Your Money, Your Rights (Part1)
 “The Customer is Always Right”, so the saying goes. Some of would agree, others would hesitate before saying: “Well, it depends….”. This is part 1 in a series of articles on the new Consumer Protection Act, designed to prepare businesses for its introduction later this year.
Even Producers need to consume, and as Consumers we all like to think that we are special and should receive fair treatment. Maybe that was how business was conducted in our parent’s generation, but the advent of high powered marketing executives and the penetration of our homes and offices by Alexander Graham Bell’s invention (and by its often brattish child, the cellphone) has changed the way we are treated and in turn how we react to being treated.
I mean, how do you feel when, at 6pm on a Friday evening, you get a call from someone who, in a serious voice, announces to your tired ear, that you have just won “a prize which is guaranteed to be one of 5 prizes up for grabs” ? As much as you know this cannot be true, you hang on, hoping that somehow the caller will explain how you could have won a prize in a competition you did not enter, and what exactly this prize is. Was it the word ‘prize’ which keeps you from saying ‘Thanks but no thanks’ (You wouldn’t actually slam down the phone, now, would you?) or is it that wonderful word “Guaranteed” which so holds your attention?
If you are troubled by such innovative, ‘close to the wind’ marketing techniques, have no fear.
The global consumer rights theme “Your Money, Your Rights” promoted by the global agency Consumers International, is slowly starting to give abused consumers worldwide some hope. Here in sunny SA, world cup soccer is not the only event which happens in 2010. It is also the year in which the Consumer Protection Act comes into being.
In case you were thinking that this is another soft-soap piece of legislation dreamt up by politicians who have nothing better to do, think again. The State is very serious about consumer protection in general, and this Act follows on from a number of other consumer friendly Acts which seek to regulate various industries and make it easier for consumers to challenge the products or services supplied to them.
So when that call comes through telling you that you have won a prize, you will have a choice - -
You can listen for as long as you like, or you can tell the caller you don’t wish to continue the conversation. You can also ask the caller to remove your name from its database (ie ‘don’t call me again in future’). But the Act goes further – it allows you to register a so called ‘pre-emptive block’ on a registry established by the National Consumer Commission. This stops those companies from contacting you, period!
Many of us secretly long for a call announcing the award of a prize (yes, the real genuine one), and so it is unlikely that direct marketing will be stopped in its tracks by the Act. But the many and varied provisions will undoubtedly affect all businesses in South Africa, and take up much management time. So be forewarned and forearmed!
(Part 2 will deal with the right to information in plain and understandable language).
Clive Hill | Financial Services Manager |
