Free facial with huge price tag

24 November 2015 - 02:15 By Wendy Knowler

As I was strolling though the shopping centre last week, there he was: a man wearing black and a come-hither smile, holding out a sachet and inviting me to try the cosmetic free. Nothing new - we are used to such intrusions as we shop or navigate airports.This is the most direct form of direct marketing: a form of selling that's one-on-one, with the seller initiating contact, not the consumer.It puts the consumer on the back foot because the sales patter - whether delivered in person or over the phone - is carefully crafted to seduce consumers into parting with their money or agreeing to a contract, be it for insurance or a cellphone.Knowing that many consumers are prone to buckle under the pressure of the hard sell only to bitterly regret it afterwards, the Consumer Protection Act gives us an "out", a cooling-off period of five business days in which to cancel, in writing, for a full refund.It's the only time we get to return something for a refund if there's nothing wrong with it.The premium-priced imported brands of cosmetics aren't sold only from kiosks; many are sold from shops in shopping centres into which passers-by are enticed. Any sale which results is a direct marketing sale and so the cooling-off period applies.But exercising that right is a challenge if the many complaints I've received from "buyer's remorse" customers are any indication.Just keep walking would be my advice.Take Jeanette Black's experience. On September 25 she was walking past the Mica Beauty store at the East Rand Mall when, as she puts it, "A lady at the front of the shop stopped me and asked 'Are you from Boksburg?'"I said 'Yes, why?' and she said 'Because you look so friendly. People around here are not so friendly. Would you like a free facial voucher?'Black accepted the voucher and went into the shop. She was told to sit and a sales consultant applied a product to one side of her face.She said she was asked how much she spends on cosmetics a month. R600, she replied, at which she was told that the shop's products cost less - R535, but she had to pay by credit card.She handed her card over, thinking she was paying R535. Turns out what the consultant meant was that she'd be paying R535 a month for two years because the full price of the products was R12840.Of course, even that was misleading because the massive interest rate was conveniently not factored into the equation."Idiot that I am, I typed in my PIN, thinking the bank would reject the transaction, but it went through."Black immediately tried to cancel the deal with her bank but was told she had to take it up with the merchant.So she returned to the Mica Beauty shop with the unopened products, including a facial peel, eye serum, toner, cleanser, scrub and body butter asking for a cancellation and a refund but her attention was called to the "non-return policy" mentioned on her invoice, which she was given only after the deal was done, of course.In e-mail correspondence, Black was told that all Mica Beauty was willing to do was exchange the products.So I e-mailed Mica, pointing to the provisions of the Consumer Protection Act, and that Black had cancelled in writing, within the five business days, and as such, she had a legal right to be refunded that R12 840 in full.I've had no response, despite several e-mails.Black did hear from customer service manager "Jean-Michael", who said he'd been "forwarded" her case. He offered to allow her to keep the products and refund her 50% of her R12 840.She responded, as did I, by repeating that she wanted a full refund, as is her legal right.Neither of us has heard from Mica Beauty since.Mica Beauty's (formerly Micabella) SA website claims that the company is "an international leader in the world of cosmetics" with 200 kiosks and retail locations in more than 15 countries".CONTACT WENDY:E-mail: consumer@knowler.co.zaTwitter: @wendyknowlerPartial scrubHappily, I had some success in facilitating a refund in Theresa Brown of Durban's case, but it was neither a quick nor easy process.She was lured into the Obey Your Body shop in Gateway, Umhlanga, on April 28, and after a compelling demonstration of the products she paid R10400 for a number of them.She used one product for two to three days before experiencing an adverse reaction, which had her returning all of them, many unopened, asking for a refund.She was offered a R3000 "discount", but remained unhappy and came to me for help.The Consumer Protection Act allows direct marketers to deduct a "reasonable" amount from the refund if a consumer has used the product in question - "unless that consumption is limited to a reasonable amount necessary to determine whether the goods were acceptable to the consumer".So I argued, to Vanessa Bokemuller, leasing manager of Genome Cosmetics of Cape Town, the Obey Your Body wholesaler in South Africa, that Brown was entitled to a full refund.Bokemuller said it was not the wholesaler, but the retailer who was responsible for the refund, in this case D&M Cosmetics, and she gave the owner's name as simply "Matan".It was D&M's "bookkeeper", Ruth Minnaar, who responded to my mail on June 8, saying she'd like to resolve the matter, and committed to "a full refund of her purchase less a 5% card merchant fee and a 5% handling fee". I pointed out that neither deduction was legally justified.To cut a very long story short, Brown was eventually refunded R8100 on July 15, about 80% of her spend...

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