S Africa :If you didn’t order the Toner, Don’t Pay For It !

[Anonymous]

S Africa :If you didn’t order the Toner, Don’t Pay For It !
Two years ago I wrote about a Johannesburg-based company called Haltrex Systems – now called New Tech International – which was offering printer cartridges to small companies.

If they accepted, they’d be sent the cartridges, but then a second delivery would arrive and when the company protested, they’d be told it was a “bulk order” deal, and they were threatened with legal action if they refused to pay.At the time I spoke to the company owner, then in Australia, who said he was aware of the “problems”.“Trading is tough and sales are down, so some of them are acting in a stupid way,” he said.

There were no binding agreements or contracts, he said.
The Consumer Protection Act now protects consumers from being hounded for payment for unsolicited goods.It states that if “a supplier delivers any further goods to a consumer, other than in terms of a different agreement or transaction, those further goods are unsolicited goods”.

And the person who has received the unsolicited goods can either keep them without paying for them, or send them back at the expense of the supplier. If a consumer pays for unsolicited goods, for whatever reason, they are entitled to a refund from the supplier, plus interest.

I recently heard from Reshma Roopnarain, who until recently worked for a Durban plastics company. She says she agreed to one order of toner cartridges on behalf of the company when approached by New Tech International about two years ago, but a second lot subsequently arrived and when a New Tech employee claimed they were part of a bulk order, they made payment for it.

But still the toners kept arriving, as did the demands for payment. Roopnarain kept paying on behalf of the company. But she felt so guilty about the cost to the company that she paid for the last unsolicited delivery – almost R24 000 – out of her own pocket.

She did this because of a written assurance from manager Tony Dharmiah in late July this year that the account was settled and closed.But another package arrived at the plastics company after she left and Roopnarain’s boss, now her former boss, expected her to “take care of it”.

Beside herself with worry, she contacted Consumer Watch. I contacted Dharmiah, asking on what basis New Tech had continued to send cartridges to that company.He claimed that he’d closed one account with that plastics firm, but that another employee – a woman – had opened a separate account.

But Roopnarain says she was the only woman employed by that company.
Dharmiah has arranged to collect the last delivery of cartridges from the company, and as Roopnarain has disposed of the cartridges she paid R24 000 for, he has agreed to refund her just under R12 000 “as a good gesture”.Remember – if you didn’t order it, you don’t have to pay for it. The company must provide written or telephonic proof of the order if there is a dispute.

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October 20, 2011 at 9:06 AM