In your corner Telemarketers don’t embrace plain language

The Consumer Protection Act (CPA) is strong on full disclosure and transparency, and communicating with consumers in plain language.

“A retailer must not market goods or services in a manner likely to imply a false or misleading representation.”

It’s fair to say the telemarketing industry has not embraced these requirements.

In fact, their scripts are a master class in disguising or at best underplaying the bits which are going to whack their targets’ bank balances should they agree to the deal on offer.

Gauteng concern Unlimited Essentials, which claims to manufacture a range of detergents, targets small firms.

They don’t say: Would you like to buy 25 litres of pine gel at R2,846.25, including VAT?

Clearly they wouldn’t have too many takers if they did. Who would spend that much on an unknown product, sold by an unknown company with only a PO Box address?

Dentist Amanda Marais’s Somerset West practice was targeted in June. Her receptionist, who took the call, was adamant she was offered a free sample of pine gel, as well as a gift card with “That an’unspecified s certainly not amount we were on it. So she supplied the delivery address. What was delivered was a 25-litre tub of pine gel. expecting,” Marais said, “but, as there was no invoice attached, we assumed it was a free sample, albeit a very big one.”

“I tried redeem value on the card, but it did not work.”

The invoice was delivered a few weeks later — R2,846.

Unsurprisingly, they tried to return the product but hit two snags — no return address and a “no returns” policy.

Incidentally, in direct marketing, a customer has a five business day cooling off period in which to cancel for no penalty. But with the invoice delivered a lot longer than a week after the product, recipients lose that opportunity.

There are scores of reviews about this company on Hellopeter with similar claims. As time ticks by interest is added and the demands intensify.

In terms of the CPA, a supplier must prove you ordered a specific amount at a disclosed price. So it must produce a call recording in which it can be clearly be heard making that offer — 25l of pine gel at R2,800-odd, and the would-be customer can be heard agreeing to it.

Unlimited Essentials told me: “Our agents only speak to the person authorised to purchase said products. A gift voucher is offered as a token of gratitude for having purchased the product for the first time.

“A verification manager contacts the customer thereafter to reconfirm there was actually an order placed and that all the information is correct. If so, the sale is sent to the quality assurance department, which ensures that both telephone calls are 100% correct before the sale is forwarded to our dispatch. All calls are recorded and available to customers upon request.”

I was sent the recording of the confirmation call, but not the initial call, the company claiming its sales script is “intellectual property of the directors”.

That one they played for me over the phone.

In the confirmation call, Unlimited Essentials is heard talking about the order, but there is nothing about a free sample. He describes the order as 25 litres at R100 a litre, which is an extremely misleading way to state a price, and there is a mention of repeat orders.

As for the all-important sales call, I heard the caller ask the receptionist if she was authorised to order cleaning chemicals and after some hesitation she said yes. There follows a sales pitch for “upgraded” pine gel not yet released but offered to certain companies.

The words 25 litres are mentioned and something about dilution rates, quickly followed by “we will send you a complimentary voucher...” so it’s easy to understand, how someone who is not in control of the conversation could deduce that what they’d be sent was complimentary, though I never heard the words “free sample”.

Later the caller mentions an “introduction pack of 25 litres at R99 per litre. “Invoice only due after 30 days.”

The CPA protects consumers from having to pay for unsolicited goods. In short, if there is no proof you agreed to order a product at a particular price, the goods are regarded as unsolicited, and you are not legally required to pay for them.

In fact, if the company refuses to collect, you’re entitled to keep them without payment. But there’s more.

The Foodstuffs, Cosmetics and Disinfectants Act compels manufacturers, packers or distributors of disinfectants to include on the label their name and street address, the manufacture date, expiry date and a list of ingredients.

The 25l tub of pine gel which was delivered to Marais’s practice has no list of ingredients and no street address.

Business owners: warn your staff not to engage with people who make unsolicited sales calls. If they use the words free, complimentary, reward or prize, end the call.

If you feel the goods fit the description “unsolicited”, complain to the Consumer Goods and Services Ombudsman.

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