I ordered a phone from the company with an app. Now the guy is not giving me solid or sound feedback when I follow up. He last said it takes 16 days of which I ordered on the 6th May. That guy kept saying the phone is at customs now the phone is damaged. The last call I made was about damaged products of which he was to deliver not give me feedback about shipment. I genuinely need the phone I can't be waiting this long just to get a refund especially that I have been patient with him. I need a specific date so I can make arrangements to place new order elsewhere.
Some suppliers really need to learn some basic lessons. Primary school lessons.
Firstly, they should know that Section 14 of the Consumer Protection Act says that a supplier must give a consumer "timely performance" and "timely notice of any unavoidable delay" in any services they offer. In simple terms, if they said it would take 16 days from the 6th May, then as soon as they realised there was a delay it was their job to call you and let you know.
They should also know some more about the Act. I contacted the owner of this company and it was clear he had no idea what the law required of him. He seemed genuinely surprised when I told him that the Consumer Protection Act says that when goods are sold through mail order like this, there are some new obligations on companies like his. Firstly, the contract must be in writing. Secondly, they must offer a "cooling-off period of 10 working days" and the supplier must allow the "consumer the right to cancel the contract any time as long as it is within the cooling-off period".
But did he tell his customer this? No, he didn't. Instead he told me that their "refund policy on our website as people make purchases states that refunds are given within 4 working days". That's fine but did he explain that to her? No, he didn't.
I asked him when the consumer would receive her refund and he told me "before the week ends". But he didn't. On the Friday I asked him and he said "as per our policy we have upto Monday". That's the policy he didn't tell her about?
Let's see if he honours his promises this time, despite not doing so before. Let's also see if he wants to learn what the law says.
Update: The refund was eventually made.
More scam warnings
Last week I warned readers of The Voice about the scams that are using the name of the Yellow Card cryptocurrency exchange. I tried to explain that these scammers, who offer enormous returns for our "investments", are just pretending to be connected with Yellow Cars when in fact there's no connection at all. They're faking it, just like they fake the payment notification they claim as proof that people can make money from their fake scheme. One of the things these scammers do is to hijack other people's Facebook accounts so they can seem to be real people with real profiles, perhaps even people we know. But how do they do this? How do they gain control over other people's accounts?
It's very simple. We give them our passwords. A member of our Facebook group sent me screenshots from a conversation he'd had with a scammer. The scammer approached him saying he represented a clothing company that was running "a giveaway of p2000 to the first 50 people". In order to get this "giveaway" he was required to give them his name, date of birth, "state/province", country and occupation. Already I think you can sense this is suspicious, can't you? Someone offering money in Pula want to know his "state/province"? But then it became really interesting. They also wanted his "Facebook phone number" and "Facebook password".
This is how they hijack Facebook accounts. The scammers are given access to these accounts by the account owners themselves and they then use these genuine accounts to exploit further victims.
The lesson is very simple. Never, under any circumstances, give your Facebook password to anyone who asks for it. The only people who will ever ask for your password are criminals. And they can't be trusted.
More scam warnings
Last week I warned readers of The Voice about the scams that are using the name of the Yellow Card cryptocurrency exchange. I tried to explain that these scammers, who offer enormous returns for our "investments", are just pretending to be connected with Yellow Cars when in fact there's no connection at all. They're faking it, just like they fake the payment notification they claim as proof that people can make money from their fake scheme. One of the things these scammers do is to hijack other people's Facebook accounts so they can seem to be real people with real profiles, perhaps even people we know. But how do they do this? How do they gain control over other people's accounts?
It's very simple. We give them our passwords. A member of our Facebook group sent me screenshots from a conversation he'd had with a scammer. The scammer approached him saying he represented a clothing company that was running "a giveaway of p2000 to the first 50 people". In order to get this "giveaway" he was required to give them his name, date of birth, "state/province", country and occupation. Already I think you can sense this is suspicious, can't you? Someone offering money in Pula want to know his "state/province"? But then it became really interesting. They also wanted his "Facebook phone number" and "Facebook password".
This is how they hijack Facebook accounts. The scammers are given access to these accounts by the account owners themselves and they then use these genuine accounts to exploit further victims.
The lesson is very simple. Never, under any circumstances, give your Facebook password to anyone who asks for it. The only people who will ever ask for your password are criminals. And they can't be trusted.