Reliable Store is unreliable, warns watchdog

3 years ago 1

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The Consumer Goods and Services Ombud (CGSO) has issued a statement warning consumers to avoid doing business with Reliable Store.

MyBroadband has also received several complaints from customers claiming that the retailer is taking money from South Africans and failing to deliver the goods or process refunds.

“Consumers are warned to be careful when trading with Reliable Store as they have [proven], based on their response to complaints received by this office, to not be reliable,” the CGSO said.

It noted that it had received 93 complaints against Reliable Store between 1 October 2022 and 1 December 2022.

It said the retailer had initially responded to some of the complaints submitted to it by the CGSO, adding that it also received acknowledgement emails from Reliable Store’s suppliers.

“The supplier refunded some complainants and delivered the correct orders in some of the resolved complaints,” the CGSO said.

“However, Reliable Store has since stopped responding to our office nor to the complainants and has subsequently stopped resolving complaints.”

It said it issued termination notices for 35 complaints and advised complainants to escalate the issues to the National Consumer Commission.

The CGSO said Reliable Store had contravened sections 19 and 41 of the consumer protection act (CPA).

Section 19 of the CPA stipulates that suppliers must refund customers if they cannot deliver goods or services by the agreed-upon date.

Section 41 of the CPA relates to false, misleading, or deceptive advertisements regarding service availability, delivery, or performance within a specific time frame.

Curiously, while still up and running, Reliable Store’s website appears to be advertising a limited product catalogue, with some of the product categories returning 404 error messages.