GUESS WHO SAYS HE'LL PAY BACK THE MONEY?

Dear Investors,

PEARMAN

          Work this one out if you can? It is of special interest to anyone who has invested in any of Kevin Pearman’s numerous get-rich-quick schemes.

          After my various exposé’s 
(Blue Bulls Logo Hijacked ; 
Telkom Scheme Scuppered ;
Blog that nobody reads ; 
Cell C Scheme Blocked ) 
about the many people who have lost money
with Pearman I got a series of emails from 
Mark Anthony Janse van Rensburg.

          He was clearly expecting me to write another Post about his experience with Pearman otherwise there would have been no point in him sending me what he did in various emails.

          Based in Port Elizabeth he heads Metropole Investigation Services (MIS) which claims to operate internationally from there. It deals with just about every conceivable aspect of security including “Truth verification” and “Lie Detection.”

          So the last person you would have expected to have become one of Pearman’s investors would have been Mark, especially as he handed over R325 000 in cash.

          The MIS website says this of Mark: He is a “former police special force commander with over 28 years of international experience in paramilitary and law enforcement activities during peace and war times on multiple continents. He is a Close Security Specialist that has served as a Close Protection Specialist for dignitaries of high value over the years.

          “Mark was deployed from 2004 to 2008 in Iraq providing close protection for Corporate and Government officers. One of his principals was Major General Johnson of the United States of America Core of Engineers.

          “On his return from Iraq in 2006 (this is at odds with dates given above for his time in Iraq) he went to Israel to obtain specialist training in the use of LVA 650 D Layered voice analysing designed for truth verification, employment and pre-employment screening.

          “Mark was appointed on 07.07.2008 to the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development, Republic of South Africa as a Commissioner of Oaths.”

          He started his email correspondence with me by sending copies of ones he sent to Pearman together with Pearman’s replies. In one Pearman attached a letter in which he referred to a conversation they had a couple of days earlier.

          Pearman expressed his “utter shock” at the way Mark conducted himself considering their “friendly history.”

          “You repeatedly referred to the ‘money I have taken from you’” the letter went on. “I have not taken money from you. You, like every other shareholder purchased shares in N-tyre Solutions Ltd in the hope that when the system gets to the market there will be a substantial return for you.”

          (For years Pearman has been promising his 450 or so investors handsome returns once his “unique” tyre monitoring system hits the jackpot, but nothing has so far materialised)
          “You are well aware that the Company needed more money via appeals that were sent out to all shareholders over recent years,” Pearman wrote.

Pearman's too good to be true tyre monitoring, investment scheme
advertisement about five years ago

          “You are also aware that I personally needed money when I asked you to lend me money on no less than three occasions; which you did and I did pay you back. These were the only occasions where I was personally liable to you via my word.

          “You are now ‘demanding’ that I repay your investment in N-tyre in a three month period and issuing unwarranted threats of sending people to collect and referring me to your website in an attempt to intimidate me.”

Another too good to be true
Pearman promise

          Pearman maintained he had worked “tirelessly” to bring the system to market for the benefit of all shareholders and he stood to lose the most if it didn’t succeed. He found it difficult to believe that Mark, who had been one of the many shareholders who had supported him, had now joined the “very small” group of shareholders who were now making “shameful” attacks on him. By doing this they only hurt themselves by making the success of N-tyre more difficult.

          He claimed that details of a Shareholder Exit Strategy were given in the May 2015 Newsletter. It invited applications from those who wished to do this, but Mark was not one of them yet he called and “demanded” the return of his money.

          He maintained that “nobody has lost money.” And as he has said many times before “N-tyre is closer to completion now than ever before.” That’s when shareholders will be able to receive dividends.

Pearman emphasised that he was not personally liable to pay back Mark’s investment in N-tyre, nor that of any other shareholder. And he was not going to set a precedent by paying Mark back based on “a threatening phone call.”

      

Pearman the man of many promises

          “All my phone calls are automatically recorded and I intend to use this recording to lay a charge of intimidation against you.” he warned. “Any further correspondence with me is to be addressed to my lawyer Michelle Clarke.”

          He added that if Mark wanted to sell his shares he should follow the correct procedure and he would be put on the list “which incidentally is very small.”

In an email Mark told Pearman to look at my blog because “it speaks for itself as to what people are saying about you. Very disgusting, I am in the process of selling my shares to a group in Johannesburg with links to …..”

          It ended ominously with “Take care.”

          Pearman’s replying email was all about me. “If you believe everything that Jon Abbott says, then I’m sorry for you. Jon Abbott is an ex-frustrated journalist
who simply looks for whatever situation he can spin a negative tone 

Another one of Pearman's
worthless guarantees

to and in fact is the cause of many problems, not only for me, but for many other good people. I even know of someone who committed suicide as a direct result of his article - nice guy our Jon Abbott.
(I could hardly be credit with that. Francois Buys hung himself 
after he and Kevin Cholwich, who has worked for Pearman and 
perhaps still does, were exposed by Carte Blanche, the South African investigative TV series, as having defrauded people of millions. Buys appeared on the show in tears. Cholwich on the other hand did not have the guts to come to give his side. See:

CHOLWICH

Noseweek Exposes Dearjon Letter )

    "I am the exact opposite of what I have been painted,” Pearman went on. “But the followers of Jon Abbott do not want to hear that. I am encouraged by hundreds of shareholders who support me and these far outweigh the negativity.”

          He then contradicted what he had said in his letter with this undertaking to Mark: “I told you telephonicaly that I would buy your shares back, but I cannot adhere to your deadlines.” 

          Promises and still more promises are among Pearman’s specialities.

          Mark replied: “Hi Kevin happy you feel sorry for me you should as well to the other investors of your product. I have invested 325k in CASH WITH YOU. I AM IN THE PROCESS TO SELL IT AS PER MY LAST EMAIL.”

          After that my dealings with Mark got really bizarre.

          When I tried to clarify certain things with him by email he told me to phone him without giving me his number. Then when he did give me his smartphone number he was not available on two occasions when I called him.

          Eventually I emailed him saying that I would have to go on the information he had already sent me together with something from his MIS website. That’s when I realised Pearman was not the only person who got threaten.

          “No. You will not write anything about me or my company or the dealings I have had with Kevin until you have run it past me. Please respect my request. Regards Mark,” was what he sent me.

          As an investigative newspaper journalist I never took instructions from the people I wrote about and I was not about to start now. This was especially so as Mark’s order came without any explanation that could make it at all reasonable.

          I emailed him back saying: “As I’ve said I will go on what you’ve told. I assume that’s all correct. You knew I had a blog when you sent the stuff to me, otherwise what was the point of sending it to me?”

          “I am reverting to my last communique to you, you will not discuss me on any social media without reverting to me is that clear,” he replied. 

          This was followed by another email saying, “Let me make it clear for once and for all, you will not write anything about me or my company is that clear. Once you have run it past me I will decide, hope you understand. Mark.”

          He seems to have forgotten that he is no longer a commander when presumable everybody jumped to it when he issued an order.

          Pearman’s investors are so happy with him that about a year ago a Facebook page was set up entitled Kevin Pearman Scams Ntyre Itmakescents Community.

          It claims to have been founded by a group dedicated to getting all the people together that have give Pearman money. “He is a scammer,” it says “who has taken a lot of money off a lot of people and all of us are yet to see any sort of return.”

          Mark posted several comments like: “It will be great to get answers from him as he has been very doggy (sic). I have been an investor since 2008, uptodate no return on investment.”

          Another one was: “We need to get answers from him, he does not respond to my calls nor emails. Its time to get tough now.”

          I am not sure who I like best Mark van Rensburg or Kevin Pearman. Kevin is clearly one of my fans but about Mark I have yet to be convinced. 

          Regards,
         
          Jon, the Consumer Watchdog who does't 
                  get intimidated easily.
P.S. Sorry I nearly forgot to mention that Cholwich is also one of my biggest fans.         Here's what he had to say about me.

The Big Difference between this, the Carte Blanche TV programme and
what I wrote about Cholwich is that what was exposed in Carte Blanch and
on my post was all TRUE

                

            

TV & RADIO STAR UNATHI POSTED ON SWEARY WOMEN'S WALL OF SHAME

Dear Ladies,

Unathi - no joke now

          By ladies I mean those of you who don’t feel the need to use vulgar language to attract attention.

          Why is it that an increasing number of females seem to think that this kind of uncouth behaviour is the in thing to do?

          Is it their lack of self esteem? Is it a power thing to give the impression they have the strength of a man, or what?

          My theory is that in most cases it’s purely a lack of class. They don’t know any better and when it appears on Twitter and the like it gives them a weird thrill by having their name up in lights.

          It could also be that social media now provides a shield that gives people the courage to say things they would never have the gumption to say to anyone face to face.

          Why oh why do they find it necessary. There are no pluses. Apart from generally tarnishing their image and showing up their marked lack of common sense it can so easily lose them their job. And being on the internet for this is a millstone that can drag them down forever.

          By far the most widely used word by these birds, who don’t give a thought to the ramifications before fouling their own nest, is FUCK.

          Would they feel outraged if some guy came up to them and asked for a F… because this kind of talk certainly encourages this kind of approach.       

          

Unathi again laughing or crying?

Unathi Msengana, a presenter on the South African Broadcasting Corporation’s (SABC) MetroFM radio station and a judge on pay TV M-net’s Idols SA show, stepped into it up to her ears earlier this month with a disgusting Twitter rant against a 19 year old student.

          It included the liberal use of the F-word.

          What started it all was when Unathi joined the controversy that was raging over the treatment of Blacks at the University of Stellenbosch. A relic of the country’s previous whites only Afrikaner government it made Black students feel isolated because Afrikaans was the main language which a lot them didn’t understand. They wanted to be taught in English.

          Unathi unintentionally turned the pot up to boiling by pointing out the obvious on air, and that was that Black students must have known about the university’s policy when they enrolled there.

          That set Twitter off with the UnathiBeLike hashtag. What were presumably mainly Blacks believed that she was supporting the Stellenbosch model. Her main antagonist was Palomino Jama, a student at the English speaking, liberal University of the Witwatersrand. 

          She tweeted: “Wife gets beaten by husband. Unathi: Why didn’t you become a lesbian? You married him knowing men could be abusive”

          She subsequently claimed she was being sarcastic and didn’t expect Unathi to take this personally.

          But that’s exactly what the star did. In private messages to the girl’s Twitter account Unathi let her lack of acceptable behaviour all hang out. “Do you think insulting me, my marriage and my sexuality is going to change your situation? You’re a fucking idiot if so… you’re fucking delusional if you think you can get personal. Fuck your stupid mind. No amount is going to change our realities. You psycho bitch. Fuck you twice over.” 

           A day later Unathi issued a statement explaining that her outburst was because she had been “criticised in ways that I felt badly violated my personal life and beliefs. I wish to publicly apologise for my choice in language,” she concluded.

          This didn’t stop the SABC, the public broadcaster from doing the right thing by suspending her. At the time of writing this the Corporation was still mulling over what to do with her.

          In an understatement its spokesman Kaizer Kganyago said her behaviour “tainted the station’s image.”

          What the SABC did is exactly what M-net should have done. But it didn’t. It took the easy way out by accepting her apology and allowing her to continue as an Idols SA judge as if nothing had happened. Piously it added: “M-net wishes to reiterate that it does not condone the use of offensive language and will take more serious action should such an incident occur again.”       

          Had Unathi been a White I wonder if they would have taken such a lenient view of what she wrote. It was particularly deplorable because of the bad example she was setting for the young people she is being called upon to judge in the search to find the best singer in the country.

          Now in its 11^th season Idols SA is based on Britain’s Pop Idol contest.

Du Plessis

          The first woman to qualify for my Wall of Shame in April 2013 was a fellow journalist Carien du Plessis, the Senior Political writer at City Press, a National Sunday paper with 1.6-million readers.

          She made it with these disgusting words in her Tweets: “Crap, fukkit, shit” and “Pee in my pants.” A worthy qualifier don’t you think.

          She seemed to have ceased her Twitter crudity after my post. I’m not sure if it was her decision or whether her editor Ferial Haffagee told her to stop it.

          Here’s the link to my post:can-swearing-on-twitter-journalism-mix

          Next came the sweary maverick of them all who seems to believe that this should not be exclusively a man thing.

       

Davis

   After I criticised Rebecca Davis on Twitter for her “Fucking hell” comment the Daily Maverick, the online paper she writes for, gave her free rein to get stuck into me, although she didn’t have the guts to name me.

          In about a thousand words headed, In defence of sweary women she bragged that “Profanity is part of my rhetorical armoury.”

          She used “Fucking hell”, which was the subject of my complaint, twice; “horseshit” four times and finished with “I’m fucking angry.”

Introduction to Davis' Daily Maverick article

          Here’s the link to my post on that one: mavericks-rebecca-davis-tells-it-like

         

Barlow

The third one to be chosen for this dubious honour of being included in this writing on the Wall was Celeste Barlow. She slipped in last month just before Unathi hit the headlines.

          However as you will see from my post about her I believe she is in a very different category to all the other sweary women in this post. She appears to have a very sad, perhaps legitimate reason for muddying her blog and in particular her Stikeez rant about the Pick n Pay supermarket group.

          Here’s the link: award-winning-mommy-bloggers-cry

         

Not to be outdone the USA got a mention through the unbelievable stupidity of an education professor no less, who cried out to be sacked.

         

Buchanan

If you thought that Teresa Buchanan a 53 year old Education Professor at Louisiana State University would have got the kids stuff vulgarity out of her system many years ago you would have been totally wrong.

          She kept saying “fuck no” in class and used the word “pussy” in an off-campus conversation with a teacher. She even admitted using profanities now and again and making jokes to keep her students paying attention.  

          She told the investigative daily The Nation that she didn’t recall saying “pussy” but if she did it would have been in a conversation about how teachers must learn to handle irate parents.

          “If a parent is very angry and says, ‘You need to do a better job, you little pussy,’(Do parents corrupt the teachers over there?) you need to know how to react. I wasn’t calling anybody that word.”

          Was this a comforting reply from this mature woman who specialised in early childhood education and trained elementary school teachers?

THE REPLY GOT HER ONTO THE WALL

          She had been at the university for 20 years when her shocking choice of words got her fired.

          A Facility Committee that initially heard her case took the M-net route. It decided that she be censured and that was all. But this decision was overruled by the top Administration, which sent her packing.

            She is now taking the legal route, but whatever the result it won’t restore her tainted name.

          Moral to the story: Watch what you say, particularly on social media and of course in the work place. It’s no achievement to be on my Sweary Women’s Wall.
          My mistake it seems that Johannesburg based freelance social media and digital content writer Tamaryn Shepherd seems to think it is. A shameless Tamaryn has just become Number 7 on the Wall.

         It's never ending. I keep  having to add to the list and what's more she is another journalist on the Johannesburg based Sunday Times, at least that's what she appears to claim. Her she is;

            Regards,

            Jon

P.S. It’s not that I have only got one eye, it’s just that I  have yet to come across any men in South Africa using the kind of offensive language on the internet as the women mentioned here. In America however where free speech has, like giving everyone a gun, been taken to ridiculous lengths the grossest of comments appear on the internet if this is anything to go by. school-massacres-too-late-to-stop-them

In this case it was glamorous syndicated columnist and blogger Michelle Malkin who was on the receiving end.

            

AWARD WINNING MOMMY BLOGGER'S CRY FOR HELP

Dear Mothers Everywhere,

          Hopefully you will agree that you are the role models for your children, particularly the female ones.

          So if you go off the rails there is every chance that they will do the same thing.

          Celeste Barlow is one Mom who doesn’t seem to be able to appreciate this aspect of parenting. To make matters worse she advertises the fact on her blog for the whole world as well as her three small children to see.

          If she was single her behaviour wouldn’t matter so much, but there are four others (husband/partner - if she still has one - and her three children), who are being tarnished by her apparent inability to recognize the harm that she is doing.

          I appreciate that judging by what she writes on her The reluctant mom’s blog; sub titled, I am still saying FK a bit more than I should she is probably suffering from the after affects of postnatal depression.

            In 2011 she wrote: “I struggle to keep sane in my insanity. Right now I am a *yellow lifeboat bobbing along quite nicely with my bottle of Chenin Blanc.”  

* The Beetle's 1966 hit Yellow Submarine
was said to be a symbol of the way they
were isolated from the world by their fame.
There are various other interpretations as well.

  

          Currently from what she says she is being treated for depression.

Is this an acceptable reason for her to put her three children, the oldest of whom must be in his early teens, through the embarrassment her blog must be causing them? Children these days are very tech savvy almost from birth so hers are no doubt well aware of what Mom gets up to on her blog.  

          She even has pictures of them all with this caption: “I am the person most likely to be voted: ‘she who does not want children’ – straight shit happens when you are hopped up on estrogen.”

          Her well presented blog hit the Twitter fan after she wrote a post complaining about Pick n Pay’s latest promotion in which they give away one little rubber toy called a Stikeez for every R150 spent.

The tongue in cheek side of her rant was very much overshadowed by the unacceptable (to most people anyway) language she used about this very successful campaign that has kids clamouring to collect them.

          If you are able to ignore the filth she has some goods points, particularly for mothers of more than one child, like how difficult it is if you have three children and you have only spent R300. Two Stikeez don’t divide into three without some heartache.

         

Celeste won the Kidz World best Mommy Blogger in 2012 and 2013 and had the top Best Parenting Blog in the South African Blog Awards for 2010.

          Kidz World is an online resource directory. Its founder Cara Mullin told me that they never endorsed the views of any of the participating bloggers. The winner with the most votes was chosen by their own readers and Mullin said they never received any complaints about the content of any of the blogs.

          It’s not surprising that Celeste won because her Blog has clocked up an impressive total of nearly one million page views. So I can’t tell you if her Stikeez muck was the norm without going through all her many posts or whether she only used this kind of shock tactic for this one.

          What is certain is that judging by the pictures of this glamorous Mom she definitely doesn’t need to stoop to profanities to attract attention.

            Headed: “Larry at Pick n Pay and my wishes around venereal disease” it contained a liberal use of that FK word she talks about as well as other dirty language.

           Larry was evidently a fictitious character she claimed had come up with the Stikeez idea at this supermarket group.

          It ended with this obscene message: “I hope you get a chlamydia – and your entire team. And it is drug resistant.”

          But not before she had referred to her youngest daughter, who looks about five, as an “ungrateful little bitch” because she cried when she unwrapped a Stikeez which her mother had spent “R150 on crap to get” only to find it was not the one she wanted.

          “She has 14 Stikeez,” her mother went on. “Quick Maths. 14xR150 = fuck load of money.

          “She seriously burst into tears.

“I seriously lost the last bit of shit on this subject.”

          In the middle of it all Celeste had a Side Bar about her ex-husband’s girlfriend “who died tragically and suddenly last week.”

          Talk about bad taste, actually no taste at all.

          Journalist and a mother herself Louise Marsland tweeted, “Funniest thing I’ve read all week. Esp for parents who shop at Pick n Pay.” She included the link to Celeste’s post.

          Pick n Pay instructed her to, “kindly remove your tweet as the content is highly inappropriate.”

          The supermarket chain was absolutely right. Barlow’s post is extremely inappropriate especially as she has three small children and the promotion is for fun things for kids.

          However instead of dealing with this aspect Louise took Pick n Pay to task in an article on Bizcommunity.com headed “How to blow your brand in five minutes,” for having the temerity to ask her to remove the offending tweet.

          She accused the company of shaming its brand “with one stupid tweet.”

          Louise and many other women had nothing but praise for Celeste’s sick post.

          The questions I would like to ask them are these:

          Would they think it’s still okay if their own children were habitually using the same kind of obscene language that Celeste advocates?

          Do Celeste and the rest of you think her boy and her girls are proud to have a mother who swears like a trooper indelibly in public because that’s what a blog effectively is?

          Do you all think they like her bragging about the amount she drinks?

          Do you and her think that her rock bottom standards are a good example for children to follow?

          Has it ever occurred to all of you that if her children get told off at school for swearing they might justify it by saying, “My Mom does it and she says it’s alright?”

          Has it ever dawned on any of you that they could be ridiculed at school about their Mom’s blog?

          Louise and everybody else who thought this was so funny should read Celeste’s entire blog, not just the controversial Stikeez post. Then they will realise that her life is not a bit funny at all.

           It’s a constant battle. It follows that her unhappiness must have affected her children and those closest to her.

          Her misery appears to have been compounded by her divorce.

          Even her own conscience pricks her now and again into thinking; “Some days I am really proud of the shit I say - some days I am embarrassed - some days I have no recall of what happened yesterday.”

          If it embarrasses her what does it do to her kids, the rest of her family and her friends?

          The seriousness of her condition can be judged from some of the other frank admissions on her blog.

          Like: “In June 2011 I opted back on as much medication as my pharmacist and friendly pill doctor would legally allow. So far so good.”

           And: “I am partial to Chenin Blanc. Okay a lot of Chenin Blanc.” What on top of all that medication?

          Her tell tale blog paints a very depressing picture. Her situation is exactly the opposite of “good.”

          To me her blog is a plaintive cry for help. She is like a child swearing at the top of its voice in a shop’s isle to get its mother’s attention.

            It’s a long way from being a joke. That post is not really about what she called that “8 cents crap toy.” It’s a lot, lot more important than that could ever be.

           Somebody desperately needs to step in urgently to get that yellow lifeboat she’s in safely to shore and to give her the support she so clearly needs.

          Where are the parents or other close relatives of this 39 year old when they are so badly needed?

          All those who are in a position to do so will you now please, please rally round this obviously talented woman to get her back on the right track where she belongs.

          There must be a much more personal way to get her over her depression than bottles of wine and piles of pills.

          My immediate suggestion, which I accept is a frivolous one that will not in any way solve the real issue, is for Pick n Pay to give all her children a complete 24 piece Stikeez set right now.

David North

          So I put the idea to the Group’s CEO Richard Brasher. David North, the Group’s Executive for Corporate Affairs replied on his behalf and I sent him a draft of this post.

          Initially he said: “It’s a nice idea which various people have suggested to us and my colleagues are following up.”

          Pressed for a more definite answer he made it clear that Pick n Pay was not prepared to play ball with the Mommy Blogger story anymore.

          “I am not keen for Pick n Pay to be involved in a continuation of the controversy of last week. As you know we apologised for the tweet that caused the furore.

          “I ask that you write your piece without referring to the question of whether we sent extra Stikeez to the family or not. I genuinely do not want us caught up in another social media discussion, this time not of our making.”

          So the “nice idea” which I felt would have done his firm far more good than any possible harm didn’t stikeezy with this corporate giant.

          Celeste I hope you get better soon and no longer feel the urge to make these ugly personal protests on the internet.

         They just shatter the beautiful image that your photograph portrays.

          Regards,

          Jon, a Consumer Watchdog who unfortunately doesn’t get it right all the time.

 

Raymond Ackerman

P.S. Sorry *Raymond we might have been at the same school together and in the same house at Bishops, but when it comes to this sort of thing ‘Business is Business’ I’m afraid. I couldn’t agree to David’s request not to mention his response to my proposal. I merely told him that I would quote what he said.

*He is Pick n Pay’s founder who stepped down as Chairman in 2010. 

THE GIRL STAR OF ABSA BANK'S CUSTOMER CARE

Dear Credit Card users,

           Shona Herbst is the star of Absa Bank’s customer service even though her name is far down its who’s who list.

On this occasion she completely outshone the top brass including possibly Maria Ramos the Bank’s head, who is also the CEO of Britain’s Barclays Africa Group which now owns Absa.

          I say possibly because I sent emails to maria.ramos@absa.co.za but I never got a reply from her. I know that CEO’s like her are very busy and have to be protected from complaining clients like me, but what’s the point in her having a personal email address if she doesn’t reply personally.

          Shona, who works at a small branch in Cape Town, had the final answer to my problem after head office had bungled its way around for months with inexplicable answers to my many emails and phone calls.

          Here is her story. 
          Actually it’s mine but she is the heroine.      

          I was the victim of a scam on my Absa credit card by a company from goodness knows where with the picturesque “merchant name” of Pinnacle.com8668076974.  

          The worst part of my experience however was the way Absa’s head office in Johannesburg sided with the crooks.

          When both my wife and I had been loyal clients for something like 20 years I didn’t expect my word to be completely ignored especially when it was backed by solid facts.

          My case was fortified even further by numerous internet tales of woe of people having been defrauded by what was clearly the same organisation because the method, the product and even the amounts of money matched my experience.  
        

         
The only person who believed me from start to finish was Shona.        

         


        Here’s what happened.  In August 2014 I was Googling away when I came across this Marie Claire magazine cover that was all about skin care. With it were two trial offers for creams at R110 each. I completed the on-line order for one of each with my credit card details and the transactions went through on 7 August 2014 according to my card statement.

Initially I didn’t think there was anything odd when the order failed to arrive as there had been a postal strike in South Africa.

          I was only alerted to the scam in December when I got my card statement showing that two unauthorised amounts of R1087 had been charged to my account the previous month in the name of these two products. So I contacted Matt Loy head of the Digital section of Associated Media Publishing that publishes Marie Claire in South Africa.

          He told me that the cover I had seen was a fake as they had never run or promoted the banners in question. He said this looked like a scam and suggested I contact my bank as soon as possible to request a charge back for all the amounts.                 

 So that’s what I did at my local Long Beach Mall Absa Branch. There Shona picked up the phone right away and told the Card Division to reverse all four payments.

          This is how the saga continued.

February 2/ 2015: I followed up with an email to Absa’s Disputes department giving the reference number Herbst had given me.  “I was told the amounts involved could be reversed,” I wrote. “Can you tell me what is happening about this?”

That’s when the bungling started.

February 9: Disputes consultant Minzelle van Wyk replied by email asking me for all the details I had already given to the branch. I told her she should be able to get this with the reference number the branch had given me otherwise what was the point of me being given one. I also tried to call her at the 086 number given at the bottom of her email. The woman who answered said they did not know her. And when I told her Minzelle was in the Disputes department she said they could not put calls through to that section.

February 10: My next move was to complain to Yolande Fourie CEO Complaint Adjudicator who I got when I phoned the CEO’s office about the bad service I was getting. She emailed me saying she was sorry about the way I had been treated and asked for the name of the person at the branch who had helped me “as disputes seem to have a problem tracing the information.” I replied saying, “I realise it is not your fault but it certainly caps it all to hear that Disputes has lost the information” I then repeated my complaint to her.

February 11: I emailed Yolande again saying that Doctor (that appears to be his name) Mohlala the manager of the Disputes department at her Credit Card Division had phoned me to ask me for the information in the email I had just sent her. “He said he hasn’t been in touch with you when I told him I had given you the answers to the questions he was asking,” I explained. “It seems the right hand doesn’t know what the left hand is doing at Absa.”

February 11: Evidently as a result of Shona’s call my card was credited with all four amounts although I was unaware of this at the time as I had not yet seen my statement dated February 13.

February 12: Yolande emails me to say she has escalated the matter “to card Division” and she gives me a new reference number. She evidently didn’t know that the amounts had already been charged back.

          I was relieved when I saw the four credits on my February 13 statement and I was happy everything had been sorted out without me losing a cent.

          How wrong I was.

          What the bank didn’t tell me until well into April 2015 was that when the credits were made they kept me in the dark about the possibility that they could be reversed at a later stage when the “transaction vouchers” were received from the merchant.

April 14: My card statement showed that the four transactions were back.

It was now more than six months since my card was debited with the initial amounts and I still hadn’t received the creams they were expecting me to pay for.

April 16: When I told Yolande what had happened she replied that she could not help me as she was on maternity leave. She suggested I contact my branch, the card division or I could email CEO@absa.co.za.  This email address is misleading. It gives the impression that it gets you straight to Maria Ramos. It doesn’t. You get an automatic reply and it’s not a direct line to her.

          After calling head office once more I started all over again, this time with another CEO Complaint Adjudicator Charmaine Sharp.

April 21: Here’s what Sharp told me in an email with my comments in brackets. “The items (charges) were returned in February as per your request, but were presented again as according to the company this is a valid transaction. You need to provide proof that you have tried to stop these transactions.” I replied saying that on 14 December 2014 I sent an email stating that “on 7 August 2014 I bought a trial offer of the two skin creams and I authorised for a total of R220 to be taken off my card. Needless to say I have not received the creams and now more money is being deducted from my card quite illegally. I can only conclude that this cream promotion is a swindle unless you can convince me otherwise.” The reply I got was that my ticket had been submitted and I must let them know if I have any issues. No name of the sender or the company was given. Charmaine attached 56 pages the firm had sent to justify that the transactions were valid and added, “According to the tracking sheets the goods were delivered as well. You need to provide proof that you have returned the goods” (This was impossible as I had never received them).

The merchant’s documents themselves prove what a fraud it was but the Bank ignored the obvious discrepancies. The staff kept repeating that I must be liable because I gave my card details; agreed to the Terms and Conditions (T&Cs), even though I never saw them and had received the goods. Here are some of the many examples that showed how the supplier’s laughable gaffes completely supported my allegations.

Example 1: The firm stated: “Received email (this is the one mentioned under April 21 above) 14/12/14 disputing trial charge, didn’t receive yet. Replied with terms and conditions verifying shipping address and offering reship and 25% refund.” This was not the reply I got and I never saw the T&C’s until they were sent in the bundle of 56 pages. These showed that they had evidently got another scam mixed up with mine. They referred to products which I never ordered. “So who in their right mind would accept these conditions?” I asked my Bank. “I ordered Cellapuria and Amabella to improve the skin whereas the T&C’s referred to weight reducing products Cleanse EFX and SlimGenix Pro.”

Example 2: The T&C’s also allegedly gave them the right to automatically deduct various amounts from my card on a monthly basis after my initial order with other impossible to comply with conditions.

Example 3: The firm claimed I was “still benefiting from the product I received in exchange for this transaction” and that it was sent to me by “Registered letter.” It never dawned on Absa’s head office staff that in South Africa registered letters have to be collected from the post office where you have to sign for them and show your ID document. And no evidence of this was produced as it never happened.

April 28: After telling me she was now closing the case on her side Charmaine sent me feedback she got from Nell Skosana, another Disputes consultant. Skosana in her wisdom decided that the bank was not “authorised to cancel any transaction” on my behalf. She quoted from Clause 16 of the Bank’s own Credit Card T&C’s that states “No dispute of whatever nature between the cardholder and a supplier shall exempt the cardholder from his liability to the bank in respect of payment.” It also stipulated that no dispute between me and a supplier would allow me to instruct the bank to refuse to pay a supplier or to do a charge back. This took the absurdity prize that Absa had already won hands down in its handling of this matter to a new height. “If this is the part of your T&C’s that you are now relying upon why did Absa reverse my payment in the first place,” I asked. “And if I can’t instruct the bank to do charge backs why do you have a whole charge back department?”

April 29: Charmane sent me Dawn Minnaar Team Leader, Issuing Chargebacks' “final response from the Card Division.” Here’s what Minnaar said in her email and my reply with my subsequent comments in brackets. “As stated by the merchant, the cardholder accepted the Terms and Conditions at time of purchase and the goods have been delivered. Due to all the attached information and validity of all the information (this was not true as all the information was definitely not valid as I have shown earlier in this post), we cannot assist further and suggest the cardholder contact the merchant to resolve the issue with them to obtain a refund.” My response to Minnaar was: “Are all my emails being given to the people (at least nine people or more dealt with this at one stage or other - a system tailor made for mistakes) who are taking decisions in this matter because I can’t believe the lies that are being circulated about me in emails by members of Absa’s staff. In your email you state as fact things that are not true. You say I accepted the Terms and Conditions when I never saw them, so I could hardly accept them. That’s how the fraud works. Don’t let the customer see them and then put much higher amounts through his credit card and claim this was according to the Terms and Conditions. How many people would knowingly give an unknown company what was virtually a blank cheque to draw against their credit card? You also say the ‘goods were delivered’ with the only inference being that either my wife or I received them and are denying that ever happened.” I pointed out that the T&C’s referred to weight reducing products when I had ordered ones for skin care. I also gave her links to five websites that mentioned people who had been scammed by what appeared to be the same people.

April 29: Charmaine tells me “The matter will be sent to the Fraud Department.”       

     

When I was at my branch I felt I should give Shona an update on the latest developments. She immediately phoned the Card Division and arranged for my card and my wife’s (her’s is linked to mine) to be cancelled and for new ones to be issued. She did what head office should have done months earlier. Very effectively with just one phone call she stopped the crooks from getting any more money                               from my account.

May 5: Charmaine gave me this encouraging news: “If you do not stop or attempt to stop the transaction Card Division cannot assist and it will be debited against your account again.”

May 5: I told the supplier I had received no product; I didn’t want anything of any kind from it and they were not authorizing to deduct money from my credit card. The surprising reply was that all further shipments to me had been cancelled but there was no mention of amounts already taken off my account.

May 6: In an email addressed to Maria Ramos I sent a copy of the May 5 email mentioned above that I had received from the supplier. I told her: “On  the face of it the crooks have decided that they have milked this cow long enough with the help of Absa Bank  and it’s now time to move on to another sucker. The way this entire case has been handled by Absa’s head office staff has been absolutely shocking. Absa is aiding and abetting crime, hardly a good example especially when it is a sponsor of Businesss Against Crime SA which describes one of its roles as ‘to get business’ own house in order’ by eliminating crime-enabling processes. Well it’s obvious that Absa’s house is far from in order.”

May 7:  Much against the run of play I got an email from Minnaar saying that all four amounts had been credited to my account once again. 

          I decided to pass the details of my experience on to Wendy Lucas-Bull the Chairperson of Barclays Africa in the hope that she would do her best to ensure that no other Absa client gets the same treatment if they get scammed like I did.

          She has been described as the “saviour of banks” after turning an ailing First National Bank around when she was its CEO so I couldn’t have had a better person to contact.

          She got Ian Smith, Head CEO & Specialist Complaints at Barclays Africa, to looking into my complaint. Shona had done the right thing he told me. “We have congratulated her via telephone and a formal note to her line management. Truly appreciate your support and the time taken to acknowledge our staff on a job well done.”  

          THANKS AGAIN SHONA FOR BEING THE BRIGHTEST LIGHT IN YOUR BANK. THANKS FOR KEEPING PERSONAL SERVICE AND CUSTOMER SATISFACTION ALIVE IN AN AGE WHEN IT HAS ALL BUT BEEN REPLACED BY IMPERSONAL CALL CENTRES AND INEFFICIENCY.

Click here:
Good and Bad Banks

Regards,

          Jon, a long standing Absa Bank client who had every right to anticipate far better treatment from the head office staff.

P.S. As a Consumer Watchdog I can’t always be wide awake especially as I am required to be on guard most of the time. However this has been a valuable eye opening lesson about loyalty - the client can be this to his Bank but he can’t automatically expect to get it in return.