The Voice - Consumer's Voice

They changed the date!

Good afternoon Mr Harriman. I have a complaint regarding this event organizer from whom I bought 7 tickets on the 25th worth P250 each for his show but then it got postponed to a date that it doesn't suits me. I asked for a refund but he is not answering my calls nor responding to my messages. I bought them last week and there were not any conditions on the cancellation or postponement of the event.

Please help if you can.

Normally I would say that this is a situation when what matters most is the small print. Any sensible event organiser ask get customers to agree to terms and conditions about the event so both sides are protected if any problems occur. You've probably seen this before. The organiser usually says that there might be changes to the artists or content and they also say what happens if the event is cancelled or postponed. My view is simple. If an event is cancelled then a complete refund should be paid. If it's postponed, the customer should be given the choice of agreeing to the new date or getting their money back.

In this case it's simpler. The event was advertised on a certain date and that's no longer the case. So Section 7 of the Consumer Protection Act applies. This says that if any "services are not availed as advertised, the consumer shall have the right to cancel the contract (and) the supplier shall refund the consumer the amount paid".

I contacted the event organiser and he was helpful. He said he's been "having a phone problem" but he called you and he told you that "I will update him on Monday about his refunds and others".

Please let me know what happens?

Where's my phone?

Where can I get help if someone was to offer me a screen replacement and battery replacement but now they seem to have sold my phone without my permission. Mind you l have been on this certain individual since January requesting for my phone back but until now he does not want to return my phone to me. He is taking advantage of the fact that I'm a lady.

This is serious. Potentially it's criminal.

I contacted the Managing Director of the company and he promised an immediate investigation and solution.

Update: The consumer contacted me and said:

"I went to the shop and the employee admitted to taking my phone and unfortunately he damaged my motherboard when replacing the battery. I was told he will order it and replace it so we made an affidavit that he should return the phone to me after all the fixes."

The lesson here is to escalate to someone more senior when you're not making progress with a complaint. Start with a store manager and if that doesn't work, go straight to the most senior person in the entire organisation, the MD or CEO. 

If anyone says you must follow their internal complaints procedure, just ignore them and go straight to the top. Remember that company complaints procedures exist for their benefit, not yours. So you can ignore them. It's 2025 and consumers are in charge!