Kitchen sinks, online orders and patty prices: Wendy Knowler’s 'watch-outs of the week'

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

Many 'failure to deliver' rants about this online retailer

According to online retailer Raru's website: “The founders each have over 15 years of experience in the online retail world in South Africa. You can expect only the best shopping experience from us.”

Loads of South Africans would no doubt disagree: they say they haven’t got the goods they bought from Raru, such as electronics, books, video games and music, and promises of refunds haven’t materialised.

There’s only one way to contact the company — via e-mail. A phone number appears on the website with this advice: “The call centre is currently not available due to Covid-19 restrictions.” Right. Huge, waving red flag there.

Megan is owed R3,800 for undelivered orders.

“I've ordered from Raru for several years because they sell hard-to-find vinyl records — I’m a collector — and though they're quite slow, I never had major issues,” she said.

“But that’s changed in the past 18 months. Several orders have failed to arrive — one of them for more than a year. After some back and forth, I cancelled all outstanding orders but no refund has been forthcoming.

“I keep getting told the refund process is not immediate. However, it feels at this stage that they're giving me the runaround.”

I’ve taken up a couple of cases with Raru recently and both times the complainants were refunded shortly afterwards.

In the most recent case, in August, I went back to the company to ask about the many other refunds due by them, including one for R11,000.

“How do you respond to the scores of complaints from people regarding lack of delivery and no refunds from Raru?” I asked. No response.

On Thursday, “Neil” posted helpful advice on HelloPeter for the many consumers complaining about having nothing to show for what they paid Raru.

“Finally got my very late refund by sending them this: 'If I do not receive my refund in 24 hours, I will do the following:

• lay a charge of theft at my local police station;
• formally request a take down notice with IPSA;
• lay a complaint with the Consumer Goods and Services Ombudsman; and
• lay a complaint of fraud with your bank — Nedbank.'”

The ombud’s office has received scores of complaints about Raru since August 2021, with an increase in number recently. Many were subsequently resolved by Raru. So it seems the company responds when put under pressure, be it by a customer, the media or the Ombud’s office. But at best this online retailer is a high-risk choice for consumers.

You store your household detergents where?

Under the kitchen sink may seem like the obvious place to store your household detergents, but it’s a really bad idea, and not just because children may get their hands on the potentially harmful products.

“Nicci” wrote to me about the rusting of her Franke sink, four years after installation.

Given that Franke sinks have a 25-year guarantee against corrosion, she expected the company to take responsibility for the problem. But this was refused because an “external factor” had caused it, most likely that she stored household cleaning products under the sink. In spite of that, Franke offered Nicci a new sink at a 50% discount.

But Nicci remained unhappy, arguing the only products she kept under her sink were “Handy Andy, dishwashing liquid and the like — all the normal house-cleaning products, all sealed and none of them producing corrosive vapours.”

When I took up the issue with Franke, the company’s Chris Rothmann said it had been warning consumers not to store detergents under their sinks for more than 10 years — on its website, in its product guides, brochures, leaflets, adverts in magazines, blogs, social media posts and on stickers attached to the sinks themselves.

The major culprits are swimming pool acid, toilet cleaners, mildew cleaners, dishwasher powders and laundry detergents.

“We have never hidden this fact,” Rothmann said. “We are not trying to get out of anything or purposely trying to void warranties — and our 50% discount offer to Nicci stands.”

Time to rethink where you’re keeping those corrosive products.

Sharp-eyed shopper stumps retailer over Jacques Kallis patty price

It’s always a good idea to take note of food prices featured in adverts and on supermarket shelves because retailers make pricing mistakes — lots of them.

Arthur Boucher e-mailed me to say he bought a pack of Jacques Kallis burger patties from Foodlovers Market at the Crescent in Umhlanga, expecting to pay R39.99 for the four-pack, as advertised on TV, valid until mid-November. But Food Lovers had the pack marked at R49.99.

“When I queried this,” he said, “I was told the 'advertised on TV' price was limited to inland stores. The advert stated 'South Africa only' but didn’t exclude any provinces. Kindly inquire for me.”

I did, and Boucher was spot on. (What a perfect name for this story)

“The special on the Jacques Kallis burger patties applies to and is available in all our stores in South Africa,” FLM group legal managing executive Mirella Gastaldi told me.

“The burger patties had been incorrectly priced earlier in the week and a new, junior member of staff incorrectly advised Mr Boucher that the special price of R39.99 for four patties only applied to inland stores.

“The incorrect price was corrected after his visit to the store.”

Gastaldi invited Boucher to return to the shop to take advantage of the now correctly discounted burgers and collect a R250 butchery voucher “to apologise for the inconvenience”.

• 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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