Warning for Booking.com users booking abroad
Never respond to emails that look like they’ve been sent by the hotel you’ve pre-booked a stay at, no matter how legit they look, advises Wendy Knowler.
Cybercriminals have compromised many hotels’ booking.com accounts before emailing those who’ve made bookings, telling them they will lose their booking if they don’t click on a link to “verify their banking details”. Two South African families have contacted me after falling for that and losing a lot of money. The red flag - apart from the “click on this link” bit, is that the scammers insist on immediate action, as in “Please hurry up!” Very unprofessional. Booking.com urges customers to report any suspicious messages via its 24/7 customer service team.
2. Yes, you do have the right to insist on a printed receipt
There is nothing stopping a store from asking you if you’d like to have your receipt emailed to you, but here’s the thing - that cannot be the only option you are given in order to get your proof of purchase. According to the Consumer Goods and Services Ombud, customers may not be forced to provide their personal details – ie an email address - in order to get their proof of purchase, as mandated by the Consumer Protection Act. If you refuse to provide your personal details in order to get the receipt emailed to you, they are legally compelled to give you what the Act terms “a written record of the transaction” - there and then in the shop.
3. A few minutes late could cost you an extra day’s car rental
If you’re planning to hire a car over the festive season, make a note of the time you took possession of it and make sure you return it to the car rental depot before that time at the end of the rental term, to avoid being charged an extra full day’s rental. I managed to get that extra day - more than R700 – refunded to a woman who was late returning her rental car because she had get a police report number after someone grazed the bumper - while it was parked! Sadly, she was still made to pay in part for that repair.
4. Never stop paying an account in protest: you don’t punish them, you punish yourself
Email from a listener: “I opened a shoe account in early 2021. I stopped paying for a pair of shoes because they tore soon after purchase and when I took them back for an exchange or refund the company refused. “Fast forward to this year – I applied for a bond, only to realise I had been blacklisted for non-payment.” Never stop paying an account in protest - the accounts department will take action against you anyway. First pay and then fight the injustice, with or without the help of someone like me, or the Consumer Goods and Services Ombud.
5. The “White Pages” directory scammers find a way to blacklist their victims
It’s a scam I’ve been warning about for about years now. Small businesses get a call about updating their bold listings in the Telkom directory: it’s free, they are told, we’ll send you a form to sign. The employee complies, without noticing the very tiny print saying it’s nothing to do with Telkom, they are binding the business to paying a year’s subscription to some unknown directory, to be paid for upfront - about R15,000. All along I’ve said “Don’t pay - they won’t do anything” but now a company registered as “Sheriff Office” has been listing those individuals on Experian as defaulters. I have taken this up with Experian and those listings have now been removed, but no doubt it will happen again under another name. We fight on. Still don’t pay!
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