Consumers cautioned about business bad practices

The consumer affairs board conducting inspections at various supermarkets around the province.

Following the consumer compliance findings the department of Finance, Economy and Enterprise Development attained last year during the Consumer Compliance Inspection and Consumer Educa-tion Awareness Campaigns as part of the EXCO Setsokotsane programme, the Consumer Affairs Of-fice sees it fitting to caution consumers bad business practices. It is with great concern to indicate that the rights of consumers are continued to be infringed by some of the businesses and consum-ers should be alerted of such as it is the responsibility of the department to educate and protect them from corporate abuse like unsafe products, predatory lending, price dishonesty, unethical ad-verting and other unscrupulous tendencies of exploitation. As the department we believe that an enlightened consumer is an empowered consumer. An in-formed consumer not only protects himself/herself from exploitation but induces efficiency, trans-parency and accountability in the entire trade industry. It is really concerning that there are shops that are having dented, dirty and expired items on their shelves. This put the health and safety of consumers in danger as such items are not supposed to be sold and eaten by people. This signifies that is important to always check expiry dates of items whenever we buy. It is also worrying that there are furniture stores and micro lenders who do not conduct affordability test to verify whether consumers can afford credit and this is an indication of reckless lending. Some micro lenders were found contravening the National Credit Act in terms of credit advanced to consumers whilst some were above the threshold Act. The findings of the inspection also reveals that most of the small retail and electronics shops do not issue out sales records (receipts) which is a contravention in terms section 26 of the Consumer Pro-tection Act. There are also those wherein prizes are not displayed on goods sold, thus leads to con-sumers given different prizes whenever they buy goods.

Price and product checking is a major part of verifying if the businesses are

obeying the law.

Furthermore, some traders do not have company names; signs of “No Refunds, No Returns” dis-played which amount to unfair contractual terms in terms of Consumer Protection Act. This nor-mally creates a challenge to consumers if they want to exchange or refund on the goods pur-chased. It has also came to the attention of the department that consumers are being repos-sessed their goods without following the prescribed processes of National Credit Act. Our people are paying funeral insurances without knowing the services they are paying for. It’s important for consumers to exercise caution when signing contracts, consumers must carefully read and understand the terms as there might have adverse consequences and should not be dis-couraged from reading voluminous documents written in small print as these may compromise their rights. It is within the consumer’s rights to request time and consult when needing clarifica-tion or having insecurities about the contracts. Consumers are further cautioned on issues to consider when buying motor vehicles, whether sec-ond hand or new and advised to always consult with relevant institutions like Motor Industry Om-budsman before contracting themselves. One of the advises consumer may take herein is to Shop around, compare prices and strictly deal with Reputable Car Dealerships or large institutions be-fore entering into a contract as this will assist them to save them from problems and able to save them money. It is notable even in the 21 years of democracy that that are consumers who still fall in an unnec-essary debt traps due to lack of knowledge. However, the feed commit itself to implement the right to consumer education and right to redress as contained in the guidelines and encapsulated in various legislations, in particular, the rights incorporated in the Consumer Protection Act and National Credit Act. Communities are advised to guard against all these bad business practices and encouraged to visit the nearest consumer affairs offices should they be in any need of advice, assistance or need to lodge a complaint. The workshop was succeeded by road shows and mall activations across the province to continue teaching consumers about their rights. Communities are encouraged to visit the nearest consumer affairs office should they be in any need of advice or need to lodge a com-plaint.