The consumer survival guide you didn’t know you needed
These everyday consumer realities most people only learn after something goes wrong. From money and contracts to homes, cars, and official records, this is what you need to know before it costs you.
1. Retailers can’t refuse to take “old” notes
A listener contacted me recently, very irate that her R100 note had been rejected by a shop because it was “old”. No other reason was given, she said. It was not stained or torn.
This is illegal on the part of a store.
Only a single R200 note could be refused for payment. It was discontinued by the South African Reserve Bank in 2010 due to massive counterfeiting. I say could because it is no longer in circulation. All other notes remain legal tender. Technically, you could pay for something with an old R5 note, but it would be worth a whole lot more than R5 these days.
2. If you’re given a gift voucher for an experience, here’s what you need to know...
- You have a full three years in which to redeem it; and
- The service provider may not charge you extra if you redeem it in year two or three, “because their costs have gone up”. Absolutely illegal.
To get around this, many companies sell vouchers not made out to a specific experience, but to a monetary value. That means that if you, the recipient, only redeem your voucher worth R1 500 in year two or three, it will buy you less than if you redeemed it soon after it was gifted to you.
In other words, if a voucher is redeemed later rather than sooner, the voucher holder loses out, not the company which issued it.
3. In the market to buy a house? Don’t sign the OTP until you’ve done this…
It’s crazy enough to buy a used car without first having a professional check it out, but buying a used house without doing so is utter madness.
I’ve lost count of the number of people who were told by the buyer that everything was shipshape, only to move in and find, pretty quickly, issues like severe damp, which had been painted over by the sellers before putting the house on the market.
A storm-related insurance claim gets rejected because the ceiling or boundary walls were not built according to building regulations.
Or they find that there are no plans for some of the alterations and additions.
A professional building inspection company will uncover all those horrors for you, saving you massive grief down the line.
So don’t be among the 90% of home buyers who skip this step.
4. You may think you are divorced or widowed, but does Home Affairs?
Chances are huge that Home Affairs still has your official status recorded as married.
If you die as married, when you were actually widowed, the trustees of your estate won’t be able to get it wound up until your next of kin applies to Home Affairs to get your status updated.
And if you are divorced, and your status does not reflect that, because the High Court does not liaise with Home Affairs about these things, then that also creates problems, including not being able to remarry until it’s sorted out.
The good news is Home Affairs is working on introducing Digital Identity, which will automate this process and enable you to do your own updates, with all the necessary biometric verification and documentation.
5. Auto-unlocking doors don’t go down well with SA drivers
Penny Naidoo of Durban loved everything about her Chery Tiggo Pro, one of SA’s top 5 bestselling cars, except for one thing: when she parked it and cut the ignition, all four doors would automatically unlock.
As a medical rep who travels across the province, the feature - intended to prevent people locking their keys in the car - left her feeling extremely vulnerable to criminals.
When I raised the issue with Chery SA, the manufacturer acknowledged the security risk, authorised a full refund for Penny and said its development team in China was working on a revised locking and unlocking logic specifically for the SA market. One that will hopefully be able to be retrofitted to models already sold.
Listen to more Consumer Hacks below:
Contact Wendy Knowler:
Get in touch with Wendy via her website or her Facebook page. Please note that Wendy is not able to personally respond to every email she receives. If she is able to take up your case, she will contact you directly. Here are other avenues for you to consider.