Do you know when your licences expire?

The start of a new month, and especially a new year, is a very good time to check that your various licences are still valid. Did your car licence expire on the 31st of December? Check that disc on your windscreen, because that’s what the traffic authorities will be doing!  Your driver’s licence is valid for five years - many people’s licences have expired without them realising, so don’t be among those who discover this the hard way.

2. A Louw Blow - Beware the fake local shoe retailers

Christel is among many to be caught by drop shippers posing as a Durban company. She responded to a Facebook ad in the name of Louw Durban, paying R895 for so-called orthopaedic shoes. “Their branding even included the SA flag,” she told me. But what she received was a pair of low-quality Chinese shoes “that I wouldn’t have paid R50 for”. HelloPeter is full of similar complaints. By law, you can send back an online purchase within seven days for a refund but in this case, you’d have to spend more than you paid for the shoes to get them back to China.

Beware! 

3. Keep lilies far away from your dogs

All lily flowers are toxic to dogs and can make them very ill if ingested - vomiting, diarrhoea, lethargy, loss of appetite and excessive drooling. Florists and other retailers which sell lillies should have written warnings about this, but many don’t. Best not to bring lilies into your home if you have dogs, and avoid gifting them to dog owners.

4. Reasons to buy a new car in January, courtesy of Naked Insurance: 

While there are good discounts to be had in December, some dealerships offer even deeper discounts in January to clear remaining stock. Banks and dealers often introduce competitive financing deals at the start of the year, potentially offering better interest rates or finance terms.  If the car model you fancy is due to be “refreshed”, the current one will most likely be sold at a better price, or you could pay a similar price to get the new variant as you would for the old.

5.  Don’t let a company bully you over cancellation 

I so often hear from people who cancelled their gym or cellphone contract by phone or email, only to be told by the company that the cancellation wasn’t processed because it wasn’t done in the way they “require” it. Nonsense! The Consumer Protection Act does not prescribe how you should cancel; it should be in writing or some other recordable form.

Ideally, you should have your own proof of your cancellation, so emails are best. Just make sure it’s a valid email address for the company.

6. When buying fruit & veg, convenience costs 

Woolworths sells loose heads of garlic alongside small net bags containing two or three heads, and here’s what you need to know - the bag version is about 2.5 times more expensive per kg than the loose ones. Saskia Gil paid R9,18 for a single head of garlic at a branch of “Woolies” last month, while the two heads of garlic in a net bag cost R49 - or R24,50 each. The retailer told me the specifications of those two garlic products are “not identical”, the netted garlic being superior, but my experience was the opposite. Whatever, Woolies concedes that the price difference is too extreme, and says they are  “looking into correcting it”. 

7. The hardest warranty to cash in on? 

Car tracking company Cartrack makes much of its R150 000 Recovery Warranty. “Enjoy complete peace of mind knowing that in the unlikely event we’re unable to recover your stolen vehicle, we will pay you up to R150 000” - that’s the promise. There are many exclusions which deny theft victims that “up to R150,000” pay-out: it only applies for three years from installation, the theft must have been reported to Cartrack within six hours of the loss and you must never have been in arrears with your payments, ever. 

Here’s the biggie: you must have contacted Cartrack every calendar quarter - ie every three months - to test the unit, “notwithstanding any system generated or courtesy testing undertaken by Cartrack”.

Spheni said can’t prove that he got his tracking device tested, so that’s another potential trip-up. 

8. Meagre airline baggage compensation policies could leave you high and dry

If your check-in luggage arrives at your destination airport damaged beyond repair, or missing items, the airline should take full responsibility for your loss in terms of our Consumer Protection Act, which trumps other regulations. Most locally-based airlines choose to apply international airline conventions, meaning they pay a very small percentage of your actual loss. The Consumer Goods and Services Ombud advises consumers to challenge international conventions’ compensation limits “with proof of disproportionate actual costs”.

Or just make sure that your own insurance policy will cover your baggage losses.

9. Use your cellphone camera to capture valuable proof

Before handing over your car, your boots, your suitcase and all the rest for repair or service take photos of them so that you have proof of what they looked like when they last left your possession. That way any damage that the company causes can’t be said to have been pre-existing.

Trust me on this!

 10. What you ordered online is the retailer’s responsibility until it gets to you

I was reading Facebook comments on a well-known local skincare range when I spotted a comment from a customer who said: “When I opened the stick I bought online, it had become liquid and everything leaked out.” The company responded by saying as the product was made with all-natural ingredients, it could soften during transit in the summer months. “Pop it in the fridge,” was the company’s advice. What - the oily mess on the packaging?

If a product can’t survive delivery without refrigeration, that cannot be the consumer’s loss. Demand a refund!

11. Never sign an Offer to Purchase a car if the spare key or service book is missing

I keep warning car buyers about this, but the cases keep coming.  Louisa wrote: “I bought a second-hand 2024 model car in November… it didn’t have a spare key, manual or service book but they promised to give it to me during the coming week…” That never happened, and a lot of other things went wrong with the car. Please do not proceed with a used car deal unless (and until) the spare key, manual and service book are produced. Promises to get them to you later seldom materialise. 

Besides, with all that important stuff missing, you should be very worried about the general state of the car.

12. Which is better - plastic or wooden chopping boards?

According to the Irish author of Sustenance, Adam James Pollock, definitely wooden. Apart from its aesthetic value, he says, wood has natural antimicrobial properties, meaning bacteria gets absorbed and dies. 

“This has been lab-tested in comparison to plastic chopping boards multiple times in recent decades,” Pollock said. “Studies show that while bacteria such as Salmonella and Listeria on plastic boards actually multiply overnight, on wooden boards the bacteria are absorbed completely within three to 10 minutes.”

Plus, wooden boards are kinder to your knives.

13. To keep the box, or not?

That’s a question I get asked often, most recently by Francois. “If one needs to return defective goods, why do they always want it in the packaging it came in?” he asked. “Can they refuse a return on this basis?” No, not if you are returning the defective product within six months of purchase. Your Consumer Protection Act right to return a defective product for your choice of repair, replacement or refund within six months stands, regardless of whether you can produce its packaging or not. 

It's best you keep the box anyway, because if the product breaks after six months, the manufacturer gets to call the shots with regard to its own - voluntary - warranty, and they almost always insist on that box.

14.  Do you have an “Exit File”?

We avoid thinking, much less talking, about death, but that would be a gift to your loved ones upon your death, making the necessary admin far easier for them as they grieve. In that file, put your will, a copy of your marriage contract and ID, medical aid details, who to contact at your company, your policy documents, broker details, pension fund documents, details of all your contracts, car registration documents… you get the idea.

In other words, all they will need to navigate the red tape they will inevitably be saddled with. 

15. Can you demand that a retailer sell you something marked at a ridiculously low price?

We all love the thrill of chancing upon something we want selling for way less than it normally does, don’t we? It happened to Catherine in her local butchery recently.

“I was looking for a piece of rump steak and came across one about the size of my hand, marked at just R2.65,” she said. “The usual price is about R85.

“But when I got to the till, they would not allow me to purchase it. Surely it’s my consumer right?’ Actually no, it’s not. That butcher was not legally obliged to sell her that steak for just R2.65, because the Consumer Protection Act gives retailers an “out” when it comes to honouring prices which are an “obvious mistake”, as in this case 

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