A year ago the Mail & Guardian ran an article on cellphone contract provider Platinum Africa. It appeared the company was using fraudulent selling tactics to sign on new customers. A year later, despite reassurances from the Trade and Industry Department and Platinum Africa that steps were being taken to clean up the call centre, complaints continue to flood in.
Owing to the high number of complaints from its own customer base, Absa Bank chose to no longer provide Platinum Africa with debit order services and the Scorpions have begun investigations. FNB continues to provide debit order services to Platinum Africa but says it is monitoring complaints.
As a newspaper the M&G has been assisting readers who send their complaints to us and has managed to successfully recoup significant amounts of money for unhappy customers. The media, it appears, has become the bastion of consumer rights.
To the credit of both FNB and Platinum Africa, all complaints forwarded to them by the M&G have been resolved quickly and efficiently. But it is nevertheless an indictment on the company that it requires the intervention of the media for complaints to be resolved.
The fact that a company can run a debit order without the permission of the customer, as evidenced by the latest set of complaints, is something FNB should take very seriously as it continues to provide Platinum Africa with a debit order platform.
But the real lesson has been the ineffectiveness of our regulators. We have raised these complaints with the department of trade and industry, the Reserve Bank, the Banking Association of South Africa and the Banking Ombudsman. Although the Trade and Industry Department had initially investigated, it felt the problems had been resolved and no further investigation was needed. The other organisations said it was outside their mandate as it did not involve a bank. The soon-to-be disbanded Scorpions appear to be the only government organisation taking any interest, although the investigative unit is still deciding on what course of action to take.
Ultimately it has come down to the private sector. Media organisations have assisted complainants and Absa took a proactive step to no longer facilitate Platinum Africa’s debit orders. FNB, although still providing the services, is quick to follow up on complaints and appears to be closely monitoring the number of complaints and debit order rejections.
It is time for our regulators to focus on the implementation of existing regulation and to take steps to assist consumers and avoid nightmarish situations like the Fidentia debacle.
Rather than creating new legislation that will not be worth the paper it is written on, regulators need to make consumer complaints a priority and to act quickly if they are to have any relevance.