In this weekly segment of bite-sized chunks of useful information, consumer journalist Wendy Knowler summarises news you can use:
Theft of cars from dealerships — it’s a thing
Theft of cars from dealerships is sadly not a rare occurrence, so dealerships who don’t take steps to protect their customers’ cars appropriately are operating negligently in that respect. And that makes them liable for any such loss.
The Consumer Protection Act compels companies to “exercise the degree of care, diligence and skill that can reasonably be expected of a person responsible for managing any property belonging to another person”. And “is liable to the owner of the property for any loss resulting from a failure to do so”.
But many dealerships slip in a clause in their Ts & Cs indemnifying themselves against any losses suffered by their customers, believing they are not liable should a car be stolen from their premises.
Not so — companies cannot contract outside the law.
Justice Mariba recently took his 18-month-old Hyundai i10 to the Hyundai Fourways dealership for a warranty battery replacement. When he went to collect it, the service adviser couldn't find the keys on his desk.
It later emerged that a man had driven off in the car 10 minutes earlier. The security guard asked him for his driver’s licence, and when he couldn’t produce it, the guard took a photo of him and let him go.
The dealership pointed Mariwa to their Ts & Cs and said the best they could do for him was pay his insurance excess.
I took up the case with Hyundai South Africa and the upshot was that Mariwa will be getting a brand new i10, at no cost to him.
“Hyundai Automotive SA and Hyundai Fourways sincerely apologise for the inconvenience and stress caused to Mr Mariwa,” I was told. “The delay in reaching this decision by the dealership does not align with our values. Hyundai takes the safety and security of our customers, their vehicles and our staff extremely seriously.
“Unfortunately we operate in a country with a high level of crime and theft in particular.
“The dealership management of Hyundai Fourways has conducted a thorough investigation in conjunction with their security provider and has already implemented the recommendations. Detailed plans cannot be disclosed for obvious reasons.”
So before you hand over your car and the keys to it to any service provider, ask them what controls they have in place to protect your car when it’s in their possession. Do they ensure that the keys aren’t accessible to anyone walking off the street at all times? What about exit controls? Is someone who wants to drive off in a customer’s car subjected to any checks? You have every right to know whether they take this issue seriously.
Stay away from this online retailer
The National Consumer Commission has warned consumers about doing business with online store Manicaa.
“The commission received several complaints from consumers alleging that they had purchased goods from Manicaa and did not receive them,” the commission said. “Others alleged that they either received incorrect items, incomplete orders or defective goods with no assistance from the supplier.”
When trying to investigate the complaints, the commission “hit a snag” as the company proved to be untraceable.
The commission’s preliminary findings indicate that Manicaa is a scam
— National Consumer Commission
According to its website, Manicaa “sells” everything from kitchen appliances and electronics to designer perfumes, shoes and car tyres.
Acting national consumer commissioner Thezi Mabuza said the physical address on Manicaa’s website claimed it was operating from Midrand, but the map on the “contact us” page suggests that Manicaa is based in Canada.
“The commission’s preliminary findings indicate that Manicaa is a scam run by Webster Kutsawa and Clara Kutsawa. We advise consumers not to transact with Manicaa or these individuals,” the warning read.
“As e-commerce changes the way consumers transact, consumers are urged to exercise extra caution as online scams are on the rise.
“So before transacting online, check reviews other than those on the website of the store, analyse the overall look of the website, looking for discrepancies, and if the price is too good to be true, it is too good to be true.”
For Tony Harrison and many others, this news had him giving up on all hope of getting either the doorbell he paid Manicaa R672 for four months ago, or a refund. “Deep down I eventually suspected that I would never receive my order, but was hoping that I was wrong,” he told me.
Are you paying attention to your credit score?
You can take years to build up a good score and only a few little mistakes can wreck it.
If you have a R20,000 limit on your credit card, you shouldn’t use more than R8,000.
These are the main ones: making late or short payments and maxing out your credit cards. That 3-digit number indicates to credit providers how big or small a risk you are when it comes to servicing your debt, in other words, it determines the likelihood of your application being approved.
It also affects the interest rate you’ll be granted.
The quickest, most effective way to boost your credit score, according to to Justin Harrison and Dawie Bester of my mycreditstatus.co.za, is to reduce your credit utilisation ratio — that’s the amount of debt you use versus the amount you have been granted.
Ideally, that shouldn’t be more than 40%, say Harrison and Bester.
So if you have a R20,000 limit on your credit card, you shouldn’t use more than R8,000.
About 40% of your overall credit score is based on that ratio, hence its huge impact on that vital number.
What could help is upping your credit limit, so that your usage ratio drops, but don’t do this if you are likely to spend up to that new limit. That will land you in worse trouble.
“Banks will promote using your credit card and your available funds, but what they won’t tell you is that if you make use of your full available credit, you won’t have an ideal credit score, which means they will impose a higher interest rate than the person who has a better credit score,” Harrison says.
• 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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