The Voice - Consumer's Voice

Can they take the fridge?

Please help me here, my father bought a fridge at a furniture store last year October. He has never missed an instalment and he always pays on time but this month he failed to pay and they said they are coming to take it tomorrow. He lost his money beginning of this month, his old age pension, he will only get money again beginning of next month. If we don’t pay, is it legal?

This store needs to slow down and be less excitable.

Yes, of course your father missed a payment and that’s a problem. However, so long as he can catch up as soon as possible, I think the store should be a bit more patient.

The biggest problem with hire purchase is the one that people understand the least. It’s not how expensive it is. It’s not that you can spend two years paying for something that you could save for in less than a year. It’s not that the goods are often of poor quality. The biggest problem is ownership. Things you buy on hire purchase don’t belong to you, they belong to the store until you’ve paid the final instalment. Until that date, if the customer misses a payment, the store can decide to do nothing, or they can decide to repossess their property.

However, clearly in this situation, they’re going much too fast. They need to give your father a chance to catch up and make things right. I contacted the store and suggested this. I’ve also contacted their Head Office and urged them to stay calm.

Is this phone new?

Hi, Richard! I need your help sir. I bought an iPhone 11 last week Tuesday at a store in Main Mall. They said they sell brand new phones.

I started charging the phone the following day which was Wednesday. The phone took the whole day to charge and I then suspected that the cord might have a problem which I then changed. The problem continued and the phone started to shut down whilst 50/60% charged. I then reported the matter to them and I returned it on Monday but now they don't want to refund me.

Now they only changed the charger. They said they will give me a few days to observe the phone since the problem was the software not the battery.

I don’t believe the people at this store know the difference between truth and lies.

Firstly, this phone can’t be described as “new”. Apple currently sell the iPhone 17 and will shortly announce the iPhone 18 so an iPhone 11 is several versions old. It’s possible it’s been sitting in a store room for a few years but does that make it ‘new’? Secondly, the battery problem is also a sign of an older phone.

I did some detective work and found that the serial number of your iPhone belongs to a device that was first purchased in March 2020. So definitely not new.

I contacted the store but they don’t want to talk. Maybe they have a guilty conscience?

I think it’s time to post a complaint about them in the Consumer Watchdog Facebook group so everyone will know to be careful when dealing with them.