Cellphone insurance, gift vouchers and scare tactics using sheriff’s office: Consumer 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:

If you have the ‘wrong’ SIM in your phone, you’re wasting your insurance premiums

If you took out cellphone insurance via your cellphone service provider, are you aware your phone is insured only when you have your contract SIM in it?

Many people have had their cellphone claims rejected because they had put another SIM into their phone at the time of the “insured event”.

Among them are “Ms A”, whose experience was included in the ombudsman for short-term insurance’s 2022 annual report released last week.

She lodged a complaint with the ombud’s office about the rejection of her claim relating to the theft of her phone. The stolen phone had been acquired when Ms A “upgraded” her contract, but the SIM in the new phone was not the one noted on the policy. She said she was not told when she took out the policy that she was required to only use the cellphone with the cellphone number/SIM card noted in the policy.

The ombud’s office concluded the insurer had not provided enough evidence to indicate that that key condition of the policy was explained to Ms A.

“Under the circumstances, we recommended the insurer should settle the claim as it had not complied with its obligations in terms of the Policyholders Protection Rules,” the ruling read.

That’s how Ms A's claim was settled, eventually.

Sheriff’s ears must be burning

What kind of company would resort to pretending “the sheriff” is on his or way to attach your possessions? A really dodgy one. And there are quite a few of them out there, many preying on small businesses.

Tracy is one of many company employees who agreed to try a detergent during a telesales call and was then told they had to pay for bulk future orders, despite the company not being able to provide any proof that the follow-up orders had been consented to.

This week she told me: “The guy I’ve been talking to phoned to double check our address because, he said, the sheriff of the court couldn’t deliver the summons.

“There is no way the sheriff wouldn’t find us so I have a feeling that was another scare tactic.”

The “company” which pretends to be calling to update small businesses’ Telkom directory listings is fond of dropping the word “sheriff” as a bully tactic.

Olga, who works for a Durban-based chemical supplies company, recently received this dire warning from the “sheriff’s office”: “We advise that we are proceeding with a warrant for your arrest and the sheriff will be out to remove movable property to be sold in auction to recover the debt.”

There were no reference details and the e-mail came from the e-mail address  sheriffadmn1@gmail.com. Yeah, right.

“I have been harassed for years by the online white pages people,” Olga said. “And I’m now receiving warrant of arrest threats, but I am ignoring them as you have suggested.”

Glad to hear it.

Don’t let your gift vouchers expire

Consumers don’t respond well to being told their gift voucher has expired. After all, good money was paid for the paper or digital voucher, and if it can’t be redeemed, the payment was essentially a donation to the company concerned.

The men and women who authored the Consumer Protection Act in the 2000s initially proposed pre-paid vouchers should be valid for at least five years. That’s because at the time many shops, beauty salons and the like were issuing vouchers which were valid for only three or six months and, quite rightly, that was considered grossly unfair.

In the end, the legislators settled on three years. That’s how long you have to redeem a pre-paid voucher — though many service providers clearly either aren’t aware of the 12-year-old legal requirement, or are choosing to defy it in the hope their customers don’t know better.

For some people, three years isn’t long enough. Viren e-mailed me this week, saying he had been unable to redeem a gift card bought from a major national retailer more than three years ago.

“Due to ill health it slipped my mind to use it,” he said. “The store said it had expired so there is nothing they can do, but it’s been paid for  so please assist.”

I totally understand his frustration, and that of those who find vouchers years later in the pocket of a seldom word jacket, but legally he has no case.

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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