Clik here to view.
Is your grocery bill super high?
Food prices are rocketing alarmingly, with more supermarket till slip shocks to come. Could it be that your till total is being unnecessarily bloated by food products which promise convenience?...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Eish, another rip off!
Some swear by it, but there’s no scientific proof that the Rayma “electrically charged” metal bracelet alleviates migraines, arthritis, neuralgia, gout or rheumatism. That hasn’t stopped the company...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Property damages from a company vehicle
Accountant Joan Masemeng e-mailed me a month ago about a Sasko Bakery staff bus which had ploughed into the wall of her family home in Soweto’s Mapetla Extension in the early hours of May 7, after the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Refund on defective boots
There are exceptions, of course, but by and large, shoe retailers appear to be particularly resistant to consumers’ attempts to claim on the Consumer Protection Act’s implied warranty of six months. In...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Bad service and a stolen store card
Carrie Hook of Durban took up the case of her boyfriend, Dwayne Grant, who had run into what appeared to be a case of extremely overzealous bureaucracy at Game’s Pavilion branch. Grant’s wallet was...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Keep from forfeiting your flights!
If you buy a return air ticket and for some reason don’t take the first flight, you could forfeit the return flight – or all the rest of your onward flights – if you don’t reconfirm them with the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Cell phone contract not what you signed up for?
I could fill this column every week with cellphone-related complaints alone. That’s not surprising, really, given that we all have these portable gizmos, and there is much that can go wrong them. And...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Buying bulk doesn't always mean savings
Most consumers assume that it pays to buy in bulk; that the bigger pack of margarine, breakfast cereal or tea works out cheaper than the smaller one. And when the manufacturer goes as far as to enforce...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Document your retail deals to ensure you get what was promised
Here’s a consumer tip that will save you a lot of money, and hassle: get into the habit of making sure your interactions with companies are well-documented. In other words, important bits of...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Check those use-by dates
There’s lots to report from the supermarket shelves this week, starting with the alarming story of a pensioner’s discovery that her local supermarket was altering the date marks on a supplier’s meat...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Slimmer's choice mislabelled, not so lite
I’m indebted to yet another sharp-eyed reader for this story. She wants to be identified only as Jenny, and she made a startling discovery when she looked at the nutritional table of a pack of...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Use your credit card's chargeback feature
Remember, if you pay for any goods or services with your credit card, if you do not receive them, either in full or in part, you can apply to the bank that issued your credit card for “chargeback”....
View ArticleClik here to view.
Those grocery bags cost you!
Well, what do you know: the supermarket group catering for this country’s poorest has been charging its customers a relatively exorbitant price for plastic carrier bags – far more than all the other...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Expired data bundles? CPA does not help
It’s been almost 18 months since the Consumer Protection Act came into effect, and certain key protections remain open to interpretation. The issue that crops up in my inbox almost daily concerns the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Keep those retail offers honest!
So how do you keep those gimmicks from creeping into the sales talk? And how do you get what you've been promised? Here’s a consumer tip that will save you a lot of money, and hassle: get into the...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Medicines Control Council fails to protect
Two recent reports have thrown “herbal” or supposedly natural products into the spotlight – the “100 percent natural” Coca Tea, which was found to be laced with cocaine, and the Skintocare capsules for...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Know your rights with rogue debt collectors
It seems to me that a lot of people are being hounded to pay debts they don’t owe, for all sorts of reasons. In some cases, they have been handed over to debt collection agencies despite having settled...
View ArticleClik here to view.
A refund on those returnable bottles?
Reader Craig Matthew posed an interesting question to Consumer Watch recently. Are bottle stores obliged to refund consumers on the 90c deposit paid on quart beer bottles when they are returned?
View ArticleClik here to view.
The smaller rolls are not the better buy
In April, Consumer Watch reported that while for years toilet paper manufacturers have been required by law to ensure that one-ply toilet rolls have at least 500 sheets, and two-ply rolls 350 sheets,...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Ignore Ts and Cs at your peril!
Vanity and greed – two human conditions that see many a consumer part ways with their money. Tell people that they’ve won a pile of money, or that there’s a miracle potion or pill that will magically...
View Article
