The Voice - Consumer's Voice

Where’s the deposit slip?

Hello Sir. I have an outstanding claim payment from my insurance company. My grandmother joined their funeral policy through her bank. They say I must produce the deposit slip for 2019 when she joined but I only have for 2020 October and 2022. They say I should look for them.

I asked them to ask their Francistown branch as I was depositing there since I don’t have them. They say they don't have the records too. I changed from hand depositing to their account to debit order around June 2022 because I was staying far from the bank. My grandmother passed away last year November and until now I am still waiting for the claim payment. I was paying monthly premium accordingly from the date I joined till October 2025. Please help.

Firstly, I’m sorry for your loss. Many companies need to look carefully at the way they keep records. Can’t this company see that your grandmother paid them in 2019? If she missed a payment that long ago, why haven’t they mentioned it before? Why are they only complaining about this after she passed away?

Obviously it’s our job to make sure we don’t skip any payments but it’s also the job of these companies to keep us updated and let us know if there’s a problem. They’re the ones with huge resources, teams of skilled staff and expensive IT and AI tools that can help them and us. Mostly us, because we’re the people who pay their wages.

I contacted the insurance company and they’re looking into it. I’ll let you know what they say.

What’s my landlord doing?

Hi Mr Richard. I moved into a yard in Mogoditshane two weeks ago and on our second day here we bought water. Firstly it was confusing that we don't buy water for ourselves but the landlord does. So we send money to him and he said the minimum amount is P100, it was confusing because we've stayed in yards where P20 water was enough for a month plus 2 weeks. Meanwhile here it's not even 3rd week and the water is very low.

What guarantee do we have that he actually does buy for P100? He doesn't issue out receipts. We asked but he was very dismissive and it was our first experience since we are new here. When you call he's quick to say he's busy he will call back and he doesn't. Plus, he was pushing for us to pay security fee which is equivalent to rent and we told him we don't have that money. The yard is unfenced and has no gate, it's not safe at all, and it's very dirty there's bushes in the yard side. There are 12 units here and the majority of them say the man is a difficult person and he doesn't listen to them.

I don’t trust your landlord, and neither should you. It’s obvious that he’s trying to hide something. The good news is that he’s doing this to everyone, not just to you. If you all group together and demand receipts for the water and to see the meter readings he’ll find it difficult to refuse.

It’s also extremely important that every one of you gets a tenancy agreement in writing as soon as possible. If, as a group, you can negotiate this, perhaps you should consider the idea of the security fee, but I don’t think you have to. Remember that he needs the rent you all pay every month and if you act together, he might understand how important is to have a conversation with you all. If not, you should think about moving somewhere else.

The lesson is that whenever anyone rents a property, they must have a written agreement that describes how the relationship will work. Without such an agreement, it’s always the tenants that suffer the most.

The Voice - Consumer's Voice

I was scammed!

I have been scammed of about P8,700 by people, a lady to be precise claiming to be from my bank. Honestly my guard was down because the bank sent me an email requesting that I do KYC. So the person talked about helping me to complete it, and in the process they cloned my banking app and wiped all the money I had there. They even bought themselves airtime. Like I said my guard was down. This started yesterday when I was sent a link purported to be from the bank which said my account is due for an app update. It said that to confirm my details I must click a link to stay compliant before the 11 May 26. Is there any assistance you can give?

Unfortunately there’s not much that can be done. As I’m sure you know, this scam had no connection with your bank.

I looked at the link you sent me and it connects to a very high-quality copy of your bank’s web site which asks for your online banking username and password. Once you’ve entered those details another screen appears that asks for your full name, home address, cellphone number, email address and ID details. It then asks for your card number and all the security details for your card including the CVV code and your PIN. Finally, it sends you an OTP code and who knows what the scammers behind this will do with that if you share it with them.

This is how scammers seize control of your bank account, simply by asking you for all those details. The only hope is that these scammers have a local partner, the one who you spoke to on the phone who has a Botswana cell number. However, it’s likely that they contacted you using WhatsApp so who knows where in the world they might really be.

The only practical suggestion I can make is that you go immediately to the Police. It’s very unlikely that they can recover your money but they might be able to prevent this happening to someone else.

The lesson from this is never to trust a link that you receive from an unknown source. Never.

They took all her money!

Hello Mr Harriman. Kindly assist my mother with her bank. Yesterday her salary was credited and the bank today took her entire salary saying it is for her credit card. They were supposed to have taken P200 only but took the whole amount. Now they are saying they can only assist on Monday. This is completely not okay.

My mother is now stuck without money and cannot pay anything. She went to two branches today but was told the credit card team will get in touch with her but they never did. She just called their toll free number again and they are saying they have knocked off she can try the bank again on Monday. At the bank they kept saying the credit card team will contact her but they never did.

This is completely unacceptable. It’s also a good example of how large financial institutions like banks often forget that amounts that are small to them aren’t small to us. They forget that the impact on consumers can be devastating. Even if the amount they deducted was justified, there’s no excuse just to take it without calling your mother first to explain what they planned to do and discuss alternative solutions.

I contacted the bank and luckily they seemed to take the issue seriously.

Update. The money was refunded within a few hours.

The Voice - Consumer's Voice

Can’t they waive the charges?

Good day Mr Harriman. I hope you're good. Sorry to bother you. I would like to know what I can do in the middle of the predicament that I am in. I had current account with my first bank, and because of limited services I moved to another bank in around 2019. I did not know I had to close the account, I just assumed it will automatically close maybe after 6 months of inactivity. Unfortunately that wasn't the case because I am now told to pay more that P3,000 which apparently is the arrears.

My question is, is there any way they could somehow waive those charges because I wasn't using their services all these years? The saddest part is I recently enquired through their centralised email contact and was told if I activate it, those charges won't be viable but to my surprised the branch rep said it's not the possible and I have to pay. Please assist if there's any way to go about it.

The bad news is that bank accounts don’t go away if you ignore them. I guess that the P3,000 they claim you owe is either monthly bank charges or interest on any overdraft or debt you had with them. I would have expected them to contact you repeatedly over the last seven years and warn you about the increasing charges, but this clearly didn’t happen. What bank customers often overlook, or maybe never knew, is that it’s our responsibility to maintain our accounts and ensure they’re managed properly. If you still have your original banking agreement, you’ll probably find that in the small print where it says they can do this.

I’ve contacted the bank to see if there’s anything they can to help. I’ll let you know what they say.

Where’s my investment?

Sir kindly help me. I have been paying an investment policy from 2022 and it just lapsed in February because I failed to pay it from December because I got sick. My life is now a mess and I'm surprised to hear that I lost all that I have been saving all along. How does one lose an investment?

Please contact them for them to at least return the money or at least 60% of what I have saved and if not then reinstate my policy.

This will depend on the terms and conditions in the policy you signed.

It’s possible this is a case of what they call “front-loading” of commission. When an agent sells an investment policy, they earn a commission payment. However, the investment policy might last for 5 years, 10 years or even longer. Instead of the commission being paid over the lifetime of the policy, all of it is paid in the first year or two. There’s nothing wrong with that but it means that in the first 1-2 years, the commission can be as much as the premiums you pay into the policy. That means there’s nothing saved in that period. You only start accruing money and interest after that period is over, sometimes not until the third year. The problem is that agents don’t always explain this, even though they’re meant to.

You also need to look at what the terms and conditions say about what happens when you default on the monthly payments.

I’ll contact the company and ask them to investigate your situation and maybe find a solution.

The Voice - Consumer's Voice

Where’s my compensation?

I am in need of your services. Last year I was injured while shopping at a clothing store. They were negligent and ushered me into a fitting room that was not safe for use. I was hit by a heavy metal that they did not secure it to a wall and it hit me on the head after I closed the door. A scan report showed that there was distress on my head.

Having had conversations with them they seem to only want to reimburse the medical fees I incurred. Is there no law in Botswana that addresses compensation of consumers while accessing shops just as there is workmans compensation. Is there no such a law for consumer protection?

Firstly, I’m very sorry for the pain and inconvenience that you must have experienced as a result of this incident. It’s clearly unacceptable for the store to be in a state that might cause injuries like this.

Obviously, it’s their responsibility to pay for any medical bills you incurred as a result of their carelessness. The good news seems to be that they’re willing to do that. However, I’m not sure what else you want them to compensate you for? If you lost income or you paid travel costs, then clearly they need to pay for that but what else is there? I think it’s very important that we don’t go down the route they travelled in the United States and other countries who’ve developed a compensation culture where people sue for the slightest things.

I’m happy to contact the store and ensure that they’ll cover your medical bills and incidental costs but it looks like they’re already willing to do that?

Why are they taking so long?

Hi, Richard! There has been an ongoing issue regarding a filling station of which late last month their fuel tanks were contaminated. Water in the tanks had filled over 50 vehicles which then had mechanical issues. Others got fixed, the other one for my friend, she was given a go ahead to have it fixed and bring invoices for refund. I had to pop out P8,000 for the vehicle repair.

To date, she is being taken from pillar to post by the insurance brokers. Almost a month. I then asked them if BERA and Head Office are aware but I can't get answers.

What hurts most is that she is using the vehicle for Yango business that is why I had to assist so that she can put food on the table. Worst of all, when we confronted the filling station and the broker, I clearly mentioned that we just need repairs money, not loss of business money. So the question is, had I not fixed the vehicle, it could still be stuck for almost month? How can she be assisted?

This is unacceptable. Firstly the filling station damaged your friend’s car and more than 50 other vehicles. I understand this must be a challenge for them to fix every vehicle but that’s the price of doing business. They need to get moving.

I understand that they are dealing with many insurance claims through the insurance broker and that can complicate the situation. Any delays by the broker and the underwriting insurance company are obviously passed on to your friend and the other victims.

I’ll contact the insurance broker and ask them why this is taking so long.