If you want to capture someone’s attention, whisper. The not-so-young will remember that pay-off line from an ’80s perfume advert on TV.
I wish the same concept was true of small-print terms and conditions: if you want someone to read something on a contract or website, put it in really tiny, faint print.
Of course, the opposite is true. As much as people like me implore consumers to seek out the small print, because that’s the bit that’s most likely to trip them up, companies know that this isn’t human nature.
Which brings me to the “penny auction” site, ViaZiz, which apparently has a physical base in Cape Town.
Described on its website as the “new penny auction website currently taking the world by storm”, ViaZiz invites its users to bid on gadgets “and even cars” for the chance of winning them at “ridiculously low prices”.
But what many South Africans have discovered is that by registering on the website, they are giving their consent to buy a “welcome package” of 300 credits, at a cost of R2 500.
Suddenly there’s a R2 500 debit on their credit cards.
The site invites people to “Sign up for free” in bold print, requiring them to fill in a user name, e-mail address and password. Interestingly, next to the words, “I agree to the terms and conditions”, is a box with a tick already placed in it. If you remove that tick, you cannot proceed with the registration, but there is no way of finding out at that point what the terms and conditions are.
Standard practice on such sites is for a simple click on the words “terms and conditions” to reveal them to the user.
The next step requires one to fill in credit card details to complete the “registration”.
In very, very tiny print at the bottom of this page, the following crucial “disclosure” appears: “Adding your payment details confirms your acceptance of our terms and conditions.
“Package: 300 new customer welcome credits. You will be debited R2499,99.”
“SeanNefdt” of Cape Town posted the following on consumer complaint website HelloPeter.com two weeks ago: “They are charging for bids instead of items and nobody wins and then they take your money, and the package costs R2 400. They don’t want to refund even though you did not bid and you did sign up in error.”
Many others have posted similar complaints.
Had “SeanNefdt” read the small print he would not have completed that registration process.
But the fact that it was there means he and all the other unwitting ViaZiz customer credit buyers would probably not succeed with chargeback applications with their banks.
ViaZiz could argue the purchase was not unauthorised, because of the appearance of that disclosure on the same page as the credit card details request form. But it’s sneaky and unethical.
Especially as under FAQs, ViaZiz states the following: “First you need to register. Registration is totally FREE with no nasty hidden charges that other sites forget to tell you about! See our how-it-works section for an easy to follow user guide. The ONLY cost associated with our website is the bid package costs.”
But what that fails to state is that you can’t register without incurring that compulsory R2 500 package cost.
And it’s by no means an insignificant amount.
Merisha Naidoo wrote to Consumer Watch last week about her ViaZis experience, which mirrors that of so many others. She discovered the site on Facebook.
“It was advertising cheap iPhones so I clicked on the advert which transferred me to ViaZiz.com.
“The website said registration was free and it did not mention that a deposit needed to be paid upon registration.
“After filling in my details, including my credit card details, R2 500 was debited from my account.
“I hadn’t placed a bid or anything – the moment the registration form was processed, the money was deducted.
“I immediately sent the company an e-mail stating my grievances, but two weeks have since passed and they still haven’t responded to my query.
“There isn’t even a number that I can call to get in contact with them.”
Liat Beinart got caught in the same way, and feels duped into buying that bid package.
“The words on that page are ‘Add card and finish’, rather than ‘Buy Now’, so you don’t think you’ll be charged for anything,” she told Consumer Watch.
“Only the very tiny print, clearly calculated to be missed, reveals the cost.”
And there it is – “calculated to be missed”. Whenever you are asked to give a company the means to debit your credit card account, you absolutely have to seek out the tiniest print.
A genuine registration process does not require credit card details.
Naturally, I offered ViaZiz the opportunity to respond, doing so via the only means of contact the company provides – an e-mail address.
My e-mails were ignored.
Bottom line – the smaller the print, the more important it is to read it.
If you don’t want to make a purchase, don’t supply your banking details. If you do want to make a purchase, spend time making 100 percent sure of the amount that’ll be debited from your account.
Any finally, the golden rule of consumer land: if it seems too good to be true, it is.
DO YOU KNOW WHERE YOUR CONTRACT SIM IS?
A downside of being a post-paid contract cellphone subscriber is that if your handset or SIM gets into the hands of a criminal, you could be left with a bill running into hundreds of thousands.
Last year I investigated the case of Ashok Sewpersad of Durban, whose bill shot up to more than R900 000 after his spare handset was stolen from his luggage, and he didn’t realise it until days later.
Criminals had used it in an international “call forwarding” scam.
Last week I took up the case of Jarrod Stewart, who mislaid his phone over a weekend and didn’t report the loss to MTN until the Monday, by which time his bill had rocketed to about R40 000.
“I thought I’d left it in a friend’s car or mislaid it at a restaurant, or maybe at home somewhere,” he said.
In his case, it wasn’t call forwarding crime – the criminal had used the handset or SIM to make a series of virtually continuous international calls, each one lasting about 15 minutes.
Naturally, the bill came as a massive shock to Stewart.
“I’ve been told I am accountable for the bill in full,” he said, “but they are allowing me to pay it off at R10 000 a month.
“I queried my credit limit, which is apparently R7 000, but was told that this does not hold up, as once you reach R7 000, it takes 24 hours to block the SIM, and I now know what can happen to your bill in 24 hours.”
I took up the case with MTN’s general manager of business risk management, Lily Zondo, who said it was not uncommon for subscribers’ stolen phones to be used to make international telephone calls.
“So it’s important that stolen phones are reported to MTN immediately – to both their service provider, so the account can be suspended, as well as the police.”
Asked what systems the network had in place to alert affected subscribers of unusually high usage, she said MTN notified customers “where possible”.
“MTN encourages customers to put pin codes on their handsets and their SIM cards, so that in the event that it is stolen, they will have two layers of protection.
“If the fraudster attempts to remove the SIM and insert it in another handset, it will not work.”
Asked whether the network would consider waiving some of Stewart’s R40 000 bill, Zondo said his case was being “looked at” by the network’s customer relations department.
I will report back on the outcome of that.
Here’s how to protect yourself from high bill exposure.
Only have international roaming activated on your account when you are travelling beyond South Africa’s borders. At all other times, ensure that this function is not activated.
Ensure that your handset and SIM are PIN protected.
Don’t be complacent about the whereabouts of your phone, especially at weekends when there is less cellular traffic scrutiny.
As soon as you realise you can’t find it, report this to your network.
Keep any spare handsets and SIMs locked away.
Did you know?
Stolen SIMs are mostly used by criminals for international calls, playing gambling games and airtime transfers.
Bills escalate without being immediately picked up because billing is not done in real time.
Call data is usually only downloaded from the cell areas to the networks every six hours or so and then to the billing systems, and by that time, the damage has been done.
It takes only a couple of hours to run up an international bill of more than R20 000, if the SIM card is not locked for a couple of days.
Criminals break open intercom units at residential complexes in the dead of night, remove the SIM cards and use them in handsets to commit call forwarding fraud.
Criminals are not terribly interested in stolen handsets, as those usually only fetch them a few hundred rand. The primary target is always the SIM card.
These almost always end up in Hillbrow or Yeoville, where syndicates use them to sell airtime to people on the street who “phone home” – countries including Nigeria, Zimbabwe, Tanzania, Pakistan, India – at cheap rates.
Expensive smartphones are exported to other countries, and the “cheapies” go into cell repair shops for spare parts.
Source: A cellphone industry security expert who asked not to be named.
LAUGEN NO MORE
Earlier this year, I had a little dig at SAA for offering its passengers a “laugen”, a word which appeared to be lost on foreigners as well as locals.
“I thought it was a South African thing!” a Londoner seated next to me on a flight said, when offered the choice of beef or cheese and tomato laugen.
In fact it’s a sort of German bread roll, but unlike croissant or baguette, the term is not widely used or understood.
When I asked why SAA was using such an obscure name for a good old bread roll, SAA responded: “Just as the cabin crew would offer chicken on rye, tuna baguette or salami ciabatta, we also offer laugen with various fillings.
“The term has German origins and refers to the lye solution originally used to bath the roll in before baking, for its characteristic shiny brown crust and distinctive salty soda taste.”
Never mind that no one appeared to have heard the word before.
But it seems someone with influence at our national airline has since had a change of heart. On a flight last week, I was yet again served a laugen, only now it’s called simply a “German roll”.
E-mail Wendy: consumer@knowler.co.za
On Twitter: @wendyknowler