Are dealership fees and other extras mandatory on your car deal? Nonsense, says Wendy Knowler
Recently, Tim shared with Wendy Knowler email correspondence he had with a salesman at the Honda & Suzuki dealership in Pinetown, part of the massive CMH dealership group.
The salesman told him in an email that R1,100 was for the licensing of the car - “an outsourced company does our licensing but I can speak to the boss if you want to license the vehicle on your own,” he said.
But the R4,950 “documentation fee" was a “mandatory" charge on all deals per CMH, the salesman said. And then this, the most outrageous of all: “There is other stuff like smash and grab and 2 in 1 which is also mandatory, but I will remove it and take the swearing from my boss.”
In other words, he was telling Tim that he had no choice but to have those extras loaded onto his contract.
So Wendy took that up with the dealer principal of the dealership, Darryl Sclanders, who came back to her to say: “All charges on our offer to purchase documentation, both in respect of the vehicle and the extras, are negotiated with the customer. No charge is mandatory. One of the products which we offer to customers is called '2in1'. This is a CMH Autocare paint sealant and interior protection. Full details of product benefits will be supplied upon request.”
In today's ECR Consumerwatch, Wendy Knowler gives advice about what to do in a situation like this.
READ: Wendy Knowler offers solutions to Keri Miller’s municipal bill issues
What to do if you get a call from your bank’s fraud department - hang up!
And then call your bank’s fraud department from the number you have pre-saved in your phone and ask if there is suspected fraudulent activity on your account. There’s an extremely good chance they will say no.
Here’s why: vishing - bank fraud committed via voice, specifically a phone call - is particularly rife at the moment. Wendy has been warning people about it for a while now, but she's still hearing from victims or their families every week.
READ: About those extra costs on your store account...
And many of you would have heard the scam alert Whatsapp voice note doing the rounds by a man whose father, a Capitec account holder, was tricked by a fraudster posing as a bank official into sending her R3,000 in cash. He said the scam is targeting Capitec account holders.
Well, yes, but all bank clients are being targeted and in most of the cases Wendy has dealt with, they’re after the OTP the bank sends to the account holder in order to make credit card purchases.
In the podcast, Wendy explains how it works and offers solutions once you are in that mess.
READ: It never rains but it pours - best you get your roof checked out!
Listen to more podcasts from Wendy Knowler in the Consumerwatch channel below:
Contact Wendy
Get in touch with Wendy via her website or her Facebook page. Please note that Wendy is not able to personally respond to every email she receives. If she is able to take up your case, she will contact you directly. Here are other avenues for you to consider.
IMAGE CREDIT: iStock