility for fixing a faulty product. No more making excuses and passing responsibility to someone else. It's their job to fix it.

I think the best thing we can do is contact the store and make it very clear to them that they have an obligation to fix your phone and to do it quickly. No excuses.

Update: They're being a little slow to respond. We won't give up.

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