Consumer journalist Wendy Knowler’s ‘Watch-outs of the week’
’Tis the season for gyms to lure the “shape up for summer” crowd into signing a contract. A gym contract is often the first contract a young adult signs, and many of them make the mistake of trusting the sales person and signing blind.
The “just sign here for the free trial” line catches them, and later they find out they’ve committed themselves to a membership of 12 or 24 months, and that to escape it, they have to pay a cancellation penalty of several thousand rand.
The advice is never put your signature to anything without reading every word on those pages first. And then if you aren’t given a copy of the document there and then, whip out your phone and capture every page, so that you have your own record of what you signed, and any later additions or alterations will be apparent.
It’s not a ‘phone upgrade’ – it’s a second contract
Staying with the “careful what you commit to” theme, beware of calls from cellphone networks and their marketing partners offering you a “phone” upgrade.
In September, Lyndsay of Durban got one of those calls from a cellphone service provider she already has a contract with. “I asked if it was a marketing call, as I always do, and was told it was a ‘phone upgrade’.
“I thought it a bit strange as it was about a month too early but I continued with the call and the woman went on to give me different phone options and prices.
“A brand new contract and a phone upgrade are two different things in my mind and I feel that I have been totally scammed into agreeing to a second contract which I would NEVER have gone for, had I known this was not my standard upgrade.
“The end result is that I have ended up with two contracts, two phones, two cell numbers and a hefty bill to pay. I have tried endless times over the past three weeks to get this sorted out but am just going around in circles.”
