East Coast Radio - Catch Up ECR Consumerwatch

ECR Consumerwatch

Wendy Knowler is arguably South Africa’s most experienced consumer journalist. She’s helped more consumers over her 20 year career in consumer journalism than she could count. But while known as a champion of consumer rights, Wendy is also known and respected by corporates for her fair, accurate and balanced reporting. Want to be a more sussed consumer or corporate? Listen to Wendy's episodes here.
Weekly English South Africa Leisure · Business
239 Episodes
152 – 172

Wendy investigates food expiry dates: Use By vs Best By

It’s been a confusing week on the food safety front.. first the police and health officials are raiding foreign owned shops and confiscating their rice, cool drinks and maize meal for being past their best before dates and therefore “dangerous” and a few days later the health minister is on…
6 Sep 2018 7 min

New, ‘improved' Rice Krispies make consumers snap

The Rice Krispies fans are cross, very very cross! Without warning, Kellogg’s totally changed the recipe for those Krispies - and the Coco and Strawberry Pops, too - and consumers are so not loving the so-called new, improved versions. For now, Kellogg’s is just smiling and waving in response. So,…
30 Aug 2018 7 min

Whey Overstated

Read labels, the experts say - that’s the only way to make an informed buying choices. But what if the labels are misleading, as we’ve seen with the recent honey scandal, the fish mislabelling and the gluten-free baked goods which contained predominately wheat flour?
23 Aug 2018 6 min

Hey big spender - now you’re an importer

Ecommerce is exploding in South Africa and many people, having had good experiences with local sites, are sampling the delights of overseas-based retail sites. But there is a new pitfall as one consumer's found out the hard way. He's bought three items into SA this year, and now has been…
16 Aug 2018 8 min

Wendy explains 'Pink Tax'

Wendy Knowler tackles a new term that's become very relevant today. Find out more on what Pink Tax really is.
9 Aug 2018 7 min

Unappetising foreign objects in food - What are your rights?

In this week's Consumerwatch, Wendy Knowler looks at what rights consumers have after discovering foreign objects in their food. Knowler takes up Samuel's case who found an electrical wire while he was drinking a beer. Unless harm was caused, the company implicated owes you a replacement product - not a…
2 Aug 2018 10 min

Burning Audi's?

This week on Consumer Watch, Wendy chats about the 'burning audi' that's making the rounds on social media.
26 Jul 2018 8 min

Theft by radio waves?

Is RFID “contactless” card theft possible? Wendy Knowler found out. Whether you know it or not, if you have a credit card, it is most likely an RFID one - that it is it has Radio Frequency ID, the technology which allows you to Tap and Go: place your card…
19 Jul 2018 7 min

Plastic is not so fantastic on a cupcake

There’s no gentle way to say this, cake lovers - that shimmering, glamorous, brightly coloured glitter has no place on cake icing - it’s plastic and shouldn’t be eaten.
12 Jul 2018 9 min

Durban tenant’s light bulb moment

So why would a tenant ask the rental agency to send a maintenance person round to change her lightbulb? Surely she should have expected to pay a call-out fee if she got someone in to do that for her?
28 Jun 2018 8 min

Wake me up before you Viagogo

If you go into a search engine and type “Sharks vs Lions game, June 30” or “Disney on Ice, ICC” rather than going to a specific site such as Computicket or Ticketpro, the top result you’re likely to get is Viagogo.
31 May 2018 9 min

Do you really know where that invoice has come from?

In case you missed last month’s show and because you really can’t afford to know about this newish scam, we’re returning to the issue of the havoc fraudsters are causing by hacking into company’s emails and changing the banking details to their own,Colette Baris wrote to Consumerwatch last week to…
24 May 2018 5 min

Is a “no refund” policy on deposits legal?

Wendy Knowler tackles service providers such as wedding photographers, caterers etc that require a non-refundable deposit up front. Is this allowed? What happens if you need to make a cancellation?
17 May 2018 9 min

Oh boy! Wendy tackles the latest processed cheese problem

Given what we now know about how the Listeriosis outbreak happened, South Africans are understandably a little jittery about processed food and the conditions under which it's produced. You’d think that food producers would currently be taking complaints about food quality more seriously than usual. Sadly, that wasn’t the experience…
10 May 2018 6 min

Wendy Knowler’s lowdown on lay-by

Lay-by is a consumer-friendly way to buy items should you not have enough cash to buy outright. Wendy Knowler chats to a consumer who was denied his deposit when wanting to retract his lay-by deal.
19 Apr 2018 5 min

ECR Consumerwatch: Troubles at Telkom

Have you ever been billed even after you’ve cancelled your Telkom account? What do you do when you order a phone and when it arrives it’s not the phone you ordered? Wendy Knowler answers all of the questions and more in today's ECR Consumerwatch.
12 Apr 2018 7 min

#MoneyMatters with Wendy

Wendy talks money matters and VAT increases. It might be wise to take a listen to this.
29 Mar 2018 8 min
152 – 172