Around the world on twenty one Spectacular Lunch for Pilper Hudson.
And now Consumer Talk featuring Wendy Nola.
Right, Wendy is with us in studio today for the Big Black Friday Show. Just one thing on our mind, and that is that one of the biggest shopping days of the year is looming at the end of this week, and the fraudsters of the cyber criminals are rubbing their hands together in glee, I guarantee it as they wait for the chance to fleece you.
We are going to do our best to put it all in.
Perspective, to remind you of some of the red flags, but also just to talk a little bit about spending habits and psychology as well. So perhaps before I get started, let me ask you whether you even participate in Black Friday. Do you feel like you have scored good deals in
the past. Have you bought something a particular product that you specifically waited for Black Friday and felt like you've got a great deal, Or on the other hand, are you one of those who said I'm not spending a penny between now and the end of November will utterly reject the whole concept of Black Friday. It's a hoax and it's a perfect symbol for overhyped consumers, consumerism and commercialism.
Love to know where listeners fall in between on that spectrum, and if you would like to ask a question or share a comment, you are welcome to call in on two to one four four six oh five sixty seven or send a WhatsApp to seven two.
Five six seven one five six seven. Always good to have you with us, Wendy, Thanks so much, Papa.
A lot to talk about today. Let's just talk about the origins first. I mean Black Friday started in America, became a tradition to offer massive sales on the day after their Thanksgiving holiday, which is always the fourth Thursday in November. So it's the fourth Friday of November that Black Friday began, and it's kind of their official start of the retail festive season.
And you know it's origin, it's origins. You ask anybody who's been in.
America for Black Friday, or certainly in the early days, Wendy, they will tell you they scored massive deals on big, big ticket items. But we've moved quite a far way away from all of that. Maybe let's start with Keith's question, which came in when he heard we were discussing this today, why is it even called black Friday?
Okay, so it's an old accounting firm being in the black rather than in the red. In other words, so the chance for the retailers to turn a profit, the irony being that a lot of consumers who don't mindfully partake in Black Friday end up in the red as a result. But that's why it's called black Friday. And my sisters lived in the States for thirty years, so I've I experienced one memorable one with her back in
two thousand and eight. We literally arrived at this huge malland Colorado in the dark, early in the morning, and we left in the darkened strow. And I can vouch for the fact that back then, certainly it was there were some really really massive, authentic bargains to be had, and I think the same store applies now in between
the fake bargains. In other words, the manipulating the percentage of a reduction that that the price advertised with Black Friday is but if you use it wisely, and I like to think I didn't, there'd be something wrong with me. But you know, I will I know the price of cosmetics that I use, for example, so when I wait to stock up, I will wait till now and I'll know without having to do any research that yes, that.
Is a good deal.
Yes. And I've bought some luggage that I've bought pressure cocker, things that you know, black, black Christmas, Black Fridays past that that I needed at the time and still use and get value from so and save up for it. I have a budget for it. That's a thing I think because if you're going to use your credit card, there is that buy now, pay later option where you don't pay any interests and you don't and it's sort of free quidit as long as you pay when you're
supposed to. But if you want to, you know, if if you're buying everything on your credit card and you're not paying it all off immediately, is the interest you know, maybe the interestable offset any savings that you might have. And then you throw in fomo with it as well, and you know, are you really saving? Because the whole idea is to is to get us to move into and that's why it's no longer Black Friday, it's Black November. To get us to move into this ultra spend mode.
Yeah, earlier and earlier, and it's very noticeable.
As you said, used to be a one day and then it became the Friday plus the weekend, and then Cyber Monday.
On the morning afterwards, and it's not nice a whole month. Yeah.
I was in Germany last year or the year before at this time, and yeah, there were there were Black November signs everywhere New Nurk. Yeah, it's a global song.
Our first listener comment in from Jill saying, I absolutely reject the whole concept. I wish we did not feel it necessary to adapt American customs.
So there's one shopper who will not be partaking.
I'd be interested to you from anybody else who's made a similar decision, or perhaps you are somebody who genuinely needs to buy a new fridge, a new television, a new self. For me last year was running shoes Wendy, and I got an absolutely fantastic, massive discount on genuinely a massive discount because I had been tracking the price.
In the whole year.
That's the way to do it.
I don't think.
I think to say denounce the whole thing is short sighted. Because like anything like your use of social media, there's the right way and.
A roll way.
So just the first bit of advice would be we're going to get more detail just now, is that on the on the claimed savings first of all two factors. One, I've challenged a lot of these over over the years, and they'll be quoting the saving on the recommended retail price, which they've never.
Actually used, oh gosh, okay, okay.
And then the second one is, in order to be able to claim that it's this reduction, the prices get pushed up a little bit in September of October and then they can say, yes, it is a which strikes me and it's only occurred to me when I was preparing for today's show, Pepa that the advice should probably be don't.
Buy a big in October.
In September October.
Because unless you're doing your homework on the price was in preparatory.
Okay, We're going to talk in more detail about that because they're actually really interesting legal ramifications to that kind of practice as well. But firstly, Wendy, I mean, one big red flag. We know the number of fraudulent websites has increased dramatically. We've spoken about several cases on the show, so that's the one thing that's definitely on the uptick. Interestingly, though, as you point out, the number of it wobbles associated with Black Friday is on the decrease.
Yeah, that used to be my big story. Yeah, when we first adopted it here, I remember several years take a lot sute collapsed completely. They would gear up anticipate the number of sales they're going to have and then it would be super and so that I was always on the lookout for that. But clearly that's been sorted out. I don't can't remember the last time I got a complaint about all there was any reports about major retail sits crumbling under the strain of increased Black Friday cells.
They're on top of that now properly.
Okay, so that's a positive.
We're going to talk about the right of return and a lot of people's misunderstandings around what they're allowed to do. Okay, So let's get stuck in. Should we call it Survive and Thrive on Black Friday? You can here Linda's saying, let me introduce you to Buy Nothing Day, the antidote to Black Friday. You and I have heard of that, and we also have on the Tuesday, Giving Tuesday, which is about giving away rather than or donating of your time and expertise.
So there are.
Actual formal resistance campaigns in place, if I can put it that way. What we want to do today though, is really delve a little bit deeper in granular detail into some of the risks involved and just ways to
avoid those risks. Now, Wendy, the first thing, and I think this has got to be said upfront, a bargain is only a bargain if you could afford it in the first place, and if you are sacrificing spent from somewhere else to take advantage of the fantastic deal on a fridge or a phone that you didn't actually really need or hadn't budgeted for. It's a short term when with very potentially serious long term consequences.
And as you said, some people have.
Been smart about this, They've been saving all year because they know there'll be an opportunity for a deal. But what about those who haven't been saving that way.
Now, So the advice is, with all this hap going on, and there's a little FOMO as well, it's become an event. It's become a sort of a retail celebration for people is to not just think about I mean, obviously think about the what's coming in long, cold, hard January, school fees and all the rest and whatever, TV lasses or whatever, all those extras, but think beyond that, think about the
unexpected emergency spent a vetbul. I've just spoken to someone fellow journalists to have ten thousand ruand vetbul before payday, or you need new tires urgently, or you know these
things that happen and you haven't dentist ball. That's another thing, the dentist, because you know, you left with this huge short for all, even if you do have medical ad so you must be able to know that if that happens, you haven't blown so much money on Black Friday, you haven't got your credit limit or whatever, used your overdraft, and that you will be able to handle that. Because and those warnings came through from several sectors, and I thought, there's obviously a thing.
Yeah, that they're seeing the rapplications people getting into January.
Ninth, things happening in January day to.
Day expenses because of the spending that happened at Black Friday. Okay, so keep that in mind as a matter of interest whilere we talking about spending on Black Friday, do we have sort of figures on just how big it is?
Yes, So this is the time of you when we journalists gets loads of Black Friday press releases that have
sort of been saving them. So on Black Friday last year, if it be revealed recently that they processed twenty million card transactions, six hundred and ninety transactions per second, this is one bank, remember, and the banks is it's seen fifty nine cent you and your increase in consumer spend on Black Frisurely, just Jux, suppose that with the big other story that we've been hearing in recent months and that I'm certainly involved with in that is gambling spend
taking away and you know, somehow it'll be interesting for me, I think, because it's really that addiction for many people has really taken hold in the last i'd say twenty four months. I'll be interested to see whether that gambling spent that's taking more and more of people's disposal income is going to have an impact on Black Friday self.
That's an interesting conation if you're going to track that.
Okay, yeah, so that's one to watch, but that gives you a sense of it's a twenty million card transactions processed by one bait.
That's just one back on one day.
Fast away couriers, because of course it becomes their job after the sale to deliver everything, to deliver obviously we're talking online here, and they reported at thirty three percent the third year, and your surgeon parcel volumes listened to this between August and October, a clear signal that twenty twenty five is peak trading season will strain national delivery capacity like never before. So this is people getting in earlier. I don't know, I'm answering my question about gambling spend.
Maybe overall we're still seeing the people just I mean, I challenged a retailer that had a Black Friday sale in July, footwear retailer Love, and I said, come on, and she said, it works. It's like a trigger for people. We call it Black Friday, and the sale, we get people's attention and they buy interesting.
It's I mean the psychology and theology.
More about pology later on, but okay, so definitely a surge in in a number of transactions, a surgeon number of deliveries. As you've mentioned, Wendy, a lot of the financial institutions flagging the issue of indebtedness that comes with that. So I think we've covered that, you know. But an interesting point, just to just to put this in some extra perspective, it's not just about meeting the January bills.
The National Debt Counseling Association pointing out if you were taking that money that you're spending on Black Friday and rather investing in your time at saving every year, what do you get at the end of that process? Exactly.
It's a pending how on how much you put away over how many years, But she said you will have a fantastic growing retirement savings instead of cupboards full of forgotten gadgets which you didn't closed that. Yes, you just sort of of course, the best bargain is that saving is one hundred percent.
Saving on the thing you didn't buy, exactly.
But so they there was pages of press releases on this with the numbers and everything else. We don't have time to go into. But I think as a valid point, it's just not as sexy as getting stuck into, you know, black Friday and buying consumable things you know, we pull don't find it. We don't have a savings culture in this country at all, sadly, but.
As Sarah says, we have got to stop buying stuff and more stuff that we just don't need now, Gareth saying South Africa shouldn't really call it Black Friday. The deals we get are marginal at best. The USA has volume and is a hyper concus market. They can get away with low prices and high volumes once a year.
We don't have that.
Sally's comment though, is if you avoid the big ticket items, there are often excellent specials, she says sites household essentials for example, she says, I have stopped up my cleaning cupboard this week already with products at considerably lower than usual prices, A great saving when you're on a tight budget. So if you can, you know, if you've got storage space to store cosmetics, bottles of handy andy bought on special, that's great.
Yes, So I've been looking at all the sites. Amazon is going for a big play, saying you t rand for next day delivery in the big capita and that they've they've beefed up their stock, which they have. I've been looking at Amazon. I'm looking at take it. Look, I'll be looking on one day only all of them. And you see among the big tickets, you know, the TVs and the and and all the rest, laptops or whatever. You see loads of coffee, a luxury for many people,
but real coffee. You see nappies, you see household cleaning materials, as our listeners just said there, so let's not forget that. And for many people in the lower LSMs, they know what things cost down to the scent. Yeah, and they go into the stores and we've seen those photos and they are getting essentials. They are getting basic goods. They're getting maze meal, they're getting rice, they're getting you know. So it's it's it's important to realize that it's at every level of consumericm.
Yeah, it's not just the high end luck.
And they are definitely getting themselves bargains on shelf stable foods and they're not easily doing in terms of price.
That's it, and we should all be that way with exactly we should all be that way.
But thank you for that. Okay, we're going to take a very short break.
Our conversation are diving into some of the cyber fraud issues and some quite sobering stats as well as practical advice. As we continue this conversation to three o'clock, you can continue to join it on what'sapp seven two five six seven one five six seven Talk Talk WhatsApp on seven two five six seven one five six seven. Okay, back to Black Friday and red flags and scams and when you look. The next thing we want to talk about
is is the fraudulent sites. And we've spoken about this many times before because we've handled many cases of people who ordered. You know, I cited the example of the fake Sketches store, which was Sketches with the T added to the name, that was so easy to fall four and I so so nearly fell for it, and you know it happens so easily. But we do need to remind I think continuously on this one that the scammers are becoming more and more sophisticated in response to the
different sort of ways of spending online. And I know you had some engagement with consumer attorney Trudy Brookman on this issue, and she also flagged this as the sort of increase in the sophistication of the kinds of scams going on.
So, as you mentioned there with sketches replica websites, which you must really really look out for because it's hard to it's very easy to miss an extra letter at transposed to transposed letters, etcetera. Everything looks the same. They've literally cloned the genuine website, and then you're just not going to get what you ordered. Remember that if unless they start getting cleverer about this and really mimicking reality.
But usually at tellers, if all the sizes and colors and whatever are available so that I don't want to put you off a purchase.
But that's normally a tel and it very seldom happens, especially on Black Friday.
Yeah, I've been looking at something you know, sizes and massive size, and.
I just want to repeat what you said about the lettering. So the way they catch you is you type, and you type into Google. So you decide I want to I'm going to carry on using sketches as the example. I want to buy a pair of sketches. Let me see if they've got a Black Friday special one and you in sketches and what pops up in the Google search is the actual sketches website or it appears to be, but when you click on that link, it takes you to a fake site.
And if you then look up at the URL carefully, you will see it's.
Spelt the wrong way, or they've added a letter, or it's the dot com instead of as dot said a, et cetera at the end. So it's it's even if the first even if you looked at that first link and said to yourself, oh, this is genuine, keep on checking throughout the transaction, especially when you're at the point of pay, Go back and check, am I still on the genuine website?
And the pop up Facebook ads and yes that come your way when you on Facebook, be ultra ultra wary of those and the one remember sorry, the scammers are using stolen credit card numbers or numbers that they've got in the dark way because there've been so many breaches. We're going to get to that to buy those ads. They don't even want to pay for their own.
Advertising, so really, I know. Trudy's advice here is, firstly, go on to social media. Look for the actual social media of the brands and check which websites they are using and advertising, and make sure you only go to that site because it's very you know, especially if you're shopping for the first time, Wendy, with a brand you've not supported before.
You don't know exactly whether it's easy for you to get caught. Yeah, but no I thing to compare.
With, So go to their own social media And as two D pointed out to us, a lot of those brands have got a they're blue ticked ones, they've paid for verification on.
Twitter and the like. So start there.
As I mentioned, check, double check, triple check that you are l especially at the point of payment, to make sure you are still on the legitimate site. And then, Wendy, you've mentioned this already, but I know truly also flagged this issue of deals that aren't really deals at all.
So she says, use sites like price check, which is adviced I've given in the past. You find out the real market price for an item that you wanting to buy. And there's also a site which specifically tracks take a lot's prices. It's called serviltracker dot com servile spelt seer va l tracker one word.
Alice has just recommended it as well, interestingly enough, saying it it lists take a lot's price history so you can see interesting that this bargain price of two thousand rand when the item was actually on sale at two thousand and six months ago.
All you do is.
Click on the URL, you click on the product description copy and drop it into server servitracker dot com and you you will go down.
Quite a ravage. You actually put this to the test.
Die I did so. I went to their Black Friday section Black Friday Deals, and there's a Smeg whistling kettle selling today on this Black Rider special among them for twenty three hundred and nineteen rand. The same kettle sold for nineteen hundred one nine hundred in May and two thousand rand. I'm I'm rounding off the cent two thousand rand in June and three thousand and four hundred back
in January last year. A lot of It's a lot of money at the highest and the lowest price if you ask me for a kettle, but very wildly fluctuating. They's you can look at it at a glance, you can go right back I think to twenty twenty three, and some products are pretty stable and others like this kettle go up and down quite alarmingly. But yeah, I mean it's only one start but it is our biggest online retail set and it's it's fascinating.
Yeah, okay, so that's a good, good tip. And as you said, you're not the only one who's been doing these sums. My official French at treated yesterday also had been doing some investigating.
And I'm trying to remember what it is that she was.
A fry fry that's so special now for one thy nine hundred apparently discounted from two and a half thousand rand, which is very impressive, but she says, if you look at the price history, it was only listed at two thy five hundred grand on the fifteenth of October. Over the average price has been closer to two thousand and
ran to two hundred rand. So yes, one nine is still a discount, but not exactly the discount that they were claiming what she said in her expost, and I think you will find many examples of that, and we've
been speaking about it quite a lot. So if you if this kettle is just you know, it's a silly price, but it's just it's got to look so great in your kitchen and you want it, you know, just it's well, you can track on any side if you want to look at to take a lot the work is done for you, but be very on top of how that price is moving so that you can get it for yourself at the lowest price. And that price may not be on Black Rider, it might be you know, in the middle of the air or whatever.
When this actually isn't just about being savvy consumers and avoiding the con of the fake deal. It's actually against the law, this practice of sort of faking specials, isn't it.
Well, it's a slightly different. The CPA talks about bait. Bait marketing. So they give you, they advertise a low price to get you in the store, and then they say it's sold out. And the Act actually allows us consumers to challenge that because they've got to have especially on a massive sale like Black Friday, they need to have reasonable stock. They need to anticipate how much stock
they would need, So you can't have three kettles. Let's stick with the kettles that are on the really amazing special price, and then when you respond almost immediately midnight or whatever, I know, they're all sold. That's called bait marketing, because then you might look for the next best for
oh now, it's whatever. So I wish more consumers would actually lodge complaints about that with the Consumer Goods and Services and wouldn't let them do some investigation, because I think that is quite right specifically a Black Friday thing, but I can imagine it would happen on Black Friday.
Okay, so just be mindful of that and be if you do see it happening, or if it happens to you, please remember you have the power to report those brands to the Consumer Goods and Services on but and to the National Consumer Commission and let them know because retailers who are found guilty of that kind of misleading advertising can be fined up to ten percent of their turnover.
Yes, I mean, in reality, I can't see that happening for bait marketing. I would see it happening for something a lot more serious. But technically it is that has been a big consequence.
Okay, So let's talk a little bit about how we can use our own tech to help us here. Ben writing in to say I have used chat GPT to check a suspicious website. It's not one hundred percent fool proof, but it definitely does point people in the right direction and that's the theme we're hearing a lot this year. Use the gadgets that are in your pocket and in your handbag. Yes, to check while you're in stare.
And a lot of people tests are somewhere else in my prep but quite well compared to last year that you have far greater percentage of people are going to be using CHATCHYPT or groc or whatever they're preferred. One is to find the specials. Okay, you know, if it's out there, if it's advertised, they can pick it up. Or can you tell me what this was selling for in June this year or whatever. I mean, you can use it and you can do that, but your fingers
bearing in mind that there's there's a fail rate. It's not I mean, it's really not one hundred percent reliable, but you know it can help.
It can help, Okay, So that's something to consider.
So ask chat GPT what was this retailing at six months ago? Or ask it Yeah, where in Cape Town can I get the best price on Black Friday, on whatever it may be?
And see what you get out of it.
A daisy writing and to say thank you for such a well time topic. I cannot imagine retailers are selling goods without making a profit. If one looks at the high percentage of mark dance, it just proves how consumers are having done it with high markups and profit margins. I agree we should not abolish Black Friday completely. The key is to buy only the must haves or the things you know you're going to have to top up soon. Why pay them more later on and never on credit,
is Daisy's view. Thanks for that comment, Deasy.
Wi wise advice.
I've found the figures now.
So the Boston consulting Group BCG, they've surveyed ten thousand customers across ten countries around the use of AI, and the project leader in Johannesburg for Shako Chopra, said, in BCG's African Consumer Sentiment survey conducted in July this year, we see that forty one percent of surveyed consumers said they are already using AI, sixty eight percent use it regularly, and thirty percent use it for shopping to compare brands and product prices. And this is set to grow exponentially
our imagine. So they're putting it at thirty percent. I would I think it's high. I can't tell you in the last month or two. Even the number of complaints that are landing in my inbox that I can see have been generated Budgie. Sometimes, yeah, sometimes they leave in deer journalists and you can see by their formatting. But in a way, I'm not having to deal with so many terribly written, badly spelled Yeah.
So yeah, we're gonna be.
I think that's gonna be a big trend of this year, and it'll be nice to hear from listeners who are using it in that way.
Yeah.
Oh, dear Jenny writing, I'm laughing at the stupidity my own that is. You may remember I bought a Christmas tree online and as soon as I had paid, they informed me they were out of stock and I had to wait twenty one days for a refund, which.
I still never materialized.
She says, I'm sorry, Jenny, Jeff just questioning the fake website issue. Why would they make spelling errors in order to be caught out? Well, Jeff, they're not being caught out, so how it works, and me just maybe explained, try and explain it better in case you're not understanding. What they're doing is luring you onto an entirely fake website. It's not the Sketch's website or the Fascini or whatever
it may be. It's an entirely made up website. All they are looking to do is to get you to hand over your credit card details and commit to the purchase on the site. They take your money and they disappear and never deliver the goodn't be using.
The genuine one, because they're going to take you to the genuine so that's why they will make a very slight change in the address, and.
It often only happens on the third or fourth page of the transaction, so it looks like you're dealing with the legitimate one, but you are being led into a fake website. And where you've pick it up is is generally things like the letter A will be replaced with the AT sign, for example, or the O will be a zero instead of the letter Oh. Some of them are very very good and hard to spot. You've just got to pay super super careful attention to make sure that you are still on a legitimate side and not
being loaded off one. And let's ask you a question. Are South African sellers doing the thing that American ones do of selling inferior models? Of appliance is that look exactly the same as the superior version and telling consumers it's a sale instead of a cheaper inferior version.
The only way I can answer that any conviction is to say, this reminds me of something we've covered recently, and that is a lot of the big retail sites have marketplaces. So take a lot Macro for example, and so they sell their own goods and then they allow obviously they're taking a cut any old trader anywhere they
say they do their checks. But I've had too many complaints of well Ciellows has complained that they're people knocking off their furnitureture and passing it off as the genuine stuff, and they, you know, have trying to put those fires out and get the listings removed. So there is a lot of that, and I would say one way to protect yourself is if you've got to go in those big sites you could you will see it's sold by it. It will be some strange name you've never heard of.
I would stay away unless you dealt with that company before.
Okay, so only buy from the original manufacturer. Yeah, thanks for that.
Okay, when you with one eye on the clock, so much to talk of, but I really do feel we need to just remind everybody of a couple of the other key kinds of scams that are going awry. So social engineering, I think is something we need to talk about here. That the scam artists are aware of the fact that there is a proportionally higher volume of online transactions being made this week out of courier deliveries taking part at taking place, and the courier scam is one
that is facing people left right in the center and Wendy. Obviously, they're going to ramp that up with Black Friday because they know the chances are high that whoever they reach with that scam SMS scattergun approach has genuinely got an order out and is awaiting a delivery.
It happened to me last week.
I had an SMS come in saying your delivery such and such has arrived at the warehouse. Please click on the link attached to you know to track the order and verify a delivery details.
And I almost clicked at it.
Now I thought, hang on, I don't normally do that.
I don't recognize the name of that career.
That's not the Caurier, and because it was an item I bi regularly, I'm like, it's a different career from normal, And sure enough, when I looked at the order number, it wasn't the order number of my order.
So I was waiting.
Some use multiple couriers, and I've thought, I'm going to check this and it's turned out to be right, which is the way to do it. But yeah, So the difference is that the genuine ones will give you quite a lot of information. They'll use your name first of all, I'll give you an order number, et cetera. The scammers are deliberately vague and just rely on you thinking, yes, I am expecting an order from wherever and following the leads because they didn't capture your dress properly, playing on
your need to get this parcel. So I just thought it's worth mentioning that because it's really going to ramp up because their chances of getting a hit so much higher. The other thing, I'm just I don't want to miss this. We've spoken about it recently, but it's worth repeating number one. A lot of companies, I will give them the benefit of benefit of the dart and say they don't know better. But they really should if they're in business with online sales.
The Electronic Communications and Transactions Act gives us a seven day cooling off period from the data delivery. To send that product back, it must have been in a resaleable condition, you kind of like, you know, worn or try. You know, you have to send it back in a resallable condition, but they are entitled. You have to send it back at your own cost if they won't cover the cost
of that career, but they must refund you in full. Now, a lot of these sites will say no returns of sale items, which is everything on Black Friday, and if you see that, just move on by no matter how and tacing. This is because you will undoubtedly have a problem trying. You know, it doesn't make sense. It's not legal. We're buying things without the benefit of touching, trying on, et cetera, seeing the real color and all the rest, and so the world over, consumers have this off periods.
Some companies choose to make it thirty days actually, which is good if you buying Christmas presents now, because.
After Christmas is within return date.
Yes, I had that issue that I bought a pair of shoes for my son for his birthday weeks in advance, and I suddenly realized and I just managed to lock the return of one day to spare.
The downside of being organized exactly.
Yes, the cooling off period yea, by the time you open the package for the birthday three weeks from now, Yeah, it's knocking up against the door. So if you see a site that says no return on sale items, immediately walk away because you know that that is a love that is playing fast and loose with the laws of the country.
It's not legal, it's not levil.
And don't fall for the often pre selected product protection one start I looked at with eighteen nine rund extra even shean does this shipping warranty whatever of seventeen rand or whatever. The CPA gives us the protection, the liability for the product getting lost, damaged, hijacked, whatever is on them until the moment it is delivered into your hands. Now, the other thing I want to say is, and I don't speak about this often enough, if ever, is that
the CPA, it's section nineteen. The same section which says that they liable until the item is delivered to you, says when a supplier delivers something to you. They must allow and this would be their courier partner must allow the consumer a reasonable opportunity to examine the goods for the purpose of basically ascertaining that it is what you ordered and it's not and then it's not damage or effective. And so I must say, I don't do that, but I mean I should get into the habit walk my talk.
But then make it easy. Don't make them wait and then come out with a little box cut or whatever you use to cut into you or I have something on my queuing to get the parcel open and just have a quick look and if it's something wrong with it there and then you send it back so they can't say sorry that you did it.
Yes, but it's an interesting one when because I had this exact scenario the other day with a medicine delivery from Clicks, and I could feel immediately that there were not enough items in the bag. So I said to the guy, I'm opening it here. I want to check because I can see there's something missing. And then he didn't want to take it back. He said, I can't. I can't return this to the store because you've opened it. So I insisted that he did and I phoned the
store to say it's on its way. Here's a photograph of what was inside, and this is what was missing, and they.
Very well, well done. You the other thing that I've seen people doing. We had a case and our case where to do with a dule computer. But he because anyway, he wanted proof that of what he got out of the box, so he set up his camera on his phone and he videed himself unboxing it so that the whole thing and this is what I've gotten. If there any issues, they can't say, Well, it was like you've done.
It, you've done it, you've lost the item, whatever.
And it sounds pedantic, but I think it's something. It's a habit I'm going to get into. It might be, you know, it's it's second best to standing on the street with your.
Box cutter the okay.
One of those things I think we should get into the habit of doing.
In addition to recording our gym contract and phone. Okay, So we didn't really get into the psychology of buying. But I think that next week there maybe we can reflect on it next week, Wendy. But just really the big thing to think about, you know, is by all means, take advantage of the genuine specials, save yourself some money
on items you know you were going to use. If you know that your household goes through X number of bottles of sunlight liquid or halfy andy or bottles of coffee whatever it may be, or peanut butter or school stationary that you genuinely know you were going to use and have need of, and that you are able to absorb into your budget, then by all means, please do take advantage of the sales, but ask yourself those.
Questions before you hit click. Do I need this?
If I spend the money on this, do I have anything in a buffer zone left for the unforeseen that might happen? And am I buying this because it is a good deal or because I genuinely need this article because so many of us fall for that.
Just I'm saving thirty seven percent or save one hundred percent.
Of if you don't buy it.
Yeah. One last thought is that people who get rewards bank rewards. Sometimes it's many cases it's monetary because they know that's what we want. I use mine and I've got a holiday fund, but there would be an idea the build up to next year is black Friday to make a Black Friday fund whatever and put the money in there. And then you've got this cash and you've you there's no credit and there's no and you've done it to buy your fridge or your air fry or whatever you want.
Nice with that money. Yeah, Wendy, thanks so much. Is such important information today and
Good luck in the trenches are I will say, Wendy Nona with us again next week Wednesday, And a reminder that you can contact her via her website which is Wendy Nola dot co dot Saturday