The Voice - Consumer's Voice

They cancelled my policy!

I have an issue between me and the insurance company about my funeral policy. They said my policy has elapsed. Ok fine I understand and remember very well that December last year they didn't deduct, but in January and February there was enough money without fail, then instead of deducting P366 for January they took bank charges for December, and February they were to deduct for February thy said thy took the money for January Bank charges, which means all the money in the account for the past 3 months which was for the policy, it went to bank charges mind I didn't even receive a single message to notify me from December that I owe a month or two because I would have gone to pay because I wasn't aware that my policy is not deducting the money.

To my surprise beginning of March thy deducted the money P366 as usual, then at the end of March they sent a message saying my policy have lapsed. I went to their office to talk to them and ask if at all my policy has lapsed why are they still deducting my money, because by doing so it shows my policy is still active. I asked them to recover my account and I pay the 3 months. The lady said she will take the issue up with the bosses.

Mind you next year February was supposed to be my cash back year that lady said I should start the policy afresh. Please help me?

This is a sad example of how badly things can go wrong when a payment is missed. Just one missed payment can lead to double deductions or even treble deductions in later months. You can also incur bank charges if you go overdrawn. That one single missed payment can cost you a lot of money.

In this case, clearly the insurance company should have contacted you earlier. In 2026 we have a right to be told immediately if a payment fails. However, it’s also our responsibility to make sure that these payments are made. It’s a hassle, but we must check our bank statements every month to make sure we’ve paid everything we owe. Your situation is also unfortunate because the policy has now been canceled and as you say, you were approaching a cashback year, which might not happen anymore. I’ve contacted the insurance company to see if there’s anything they can do to reinstate your policy.

Can they make me pay to upgrade?

I bought an iPhone 12 Pro Max at a certain shop in Maun last December. Within a month it was over heating and also realized one button was not functioning well. I contacted the shop and they offered me to get a new one which was an upgrade which forced me to pop out more cash. In early April the new phone started to refuse to charge and they changed the faulty battery but I was asked to pay a certain fee for that.

Should I not be covered for at least 6 months?

I am getting really tired with the abusive way so many cellphone stores operate. They mislead their customers, they sell second-hand goods without disclosing it, they ignore what the law says about warranties, and they invent all sorts of reasons for ignoring consumer rights.

Readers of The Voice already know that Section 16 of the Consumer Protection Act says that a consumer can return a faulty item for either a repair, replacement, or a refund. The store can choose which of these three options they prefer, but they can’t do nothing. The Act also says that a store must do this “without penalty and at the supplier’s risk and expense”.

I contacted the store and explained this to them. I also mentioned to them that their receipt says that they only offer “2 months warranty for software only” and this is obviously wrong. Let’s hope they can understand. I used very simple words so I hope they do.

The Voice - Consumer's Voice

The baboons did it! 

Good day sir. I really need your help and advice. I bought a TV at from a furniture store on a hire purchase contract. Unfortunately yesterday the baboons entered my house. I tried chasing them but the other one hit the TV and broke the screen. The lady from the store is saying they can never help me. Can you help? 

One of the few good things about hire purchase is that it usually includes an insurance policy that covers you if the goods you’re buying are stolen or damaged in a fire or if you lose your job due to retrenchment. The details of each policy can be different, but they protect you if one of those things happens. It also offers protection for the store and that’s what they care about most. They want the money you promised to pay them and this will help them get it. 

However, it all depends on the small print in the insurance policy. I’ve never heard of a claim for this situation before and you might think it’s reasonable that the policy covers damage by baboons. I’ll contact their Head Office and see what they say about this. I’m not very optimistic, but let’s see. 

Why are they still deducting? 

I desperately need your advice and assistance, I had bought a bed through high purchase at a furniture store in Maun. I cleared the debt in early February and the shop assistant sent the relevant paperwork stopping the direct debit order to their Headquarters. Surprisingly they tried to get the money but unfortunately I didn't have the funds in my FNB account. Consequently this led to negatives in my account and charges for lack of honouring stop order. 

I lodged the complaint with the Maun shop where I bought the bed. They called the office and their feedback was really disappointing. They indicated that nothing has been done and the same thing is going to happen on the 5th of April. I am really hurt, I feel they are being unfair to me. Despite my visits to their office to make sure they stop the debit order, I received a text that threatened me for skipping a month therefore legal action will be taken against me and I should pay the outstanding amount. 

It’s totally unacceptable that you are being treated this way. You cleared your debt two months ago and the payment should’ve stopped two months ago. I don’t think we shoud care about why they continued to deduct the payments from you, what we need to see is them stopping them immediately. We also need to see them repay you for the deductions they made improperly and all of the costs associated with this. They should refund any banking fees or penalties you have to pay and, just as importantly, they need to assure you that your credit record has not been affected by this in any way. 

They also need to call off the debt collectors or lawyers. They have instructed to recover money from you. You don’t owe them any money so they have no excuse for bothering you about this. I’ve already contacted their Head Office about the situation and I’m waiting for their response. I imagine you’ll receive an apology from them and a refund for all of these costs very shortly. 

If any furniture stores are reading this, it’s really important that they go away and look at the procedures they have. Their computer systems must be able to automatically stop the deductions when someone has fully repaid their debt. It shouldn’t require manual interventions by staff at store level. This should be automatic. It’s 2026 and consumers are entitled to expect better than this.

The Voice - Consumer's Voice

They did me a favour?

Good day Richard. I bought a Bennet Read air-fryer in August last year. At the beginning of February the air-fryer stopped working. Unfortunately when I was looking for the receipt I could not find it but I did return it and they accepted it for fixing. OK fine it takes almost a month to be returned but when I got home it was not working again. I returned it again and they took it for 2 weeks with no communication until one of the workers sent me a message saying the product can't be fixed twice and the manager is on it.

Now today I was called to collect the old air-fryer and they say it can't be changed because I didn't have a receipt. I did ask them can't you retrieve the receipt because I brought it in its box which I believe has its serial number. They said they did me a favour.

I got the old one back but now my fear is if it doesn't work what's next? Please assist.

This store needs to make up its mind. Do they need a receipt or not? I don't think it's complicated. They already accepted the air-fryer and attempted to repair it once without a receipt, didn't they? I'm no lawyer but that's clearly an admission that they were responsible for fixing it. When they later changed their mind, I suspect it was because they had run out of excuses. That's not good enough.

Another good thing is that they admitted is that they accepted that they can't fix the product twice. Section 16 of the Consumer Protection Act says that once a store has tried to repair an item, if the same fault occurs again within 3 months, they can then only replace it or refund the consumer.

I think it's time we both spoke to the store's Head Office, don't you?

Why won't it go down?

Please help me understand this. My younger brother has a hire purchase contract with a furniture store then he lost his job and he didn't tell them he lost his job he just said he is no longer working. They kept on calling him and our family decided to repay all those debts in instalments until they are done. Now I have a question. Every month I make those payments without fail but the balance doesn't go down. They keep adding interest even though the account is no longer in arrears. I made a payment when the balance was P1,800 and today I made another payment only to be told the balance is P1,300. So I asked why is it not less because we paid on time and they said it added interest. When I started paying it off the balance was P3,900, that was in December when I paid 1,200 then in January I paid P600 and in February P600.

Clearly this debt will never finish and this is what is depressing my brother. Now they keep adding interest and I want to know what the law says if you told me my balance is this much I calculate and budget according to that balance so when it keeps adding up its a problem.

This is about two things. The first is interest. Any outstanding debt will incur interest charges particularly if your brother was behind with his payments and his debt has probably increased massively from the interest that the store adds to his debt each month. Paying off relatively small amounts will reduce the balance by less than you think because every month they'll add more interest to the remaining balance.

The second problem is that hire purchase is a terrible way to buy things. I've mentioned before that goods bought on hire purchase don't belong to you until you've made the final payment, the warranty is void if you're behind with your payments, and if the goods are ever prepossessed, you probably still owe the store the remaining amount, even though you don't have the items you thought you'd bought.

I suggest your brother asks them for a full statement of his account and then for a settlement amount, the amount he can pay to get rid of this debt forever.