Speaker 1: Around the world on twenty one Spectacular Lunch for Pilper Hudson.
Speaker 2: And now Consumer Talk featuring Wendy Nola.
Speaker 1: Right, Wendy is with us in studio today for the
Speaker 1: Big Black Friday Show. Just one thing on our mind,
Speaker 1: and that is that one of the biggest shopping days
Speaker 1: of the year is looming at the end of this week,
Speaker 1: and the fraudsters of the cyber criminals are rubbing their
Speaker 1: hands together in glee, I guarantee it as they wait
Speaker 1: for the chance to fleece you.
Speaker 2: We are going to do our best to put it
Speaker 2: all in.
Speaker 1: Perspective, to remind you of some of the red flags,
Speaker 1: but also just to talk a little bit about spending
Speaker 1: habits and psychology as well. So perhaps before I get started,
Speaker 1: let me ask you whether you even participate in Black Friday.
Speaker 1: Do you feel like you have scored good deals in
Speaker 1: the past. Have you bought something a particular product that
Speaker 1: you specifically waited for Black Friday and felt like you've
Speaker 1: got a great deal, Or on the other hand, are
Speaker 1: you one of those who said I'm not spending a
Speaker 1: penny between now and the end of November will utterly
Speaker 1: reject the whole concept of Black Friday. It's a hoax
Speaker 1: and it's a perfect symbol for overhyped consumers, consumerism and commercialism.
Speaker 1: Love to know where listeners fall in between on that spectrum,
Speaker 1: and if you would like to ask a question or
Speaker 1: share a comment, you are welcome to call in on
Speaker 1: two to one four four six oh five sixty seven
Speaker 1: or send a WhatsApp to seven two.
Speaker 2: Five six seven one five six seven. Always good to
Speaker 2: have you with us, Wendy, Thanks so much, Papa.
Speaker 1: A lot to talk about today. Let's just talk about
Speaker 1: the origins first. I mean Black Friday started in America,
Speaker 1: became a tradition to offer massive sales on the day
Speaker 1: after their Thanksgiving holiday, which is always the fourth Thursday
Speaker 1: in November. So it's the fourth Friday of November that
Speaker 1: Black Friday began, and it's kind of their official start
Speaker 1: of the retail festive season.
Speaker 2: And you know it's origin, it's origins. You ask anybody
Speaker 2: who's been in.
Speaker 1: America for Black Friday, or certainly in the early days, Wendy,
Speaker 1: they will tell you they scored massive deals on big,
Speaker 1: big ticket items. But we've moved quite a far way
Speaker 1: away from all of that. Maybe let's start with Keith's question,
Speaker 1: which came in when he heard we were discussing this today,
Speaker 1: why is it even called black Friday?
Speaker 3: Okay, so it's an old accounting firm being in the
Speaker 3: black rather than in the red. In other words, so
Speaker 3: the chance for the retailers to turn a profit, the
Speaker 3: irony being that a lot of consumers who don't mindfully
Speaker 3: partake in Black Friday end up in the red as
Speaker 3: a result. But that's why it's called black Friday. And
Speaker 3: my sisters lived in the States for thirty years, so
Speaker 3: I've I experienced one memorable one with her back in
Speaker 3: two thousand and eight. We literally arrived at this huge
Speaker 3: malland Colorado in the dark, early in the morning, and
Speaker 3: we left in the darkened strow. And I can vouch
Speaker 3: for the fact that back then, certainly it was there
Speaker 3: were some really really massive, authentic bargains to be had,
Speaker 3: and I think the same store applies now in between
Speaker 3: the fake bargains. In other words, the manipulating the percentage
Speaker 3: of a reduction that that the price advertised with Black
Speaker 3: Friday is but if you use it wisely, and I
Speaker 3: like to think I didn't, there'd be something wrong with me.
Speaker 3: But you know, I will I know the price of
Speaker 3: cosmetics that I use, for example, so when I wait
Speaker 3: to stock up, I will wait till now and I'll
Speaker 3: know without having to do any research that yes, that.
Speaker 2: Is a good deal.
Speaker 3: Yes. And I've bought some luggage that I've bought pressure cocker,
Speaker 3: things that you know, black, black Christmas, Black Fridays past
Speaker 3: that that I needed at the time and still use
Speaker 3: and get value from so and save up for it.
Speaker 3: I have a budget for it. That's a thing I
Speaker 3: think because if you're going to use your credit card,
Speaker 3: there is that buy now, pay later option where you
Speaker 3: don't pay any interests and you don't and it's sort
Speaker 3: of free quidit as long as you pay when you're
Speaker 3: supposed to. But if you want to, you know, if
Speaker 3: if you're buying everything on your credit card and you're
Speaker 3: not paying it all off immediately, is the interest you know,
Speaker 3: maybe the interestable offset any savings that you might have.
Speaker 3: And then you throw in fomo with it as well,
Speaker 3: and you know, are you really saving? Because the whole
Speaker 3: idea is to is to get us to move into
Speaker 3: and that's why it's no longer Black Friday, it's Black November.
Speaker 3: To get us to move into this ultra spend mode.
Speaker 2: Yeah, earlier and earlier, and it's very noticeable.
Speaker 1: As you said, used to be a one day and
Speaker 1: then it became the Friday plus the weekend, and then
Speaker 1: Cyber Monday.
Speaker 2: On the morning afterwards, and it's not nice a whole month. Yeah.
Speaker 3: I was in Germany last year or the year before
Speaker 3: at this time, and yeah, there were there were Black
Speaker 3: November signs everywhere New Nurk. Yeah, it's a global song.
Speaker 1: Our first listener comment in from Jill saying, I absolutely
Speaker 1: reject the whole concept. I wish we did not feel
Speaker 1: it necessary to adapt American customs.
Speaker 2: So there's one shopper who will not be partaking.
Speaker 1: I'd be interested to you from anybody else who's made
Speaker 1: a similar decision, or perhaps you are somebody who genuinely
Speaker 1: needs to buy a new fridge, a new television, a
Speaker 1: new self. For me last year was running shoes Wendy,
Speaker 1: and I got an absolutely fantastic, massive discount on genuinely
Speaker 1: a massive discount because I had been tracking the price.
Speaker 2: In the whole year.
Speaker 3: That's the way to do it.
Speaker 2: I don't think.
Speaker 3: I think to say denounce the whole thing is short sighted.
Speaker 3: Because like anything like your use of social media, there's
Speaker 3: the right way and.
Speaker 2: A roll way.
Speaker 3: So just the first bit of advice would be we're
Speaker 3: going to get more detail just now, is that on
Speaker 3: the on the claimed savings first of all two factors. One,
Speaker 3: I've challenged a lot of these over over the years,
Speaker 3: and they'll be quoting the saving on the recommended retail price,
Speaker 3: which they've never.
Speaker 2: Actually used, oh gosh, okay, okay.
Speaker 3: And then the second one is, in order to be
Speaker 3: able to claim that it's this reduction, the prices get
Speaker 3: pushed up a little bit in September of October and
Speaker 3: then they can say, yes, it is a which strikes
Speaker 3: me and it's only occurred to me when I was
Speaker 3: preparing for today's show, Pepa that the advice should probably
Speaker 3: be don't.
Speaker 2: Buy a big in October.
Speaker 3: In September October.
Speaker 2: Because unless you're doing your homework on the price was
Speaker 2: in preparatory.
Speaker 1: Okay, We're going to talk in more detail about that
Speaker 1: because they're actually really interesting legal ramifications to that kind
Speaker 1: of practice as well. But firstly, Wendy, I mean, one
Speaker 1: big red flag. We know the number of fraudulent websites
Speaker 1: has increased dramatically. We've spoken about several cases on the show,
Speaker 1: so that's the one thing that's definitely on the uptick. Interestingly, though,
Speaker 1: as you point out, the number of it wobbles associated
Speaker 1: with Black Friday is on the decrease.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that used to be my big story. Yeah, when
Speaker 3: we first adopted it here, I remember several years take
Speaker 3: a lot sute collapsed completely. They would gear up anticipate
Speaker 3: the number of sales they're going to have and then
Speaker 3: it would be super and so that I was always
Speaker 3: on the lookout for that. But clearly that's been sorted out.
Speaker 3: I don't can't remember the last time I got a
Speaker 3: complaint about all there was any reports about major retail
Speaker 3: sits crumbling under the strain of increased Black Friday cells.
Speaker 3: They're on top of that now properly.
Speaker 2: Okay, so that's a positive.
Speaker 1: We're going to talk about the right of return and
Speaker 1: a lot of people's misunderstandings around what they're allowed to do. Okay,
Speaker 1: So let's get stuck in. Should we call it Survive
Speaker 1: and Thrive on Black Friday? You can here Linda's saying,
Speaker 1: let me introduce you to Buy Nothing Day, the antidote
Speaker 1: to Black Friday. You and I have heard of that,
Speaker 1: and we also have on the Tuesday, Giving Tuesday, which
Speaker 1: is about giving away rather than or donating of your
Speaker 1: time and expertise.
Speaker 2: So there are.
Speaker 1: Actual formal resistance campaigns in place, if I can put
Speaker 1: it that way. What we want to do today though,
Speaker 1: is really delve a little bit deeper in granular detail
Speaker 1: into some of the risks involved and just ways to
Speaker 1: avoid those risks. Now, Wendy, the first thing, and I
Speaker 1: think this has got to be said upfront, a bargain
Speaker 1: is only a bargain if you could afford it in
Speaker 1: the first place, and if you are sacrificing spent from
Speaker 1: somewhere else to take advantage of the fantastic deal on
Speaker 1: a fridge or a phone that you didn't actually really
Speaker 1: need or hadn't budgeted for. It's a short term when
Speaker 1: with very potentially serious long term consequences.
Speaker 2: And as you said, some people have.
Speaker 1: Been smart about this, They've been saving all year because
Speaker 1: they know there'll be an opportunity for a deal. But
Speaker 1: what about those who haven't been saving that way.
Speaker 3: Now, So the advice is, with all this hap going on,
Speaker 3: and there's a little FOMO as well, it's become an event.
Speaker 3: It's become a sort of a retail celebration for people
Speaker 3: is to not just think about I mean, obviously think
Speaker 3: about the what's coming in long, cold, hard January, school
Speaker 3: fees and all the rest and whatever, TV lasses or whatever,
Speaker 3: all those extras, but think beyond that, think about the
Speaker 3: unexpected emergency spent a vetbul. I've just spoken to someone
Speaker 3: fellow journalists to have ten thousand ruand vetbul before payday,
Speaker 3: or you need new tires urgently, or you know these
Speaker 3: things that happen and you haven't dentist ball. That's another thing,
Speaker 3: the dentist, because you know, you left with this huge
Speaker 3: short for all, even if you do have medical ad
Speaker 3: so you must be able to know that if that happens,
Speaker 3: you haven't blown so much money on Black Friday, you
Speaker 3: haven't got your credit limit or whatever, used your overdraft,
Speaker 3: and that you will be able to handle that. Because
Speaker 3: and those warnings came through from several sectors, and I thought,
Speaker 3: there's obviously a thing.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that they're seeing the rapplications people getting into January.
Speaker 2: Ninth, things happening in January day to.
Speaker 1: Day expenses because of the spending that happened at Black Friday. Okay,
Speaker 1: so keep that in mind as a matter of interest
Speaker 1: whilere we talking about spending on Black Friday, do we
Speaker 1: have sort of figures on just how big it is?
Speaker 3: Yes, So this is the time of you when we
Speaker 3: journalists gets loads of Black Friday press releases that have
Speaker 3: sort of been saving them. So on Black Friday last year,
Speaker 3: if it be revealed recently that they processed twenty million
Speaker 3: card transactions, six hundred and ninety transactions per second, this
Speaker 3: is one bank, remember, and the banks is it's seen
Speaker 3: fifty nine cent you and your increase in consumer spend
Speaker 3: on Black Frisurely, just Jux, suppose that with the big
Speaker 3: other story that we've been hearing in recent months and
Speaker 3: that I'm certainly involved with in that is gambling spend
Speaker 3: taking away and you know, somehow it'll be interesting for me,
Speaker 3: I think, because it's really that addiction for many people
Speaker 3: has really taken hold in the last i'd say twenty
Speaker 3: four months. I'll be interested to see whether that gambling
Speaker 3: spent that's taking more and more of people's disposal income
Speaker 3: is going to have an impact on Black Friday self.
Speaker 2: That's an interesting conation if you're going to track that.
Speaker 1: Okay, yeah, so that's one to watch, but that gives
Speaker 1: you a sense of it's a twenty million card transactions
Speaker 1: processed by one bait.
Speaker 2: That's just one back on one day.
Speaker 3: Fast away couriers, because of course it becomes their job
Speaker 3: after the sale to deliver everything, to deliver obviously we're
Speaker 3: talking online here, and they reported at thirty three percent
Speaker 3: the third year, and your surgeon parcel volumes listened to
Speaker 3: this between August and October, a clear signal that twenty
Speaker 3: twenty five is peak trading season will strain national delivery
Speaker 3: capacity like never before. So this is people getting in earlier.
Speaker 3: I don't know, I'm answering my question about gambling spend.
Speaker 3: Maybe overall we're still seeing the people just I mean,
Speaker 3: I challenged a retailer that had a Black Friday sale
Speaker 3: in July, footwear retailer Love, and I said, come on,
Speaker 3: and she said, it works. It's like a trigger for people.
Speaker 3: We call it Black Friday, and the sale, we get
Speaker 3: people's attention and they buy interesting.
Speaker 2: It's I mean the psychology and theology.
Speaker 1: More about pology later on, but okay, so definitely a
Speaker 1: surge in in a number of transactions, a surgeon number
Speaker 1: of deliveries. As you've mentioned, Wendy, a lot of the
Speaker 1: financial institutions flagging the issue of indebtedness that comes with that.
Speaker 1: So I think we've covered that, you know. But an
Speaker 1: interesting point, just to just to put this in some
Speaker 1: extra perspective, it's not just about meeting the January bills.
Speaker 1: The National Debt Counseling Association pointing out if you were
Speaker 1: taking that money that you're spending on Black Friday and
Speaker 1: rather investing in your time at saving every year, what
Speaker 1: do you get at the end of that process? Exactly.
Speaker 3: It's a pending how on how much you put away
Speaker 3: over how many years, But she said you will have
Speaker 3: a fantastic growing retirement savings instead of cupboards full of
Speaker 3: forgotten gadgets which you didn't closed that. Yes, you just
Speaker 3: sort of of course, the best bargain is that saving
Speaker 3: is one hundred percent.
Speaker 2: Saving on the thing you didn't buy, exactly.
Speaker 3: But so they there was pages of press releases on
Speaker 3: this with the numbers and everything else. We don't have
Speaker 3: time to go into. But I think as a valid point,
Speaker 3: it's just not as sexy as getting stuck into, you know,
Speaker 3: black Friday and buying consumable things you know, we pull
Speaker 3: don't find it. We don't have a savings culture in
Speaker 3: this country at all, sadly, but.
Speaker 1: As Sarah says, we have got to stop buying stuff
Speaker 1: and more stuff that we just don't need now, Gareth
Speaker 1: saying South Africa shouldn't really call it Black Friday. The
Speaker 1: deals we get are marginal at best. The USA has
Speaker 1: volume and is a hyper concus market. They can get
Speaker 1: away with low prices and high volumes once a year.
Speaker 2: We don't have that.
Speaker 1: Sally's comment though, is if you avoid the big ticket items,
Speaker 1: there are often excellent specials, she says sites household essentials
Speaker 1: for example, she says, I have stopped up my cleaning
Speaker 1: cupboard this week already with products at considerably lower than
Speaker 1: usual prices, A great saving when you're on a tight budget.
Speaker 1: So if you can, you know, if you've got storage
Speaker 1: space to store cosmetics, bottles of handy andy bought on special,
Speaker 1: that's great.
Speaker 3: Yes, So I've been looking at all the sites. Amazon
Speaker 3: is going for a big play, saying you t rand
Speaker 3: for next day delivery in the big capita and that
Speaker 3: they've they've beefed up their stock, which they have. I've
Speaker 3: been looking at Amazon. I'm looking at take it. Look,
Speaker 3: I'll be looking on one day only all of them.
Speaker 3: And you see among the big tickets, you know, the
Speaker 3: TVs and the and and all the rest, laptops or whatever.
Speaker 3: You see loads of coffee, a luxury for many people,
Speaker 3: but real coffee. You see nappies, you see household cleaning materials,
Speaker 3: as our listeners just said there, so let's not forget that.
Speaker 3: And for many people in the lower LSMs, they know
Speaker 3: what things cost down to the scent. Yeah, and they
Speaker 3: go into the stores and we've seen those photos and
Speaker 3: they are getting essentials. They are getting basic goods. They're
Speaker 3: getting maze meal, they're getting rice, they're getting you know.
Speaker 3: So it's it's it's important to realize that it's at
Speaker 3: every level of consumericm.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's not just the high end luck.
Speaker 3: And they are definitely getting themselves bargains on shelf stable
Speaker 3: foods and they're not easily doing in terms of price.
Speaker 1: That's it, and we should all be that way with
Speaker 1: exactly we should all be that way.
Speaker 2: But thank you for that. Okay, we're going to take
Speaker 2: a very short break.
Speaker 1: Our conversation are diving into some of the cyber fraud
Speaker 1: issues and some quite sobering stats as well as practical advice.
Speaker 1: As we continue this conversation to three o'clock, you can
Speaker 1: continue to join it on what'sapp seven two five six
Speaker 1: seven one five six seven Talk Talk WhatsApp on seven
Speaker 1: two five six seven one five six seven. Okay, back
Speaker 1: to Black Friday and red flags and scams and when
Speaker 1: you look. The next thing we want to talk about
Speaker 1: is is the fraudulent sites. And we've spoken about this
Speaker 1: many times before because we've handled many cases of people
Speaker 1: who ordered. You know, I cited the example of the
Speaker 1: fake Sketches store, which was Sketches with the T added
Speaker 1: to the name, that was so easy to fall four
Speaker 1: and I so so nearly fell for it, and you
Speaker 1: know it happens so easily. But we do need to
Speaker 1: remind I think continuously on this one that the scammers
Speaker 1: are becoming more and more sophisticated in response to the
Speaker 1: different sort of ways of spending online. And I know
Speaker 1: you had some engagement with consumer attorney Trudy Brookman on
Speaker 1: this issue, and she also flagged this as the sort
Speaker 1: of increase in the sophistication of the kinds of scams
Speaker 1: going on.
Speaker 3: So, as you mentioned there with sketches replica websites, which
Speaker 3: you must really really look out for because it's hard
Speaker 3: to it's very easy to miss an extra letter at
Speaker 3: transposed to transposed letters, etcetera. Everything looks the same. They've
Speaker 3: literally cloned the genuine website, and then you're just not
Speaker 3: going to get what you ordered. Remember that if unless
Speaker 3: they start getting cleverer about this and really mimicking reality.
Speaker 3: But usually at tellers, if all the sizes and colors
Speaker 3: and whatever are available so that I don't want to put
Speaker 3: you off a purchase.
Speaker 2: But that's normally a tel and it very seldom happens,
Speaker 2: especially on Black Friday.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I've been looking at something you know, sizes and
Speaker 3: massive size, and.
Speaker 1: I just want to repeat what you said about the lettering.
Speaker 1: So the way they catch you is you type, and
Speaker 1: you type into Google. So you decide I want to
Speaker 1: I'm going to carry on using sketches as the example.
Speaker 1: I want to buy a pair of sketches. Let me
Speaker 1: see if they've got a Black Friday special one and
Speaker 1: you in sketches and what pops up in the Google
Speaker 1: search is the actual sketches website or it appears to be,
Speaker 1: but when you click on that link, it takes you
Speaker 1: to a fake site.
Speaker 2: And if you then look up at the URL carefully,
Speaker 2: you will see it's.
Speaker 1: Spelt the wrong way, or they've added a letter, or
Speaker 1: it's the dot com instead of as dot said a,
Speaker 1: et cetera at the end. So it's it's even if
Speaker 1: the first even if you looked at that first link
Speaker 1: and said to yourself, oh, this is genuine, keep on
Speaker 1: checking throughout the transaction, especially when you're at the point
Speaker 1: of pay, Go back and check, am I still on
Speaker 1: the genuine website?
Speaker 3: And the pop up Facebook ads and yes that come
Speaker 3: your way when you on Facebook, be ultra ultra wary
Speaker 3: of those and the one remember sorry, the scammers are
Speaker 3: using stolen credit card numbers or numbers that they've got
Speaker 3: in the dark way because there've been so many breaches.
Speaker 3: We're going to get to that to buy those ads.
Speaker 3: They don't even want to pay for their own.
Speaker 1: Advertising, so really, I know. Trudy's advice here is, firstly,
Speaker 1: go on to social media. Look for the actual social
Speaker 1: media of the brands and check which websites they are
Speaker 1: using and advertising, and make sure you only go to
Speaker 1: that site because it's very you know, especially if you're
Speaker 1: shopping for the first time, Wendy, with a brand you've
Speaker 1: not supported before.
Speaker 2: You don't know exactly whether it's easy for you to
Speaker 2: get caught. Yeah, but no I thing to compare.
Speaker 1: With, So go to their own social media And as
Speaker 1: two D pointed out to us, a lot of those
Speaker 1: brands have got a they're blue ticked ones, they've paid
Speaker 1: for verification on.
Speaker 2: Twitter and the like. So start there.
Speaker 1: As I mentioned, check, double check, triple check that you
Speaker 1: are l especially at the point of payment, to make
Speaker 1: sure you are still on the legitimate site. And then, Wendy,
Speaker 1: you've mentioned this already, but I know truly also flagged
Speaker 1: this issue of deals that aren't really deals at all.
Speaker 3: So she says, use sites like price check, which is
Speaker 3: adviced I've given in the past. You find out the
Speaker 3: real market price for an item that you wanting to buy.
Speaker 3: And there's also a site which specifically tracks take a
Speaker 3: lot's prices. It's called serviltracker dot com servile spelt seer
Speaker 3: va l tracker one word.
Speaker 1: Alice has just recommended it as well, interestingly enough, saying
Speaker 1: it it lists take a lot's price history so you
Speaker 1: can see interesting that this bargain price of two thousand
Speaker 1: rand when the item was actually on sale at two
Speaker 1: thousand and six months ago.
Speaker 2: All you do is.
Speaker 3: Click on the URL, you click on the product description
Speaker 3: copy and drop it into server servitracker dot com and
Speaker 3: you you will go down.
Speaker 2: Quite a ravage. You actually put this to the test.
Speaker 3: Die I did so. I went to their Black Friday
Speaker 3: section Black Friday Deals, and there's a Smeg whistling kettle
Speaker 3: selling today on this Black Rider special among them for
Speaker 3: twenty three hundred and nineteen rand. The same kettle sold
Speaker 3: for nineteen hundred one nine hundred in May and two
Speaker 3: thousand rand. I'm I'm rounding off the cent two thousand
Speaker 3: rand in June and three thousand and four hundred back
Speaker 3: in January last year. A lot of It's a lot
Speaker 3: of money at the highest and the lowest price if
Speaker 3: you ask me for a kettle, but very wildly fluctuating.
Speaker 3: They's you can look at it at a glance, you
Speaker 3: can go right back I think to twenty twenty three,
Speaker 3: and some products are pretty stable and others like this
Speaker 3: kettle go up and down quite alarmingly. But yeah, I
Speaker 3: mean it's only one start but it is our biggest
Speaker 3: online retail set and it's it's fascinating.
Speaker 1: Yeah, okay, so that's a good, good tip. And as
Speaker 1: you said, you're not the only one who's been doing
Speaker 1: these sums. My official French at treated yesterday also had
Speaker 1: been doing some investigating.
Speaker 2: And I'm trying to remember what it is that she was.
Speaker 3: A fry fry that's so special now for one thy
Speaker 3: nine hundred apparently discounted from two and a half thousand rand,
Speaker 3: which is very impressive, but she says, if you look
Speaker 3: at the price history, it was only listed at two
Speaker 3: thy five hundred grand on the fifteenth of October. Over
Speaker 3: the average price has been closer to two thousand and
Speaker 3: ran to two hundred rand. So yes, one nine is
Speaker 3: still a discount, but not exactly the discount that they
Speaker 3: were claiming what she said in her expost, and I
Speaker 3: think you will find many examples of that, and we've
Speaker 3: been speaking about it quite a lot. So if you
Speaker 3: if this kettle is just you know, it's a silly price,
Speaker 3: but it's just it's got to look so great in
Speaker 3: your kitchen and you want it, you know, just it's well,
Speaker 3: you can track on any side if you want to
Speaker 3: look at to take a lot the work is done
Speaker 3: for you, but be very on top of how that
Speaker 3: price is moving so that you can get it for
Speaker 3: yourself at the lowest price. And that price may not
Speaker 3: be on Black Rider, it might be you know, in
Speaker 3: the middle of the air or whatever.
Speaker 1: When this actually isn't just about being savvy consumers and
Speaker 1: avoiding the con of the fake deal. It's actually against
Speaker 1: the law, this practice of sort of faking specials, isn't it.
Speaker 3: Well, it's a slightly different. The CPA talks about bait.
Speaker 3: Bait marketing. So they give you, they advertise a low
Speaker 3: price to get you in the store, and then they
Speaker 3: say it's sold out. And the Act actually allows us
Speaker 3: consumers to challenge that because they've got to have especially
Speaker 3: on a massive sale like Black Friday, they need to
Speaker 3: have reasonable stock. They need to anticipate how much stock
Speaker 3: they would need, So you can't have three kettles. Let's
Speaker 3: stick with the kettles that are on the really amazing
Speaker 3: special price, and then when you respond almost immediately midnight
Speaker 3: or whatever, I know, they're all sold. That's called bait marketing,
Speaker 3: because then you might look for the next best for
Speaker 3: oh now, it's whatever. So I wish more consumers would
Speaker 3: actually lodge complaints about that with the Consumer Goods and
Speaker 3: Services and wouldn't let them do some investigation, because I
Speaker 3: think that is quite right specifically a Black Friday thing,
Speaker 3: but I can imagine it would happen on Black Friday.
Speaker 1: Okay, so just be mindful of that and be if
Speaker 1: you do see it happening, or if it happens to you,
Speaker 1: please remember you have the power to report those brands
Speaker 1: to the Consumer Goods and Services on but and to
Speaker 1: the National Consumer Commission and let them know because retailers
Speaker 1: who are found guilty of that kind of misleading advertising
Speaker 1: can be fined up to ten percent of their turnover.
Speaker 3: Yes, I mean, in reality, I can't see that happening
Speaker 3: for bait marketing. I would see it happening for something
Speaker 3: a lot more serious. But technically it is that has
Speaker 3: been a big consequence.
Speaker 1: Okay, So let's talk a little bit about how we
Speaker 1: can use our own tech to help us here. Ben
Speaker 1: writing in to say I have used chat GPT to
Speaker 1: check a suspicious website. It's not one hundred percent fool proof,
Speaker 1: but it definitely does point people in the right direction
Speaker 1: and that's the theme we're hearing a lot this year.
Speaker 1: Use the gadgets that are in your pocket and in
Speaker 1: your handbag. Yes, to check while you're in stare.
Speaker 3: And a lot of people tests are somewhere else in
Speaker 3: my prep but quite well compared to last year that
Speaker 3: you have far greater percentage of people are going to
Speaker 3: be using CHATCHYPT or groc or whatever they're preferred. One
Speaker 3: is to find the specials. Okay, you know, if it's
Speaker 3: out there, if it's advertised, they can pick it up.
Speaker 3: Or can you tell me what this was selling for
Speaker 3: in June this year or whatever. I mean, you can
Speaker 3: use it and you can do that, but your fingers
Speaker 3: bearing in mind that there's there's a fail rate. It's
Speaker 3: not I mean, it's really not one hundred percent reliable,
Speaker 3: but you know it can help.
Speaker 2: It can help, Okay, So that's something to consider.
Speaker 1: So ask chat GPT what was this retailing at six
Speaker 1: months ago? Or ask it Yeah, where in Cape Town
Speaker 1: can I get the best price on Black Friday, on
Speaker 1: whatever it may be?
Speaker 2: And see what you get out of it.
Speaker 1: A daisy writing and to say thank you for such
Speaker 1: a well time topic. I cannot imagine retailers are selling
Speaker 1: goods without making a profit. If one looks at the
Speaker 1: high percentage of mark dance, it just proves how consumers
Speaker 1: are having done it with high markups and profit margins.
Speaker 1: I agree we should not abolish Black Friday completely. The
Speaker 1: key is to buy only the must haves or the
Speaker 1: things you know you're going to have to top up soon.
Speaker 1: Why pay them more later on and never on credit,
Speaker 1: is Daisy's view. Thanks for that comment, Deasy.
Speaker 3: Wi wise advice.
Speaker 2: I've found the figures now.
Speaker 3: So the Boston consulting Group BCG, they've surveyed ten thousand
Speaker 3: customers across ten countries around the use of AI, and
Speaker 3: the project leader in Johannesburg for Shako Chopra, said, in
Speaker 3: BCG's African Consumer Sentiment survey conducted in July this year,
Speaker 3: we see that forty one percent of surveyed consumers said
Speaker 3: they are already using AI, sixty eight percent use it regularly,
Speaker 3: and thirty percent use it for shopping to compare brands
Speaker 3: and product prices. And this is set to grow exponentially
Speaker 3: our imagine. So they're putting it at thirty percent. I
Speaker 3: would I think it's high. I can't tell you in
Speaker 3: the last month or two. Even the number of complaints
Speaker 3: that are landing in my inbox that I can see
Speaker 3: have been generated Budgie. Sometimes, yeah, sometimes they leave in
Speaker 3: deer journalists and you can see by their formatting. But
Speaker 3: in a way, I'm not having to deal with so
Speaker 3: many terribly written, badly spelled Yeah.
Speaker 2: So yeah, we're gonna be.
Speaker 3: I think that's gonna be a big trend of this year,
Speaker 3: and it'll be nice to hear from listeners who are
Speaker 3: using it in that way.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Oh, dear Jenny writing, I'm laughing at the stupidity my
Speaker 1: own that is. You may remember I bought a Christmas
Speaker 1: tree online and as soon as I had paid, they
Speaker 1: informed me they were out of stock and I had
Speaker 1: to wait twenty one days for a refund, which.
Speaker 2: I still never materialized.
Speaker 1: She says, I'm sorry, Jenny, Jeff just questioning the fake
Speaker 1: website issue. Why would they make spelling errors in order
Speaker 1: to be caught out? Well, Jeff, they're not being caught out,
Speaker 1: so how it works, and me just maybe explained, try
Speaker 1: and explain it better in case you're not understanding. What
Speaker 1: they're doing is luring you onto an entirely fake website.
Speaker 1: It's not the Sketch's website or the Fascini or whatever
Speaker 1: it may be. It's an entirely made up website. All
Speaker 1: they are looking to do is to get you to
Speaker 1: hand over your credit card details and commit to the
Speaker 1: purchase on the site. They take your money and they
Speaker 1: disappear and never deliver the goodn't be using.
Speaker 3: The genuine one, because they're going to take you to
Speaker 3: the genuine so that's why they will make a very
Speaker 3: slight change in the address, and.
Speaker 1: It often only happens on the third or fourth page
Speaker 1: of the transaction, so it looks like you're dealing with
Speaker 1: the legitimate one, but you are being led into a
Speaker 1: fake website. And where you've pick it up is is
Speaker 1: generally things like the letter A will be replaced with
Speaker 1: the AT sign, for example, or the O will be
Speaker 1: a zero instead of the letter Oh. Some of them
Speaker 1: are very very good and hard to spot. You've just
Speaker 1: got to pay super super careful attention to make sure
Speaker 1: that you are still on a legitimate side and not
Speaker 1: being loaded off one. And let's ask you a question.
Speaker 1: Are South African sellers doing the thing that American ones
Speaker 1: do of selling inferior models? Of appliance is that look
Speaker 1: exactly the same as the superior version and telling consumers
Speaker 1: it's a sale instead of a cheaper inferior version.
Speaker 3: The only way I can answer that any conviction is
Speaker 3: to say, this reminds me of something we've covered recently,
Speaker 3: and that is a lot of the big retail sites
Speaker 3: have marketplaces. So take a lot Macro for example, and
Speaker 3: so they sell their own goods and then they allow
Speaker 3: obviously they're taking a cut any old trader anywhere they
Speaker 3: say they do their checks. But I've had too many
Speaker 3: complaints of well Ciellows has complained that they're people knocking
Speaker 3: off their furnitureture and passing it off as the genuine stuff,
Speaker 3: and they, you know, have trying to put those fires
Speaker 3: out and get the listings removed. So there is a
Speaker 3: lot of that, and I would say one way to
Speaker 3: protect yourself is if you've got to go in those
Speaker 3: big sites you could you will see it's sold by
Speaker 3: it. It will be some strange name you've never heard of.
Speaker 3: I would stay away unless you dealt with that company before.
Speaker 2: Okay, so only buy from the original manufacturer. Yeah, thanks
Speaker 2: for that.
Speaker 1: Okay, when you with one eye on the clock, so
Speaker 1: much to talk of, but I really do feel we
Speaker 1: need to just remind everybody of a couple of the
Speaker 1: other key kinds of scams that are going awry. So
Speaker 1: social engineering, I think is something we need to talk
Speaker 1: about here. That the scam artists are aware of the
Speaker 1: fact that there is a proportionally higher volume of online
Speaker 1: transactions being made this week out of courier deliveries taking
Speaker 1: part at taking place, and the courier scam is one
Speaker 1: that is facing people left right in the center and Wendy. Obviously,
Speaker 1: they're going to ramp that up with Black Friday because
Speaker 1: they know the chances are high that whoever they reach
Speaker 1: with that scam SMS scattergun approach has genuinely got an
Speaker 1: order out and is awaiting a delivery.
Speaker 2: It happened to me last week.
Speaker 1: I had an SMS come in saying your delivery such
Speaker 1: and such has arrived at the warehouse. Please click on
Speaker 1: the link attached to you know to track the order
Speaker 1: and verify a delivery details.
Speaker 2: And I almost clicked at it.
Speaker 3: Now I thought, hang on, I don't normally do that.
Speaker 2: I don't recognize the name of that career.
Speaker 1: That's not the Caurier, and because it was an item
Speaker 1: I bi regularly, I'm like, it's a different career from normal,
Speaker 1: And sure enough, when I looked at the order number,
Speaker 1: it wasn't the order number of my order.
Speaker 2: So I was waiting.
Speaker 3: Some use multiple couriers, and I've thought, I'm going to
Speaker 3: check this and it's turned out to be right, which
Speaker 3: is the way to do it. But yeah, So the
Speaker 3: difference is that the genuine ones will give you quite
Speaker 3: a lot of information. They'll use your name first of all,
Speaker 3: I'll give you an order number, et cetera. The scammers
Speaker 3: are deliberately vague and just rely on you thinking, yes,
Speaker 3: I am expecting an order from wherever and following the
Speaker 3: leads because they didn't capture your dress properly, playing on
Speaker 3: your need to get this parcel. So I just thought
Speaker 3: it's worth mentioning that because it's really going to ramp
Speaker 3: up because their chances of getting a hit so much higher.
Speaker 3: The other thing, I'm just I don't want to miss this.
Speaker 3: We've spoken about it recently, but it's worth repeating number one.
Speaker 3: A lot of companies, I will give them the benefit
Speaker 3: of benefit of the dart and say they don't know better.
Speaker 3: But they really should if they're in business with online sales.
Speaker 3: The Electronic Communications and Transactions Act gives us a seven
Speaker 3: day cooling off period from the data delivery. To send
Speaker 3: that product back, it must have been in a resaleable condition,
Speaker 3: you kind of like, you know, worn or try. You know,
Speaker 3: you have to send it back in a resallable condition,
Speaker 3: but they are entitled. You have to send it back
Speaker 3: at your own cost if they won't cover the cost
Speaker 3: of that career, but they must refund you in full. Now,
Speaker 3: a lot of these sites will say no returns of
Speaker 3: sale items, which is everything on Black Friday, and if
Speaker 3: you see that, just move on by no matter how
Speaker 3: and tacing. This is because you will undoubtedly have a
Speaker 3: problem trying. You know, it doesn't make sense. It's not legal.
Speaker 3: We're buying things without the benefit of touching, trying on,
Speaker 3: et cetera, seeing the real color and all the rest,
Speaker 3: and so the world over, consumers have this off periods.
Speaker 3: Some companies choose to make it thirty days actually, which
Speaker 3: is good if you buying Christmas presents now, because.
Speaker 2: After Christmas is within return date.
Speaker 1: Yes, I had that issue that I bought a pair
Speaker 1: of shoes for my son for his birthday weeks in advance,
Speaker 1: and I suddenly realized and I just managed to lock
Speaker 1: the return of one day to spare.
Speaker 3: The downside of being organized exactly.
Speaker 1: Yes, the cooling off period yea, by the time you
Speaker 1: open the package for the birthday three weeks from now, Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's knocking up against the door. So if you see
Speaker 1: a site that says no return on sale items, immediately
Speaker 1: walk away because you know that that is a love
Speaker 1: that is playing fast and loose with the laws of
Speaker 1: the country.
Speaker 2: It's not legal, it's not levil.
Speaker 3: And don't fall for the often pre selected product protection
Speaker 3: one start I looked at with eighteen nine rund extra
Speaker 3: even shean does this shipping warranty whatever of seventeen rand
Speaker 3: or whatever. The CPA gives us the protection, the liability
Speaker 3: for the product getting lost, damaged, hijacked, whatever is on
Speaker 3: them until the moment it is delivered into your hands. Now,
Speaker 3: the other thing I want to say is, and I
Speaker 3: don't speak about this often enough, if ever, is that
Speaker 3: the CPA, it's section nineteen. The same section which says
Speaker 3: that they liable until the item is delivered to you,
Speaker 3: says when a supplier delivers something to you. They must
Speaker 3: allow and this would be their courier partner must allow
Speaker 3: the consumer a reasonable opportunity to examine the goods for
Speaker 3: the purpose of basically ascertaining that it is what you
Speaker 3: ordered and it's not and then it's not damage or effective.
Speaker 3: And so I must say, I don't do that, but
Speaker 3: I mean I should get into the habit walk my talk.
Speaker 3: But then make it easy. Don't make them wait and
Speaker 3: then come out with a little box cut or whatever
Speaker 3: you use to cut into you or I have something
Speaker 3: on my queuing to get the parcel open and just
Speaker 3: have a quick look and if it's something wrong with
Speaker 3: it there and then you send it back so they
Speaker 3: can't say sorry that you did it.
Speaker 1: Yes, but it's an interesting one when because I had
Speaker 1: this exact scenario the other day with a medicine delivery
Speaker 1: from Clicks, and I could feel immediately that there were
Speaker 1: not enough items in the bag. So I said to
Speaker 1: the guy, I'm opening it here. I want to check
Speaker 1: because I can see there's something missing. And then he
Speaker 1: didn't want to take it back. He said, I can't.
Speaker 1: I can't return this to the store because you've opened it.
Speaker 1: So I insisted that he did and I phoned the
Speaker 1: store to say it's on its way. Here's a photograph
Speaker 1: of what was inside, and this is what was missing,
Speaker 1: and they.
Speaker 3: Very well, well done. You the other thing that I've
Speaker 3: seen people doing. We had a case and our case
Speaker 3: where to do with a dule computer. But he because anyway,
Speaker 3: he wanted proof that of what he got out of
Speaker 3: the box, so he set up his camera on his
Speaker 3: phone and he videed himself unboxing it so that the
Speaker 3: whole thing and this is what I've gotten. If there
Speaker 3: any issues, they can't say, Well, it was like you've done.
Speaker 2: It, you've done it, you've lost the item, whatever.
Speaker 3: And it sounds pedantic, but I think it's something. It's
Speaker 3: a habit I'm going to get into. It might be,
Speaker 3: you know, it's it's second best to standing on the
Speaker 3: street with your.
Speaker 2: Box cutter the okay.
Speaker 3: One of those things I think we should get into
Speaker 3: the habit of doing.
Speaker 1: In addition to recording our gym contract and phone. Okay,
Speaker 1: So we didn't really get into the psychology of buying.
Speaker 1: But I think that next week there maybe we can
Speaker 1: reflect on it next week, Wendy. But just really the
Speaker 1: big thing to think about, you know, is by all means,
Speaker 1: take advantage of the genuine specials, save yourself some money
Speaker 1: on items you know you were going to use. If
Speaker 1: you know that your household goes through X number of
Speaker 1: bottles of sunlight liquid or halfy andy or bottles of
Speaker 1: coffee whatever it may be, or peanut butter or school
Speaker 1: stationary that you genuinely know you were going to use
Speaker 1: and have need of, and that you are able to
Speaker 1: absorb into your budget, then by all means, please do
Speaker 1: take advantage of the sales, but ask yourself those.
Speaker 2: Questions before you hit click. Do I need this?
Speaker 1: If I spend the money on this, do I have
Speaker 1: anything in a buffer zone left for the unforeseen that
Speaker 1: might happen? And am I buying this because it is
Speaker 1: a good deal or because I genuinely need this article
Speaker 1: because so many of us fall for that.
Speaker 3: Just I'm saving thirty seven percent or save one hundred percent.
Speaker 2: Of if you don't buy it.
Speaker 3: Yeah. One last thought is that people who get rewards
Speaker 3: bank rewards. Sometimes it's many cases it's monetary because they
Speaker 3: know that's what we want. I use mine and I've
Speaker 3: got a holiday fund, but there would be an idea
Speaker 3: the build up to next year is black Friday to
Speaker 3: make a Black Friday fund whatever and put the money
Speaker 3: in there. And then you've got this cash and you've
Speaker 3: you there's no credit and there's no and you've done
Speaker 3: it to buy your fridge or your air fry or
Speaker 3: whatever you want.
Speaker 2: Nice with that money. Yeah, Wendy, thanks so much. Is
Speaker 2: such important information today and
Speaker 1: Good luck in the trenches are I will say, Wendy
Speaker 1: Nona with us again next week Wednesday, And a reminder
Speaker 1: that you can contact her via her website which is
Speaker 1: Wendy Nola dot co dot Saturday