Wendy Knowler's Consumer Hacks - Want to know a car's history?
Find out Wendy Knowler's latest expert advice on decoding a car's history, safeguarding travel valuables, and debunking return policy myths. Here are this week’s Consumer Hacks from ECR's Consumer Watchdog.
1. Want to know a car’s history?
If you’re keen on buying used car, how can you tell if it was in a bad accident, has suspect mileage, or was previously stolen? Well, you can’t rely on the salesman to tell you. You could have a mechanic check it out for signs or accident damage and mechanical issues, plus you could pop its VIN number into a search on vindocs.co.za and get your own history report on the car.
2. Never pack this in your check-in luggage
You probably know that airlines don’t take any responsibility for the loss of “valuables” packed into your check-in luggage and by that they mean electronics, cash, cameras and jewellery. So those need to go into your hand luggage. But guess what’s the number one item stolen from check-in luggage in SA airports? Big brand perfume. Yes! Even part used fragrances, men’s and women’s. So always pop those fancy bottles into your hand luggage.
3. Boxing Clever
Can a store refuse to take back a product which broke within six months of purchase because you no longer have the box it came in? No. Your Consumer Protection Act right to return a defective product for your choice of repair, replacement or refund stands regardless of whether you can produce its packaging or not. But best you keep the box anyway, because if it breaks after six months, the manufacturer gets to call the shots on its own warranty, and they almost always insist on that box.
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