Bubbly bargain falls flat, insurers on driving through water and a price check

In this weekly segment of bite-sized chunks of useful information, consumer journalist Wendy Knowler summarises news you can use:

That bubbly may not be the bargain you assume it is

Not all “bubbly” is created equal, so when you’re buying sparkling wine, best you find out exactly what is on offer.

With the festive season coming up, a group of friends asked whether we’d like to go in on a bulk order for a big-name wine estate’s offering.

It worked out to less than R100 a bottle, so we agreed, without further interrogation. What we got is a case of the estate’s sparkling wine, not it’s MCC (Méthode Cap Classique or Cap Classique), as South Africa’s version of champagne is termed.

The estate’s MCC sells for double the price, so we should have realised that even with a bulk order we weren’t going to get it at the price we paid.

Sparkling wine refers to any sparkling, bubbly or carbonated wine. There are no specific rules about how sparkling wines are carbonated, so it’s an affordable way to get your bubbly fix.

But the process of making MCC is much longer, creating a bigger taste and a bigger price tag.

Grapes are picked and fermented, and the still wine is then bottled with the addition of a mixture of yeast and sugar to start the second fermentation. Over time, trapped carbon dioxide, a by-product of fermentation, carbonates the wine to form the trademark bubbles. The wine is then aged in the bottle for a lengthy period.

How to tell the difference, apart from the taste and price? MCC has tiny, refined little bubbles, while sparkling wine has a larger, coarser fizz.

Drive through that large puddle and you could end up in deep water

If you think nothing of driving through a fairly large amount of water pooled on a road, here’s a cautionary tale.

Lynne wrote to me this week about the “terrible time” she’s having with her insurance company regarding a damage claim.

“I drove through a puddle on the road where I live. The road surface was completely covered with water near a storm water drain, but it did not seem excessively deep as the road is level.

“Unfortunately my car cut out and the next day it was towed to my mechanic's workshop to assess the damage.

“It took my insurer three weeks to reject my claim, on the grounds that I am not covered for mechanical or electrical failure.”

“They say it’s my fault for driving through the water.”

A road being entirely submerged, flat or not, is a lot more serious a road hazard than a “puddle”.

If your car is insured and you drive through a sizeable body of water, you risk any related damage claim being rejected.

The Ombudsman for Short-term Insurance has warned consumers about this.

Do not drive through flooded areas unless you are sure the water is below the bottom of your wheel rims. If you have any doubt, don’t go there. Find an alternative route.

What if there are two prices on the price tag?

Mark wrote to me about a pair of flip-flops he bought from Pick n Pay in Kenilworth, Cape Town, recently.

They were marked R29.99 with the usual printed, attached price tag, but when he got to the till they scanned at R35.99. When he protested, the teller pointed to a much smaller, badly handwritten, barely noticeable price of R35.99, as far away from the large-print R29.99 on that price tag as it could be.

“I find this unacceptable,” he said. “Which price do you think I should pay?”

I pointed out what the Consumer Protection Act (CPA) states about this: “If more than one price is concurrently displayed, a supplier must not require a consumer to pay a price higher than the lower or lowest of the prices so displayed.”

Shortly afterwards, Mark emailed me to say: “The store was happy to refund me the difference once I explained what you had told me. Thanks for the advice.”

Good to know.

• GET IN TOUCH: You can contact Wendy Knowler for advice with your consumer issues via e-mail: consumer@knowler.co.za or on Twitter: @wendyknowler.

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