Faizel Patel, Radio Islam News, 2016-01-21
Lewis Stores says its investigating the circumstances surrounding a gardener who was charged R 18,000 for a R 6,000 watching machine.
According to Fin24, businessman Onne Vegter posted the details of the sale on Facebook.
The gardener – who Vegter describes as a very humble, timid man in his 60s, with limited literacy – bought the 14kg twin tub washing machine last month at the Lewis branch in George.
The cost of insurance alone is almost equal to the price of the appliance.
The contract, in Afrikaans, clearly shows a double charge of R2 052 and R3 785.76 for exactly the same insurance, just different wording: monthly payment for customer protection insurance and protection insurance for clients, payable monthly.
Vegter says that his gardener, who does not want to be named, said he did not want insurance.
He also said that the customer originally did not even get this contract and had to phone again to insist on it.
“He was told by the store salesman it would cost him R498 per month for 36 months, and told where he must sign, but even after they delivered the washing machine to him, he still did not receive a copy of the contract.
“Only when he showed this to a more educated family member and they pointed out the ridiculous total, did he realise he might have made a big mistake.
On Vegter’s advice, the customer and a family member went back to the store to have the contract cancelled because it was just too expensive for him.
Vegter said he was standing up on behalf of his gardener, but was equally concerned about the millions of poor South Africans who did not have the luxury of buying goods for cash, but had to buy on credit.
Last year consumer watchdog Summit Financial Wellbeing, in a mystery shopping exercise, exposed Lewis for overcharging customers buying on credit for, among other things, credit life insurance, delivery fee (also called handling fee) and loss of employment insurance.
In October, Lewis Group CEO Johan Enslin told Fin24 that a refund of R67.1m to customers for the cost of loss of employment insurance followed an extensive internal investigation by Lewis.
Lewis’ own probe followed after the National Credit Regulator brought it to the company’s attention that loss of employment insurance was sold to customers when this should not have been the case. – FIN24
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