ECR Consumerwatch

The festive season is traditionally a very merry one for custard sales, and Parmalat is aiming to increase its market share with an advert claiming that in an independent blind tasting test, 7 out of 10 “custard lovers” prefer Parmalat, it’s line “Thought your old favourite was ultra-delicious?” clearly referring to market leader Ultramel. So, in its first-ever taste test, Consumerwatch staged its own Christmas Custard Contest - our in-house panel putting Ultramel, Parmalat and a third vanilla flavoured ready-to-eat custard brand, to the taste test. And the results were quite a surprise..!

Companies have a new way of contacting us, as if email, SMS, landline and cellphone calls, Twitter DM, snail mail and fax mail wasn’t enough.

It’s called AVM - automated voice messaging. You phone rings, you answer, and instead of real, live person talking-to you, you hear a recorded message.

Those punting it as a means of getting hold of customers and potential customers say it’s a win win situation - for consumers it’s easier to put the phone down on an AVM rather than a real person, and companies don’t get to spend time trying to market to someone not interested in their product or service.

And then there’s the cost: it costs companies far less than conventional cold-call telemarketing while allowing them to deliver a more powerful message than text can offer.

But again, I don’t think marketers have quite thought through the irritation factor. A man who asked to be identified just as Stephen said he excused himself from a meeting when his cellphone rang this week, thinking it was an important call.

People behaving badly in shops makes for great social media traffic, but resorting to violence and intimidation when you don’t get your way is a really ugly, childish trend. On Consumerwatch we focus on the case of a woman who signed a deal on a new car, realised afterwards that she couldn’t afford it, and having tried unsuccessfully to back out of the deal and get her deposit back, she returned to the dealership with some well-built male relatives, one of which literately took matters into his own hands…

Find out what happened, and what your rights are when it come to changing your mind on an Offer to Purchase a car, by listening here...

If you’re feeling the pinch, cancelling or downgrading your car insurance may seem like a good way to shave a few hundred Rand off your monthly expenses. But not only is that very unwise, it’s a breach of your car finance contract. Car finance banks have a right to insist that the car is comprehensively insured for the duration of the contract, and many make sure by asking their clients to send them proof that a policy in in place. Failing which they can impose a policy on you. And make you pay, and still you could end up with no pay-out after an accident. Here’s how…

Toblerone is suddenly the poster child for SHRINKFLATION - when manufacturers make their products smaller as a sneaky way of passing on price increases to consumers. Public outcry over the redesigned bar - which now has much fewer chocolate peaks - has lit up social media this week. But it’s not a new thing. South African products have been shrinking for some time - some more subtly than others. So on Consumerwatch this morning, Wendy unpacks the shrinkflation trend and revealing how to spot the Mini Me’s.

The results of the Ask Afrika Orange Index are out, the Index measuring customer service across brands and across 33 South African industries. And very eye-opening they are too - one industry dominated the coveted Top Ten, with four spots, and the biggest surprise of this year’s Index is that that a major industry fell out of that Top Ten for the first time in 15 years.

The Durban attorneys who specialise in Road Accident Fund cases were none too pleased about some of the stuff the Fund bosses said about them last week. Here's part 2 of the RAF series...

The Road Accident Fund is desperately seeking more than 12 000 KwaZulu-Natal road accident victims who lodged claims four or more years ago, and then just dropped off the radar. In a media briefing held in Durban this week, the Fund’s Chief Operations Officer urged journalists to get the word out to those people to make direct contact with one of the RAF’s KZN office in Durban’s CBD, whether they claimed as an individual or through a lawyer, which most of them did. And get this - while they aren’t getting the money they are entitled, others are busy lodging fraudulent claims - R307 million worth of them in the past six months alone, most of it in KZN. Find out what else the RAF is dealing with, despite having been insolvent for the past 35 years, on Consumerwatch...

Spring is here and that means the gyms are working hard to push that tired old Shape up For Summer message, and get you to sign a contract. But exercise care when signing any contract, urges Wendy Knowler.