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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
200 – 220

Bread and butter issues + Durban's orange recycling bags

Last week’s Consumerwatch was all about the butter shortage and its hellishly high price, and this week Wendy Knowler is focusing on bread. She also has the latest on the eThekwini municipality's orange bag recycling programme, and why there's a shortage of those bags…
3 Aug 2017 8 min

Price of butter leaves bitter taste

The price of butter is skyrocketing, not just in South Africa, but globally. Wendy Knowler picks up the story in today's ECR Consumerwatch…
27 Jul 2017 6 min

Are customer body searches lawful?

When is it okay for a security officer appointed by a retail store to body search a customer? ECR Consumerwatch's Wendy Knowler chats to a Durban customer, Mooceda Mthini of Chatsworth, about her unpleasant experience.
20 Jul 2017 8 min

Time to tell all, timeshare owners

The National Consumer Commission is conducting public hearings around the country, and hard-done-by timeshare consumers are invited to tell their stories, in person, with a view to coming up with a single piece of legislation that will be used to properly regulate this controversial, law-unto-themselves industry. ECR Consumerwatch's Wendy Knowler…
13 Jul 2017 6 min

Want your gift? Pay up

The days of being sent a gift via airmail post from overseas and collecting it from your nearest post office without having to pay a cent are over. More with ECR Consumerwatch's Wendy Knowler on what this means for the receiver.
6 Jul 2017 5 min

Wendy with the latest on Ford Figo, Ikon recall

The timing couldn’t have been worse - the dust has yet to settle on the Kuga catastrophe, and now Ford has recalled a bunch of Figos and Ikons. In today's ECR Consumerwatch, Wendy Knowler chats about the latest.
29 Jun 2017 6 min

Who’s coining it?

Today’s show was a cautionary tale about accepting what a salesperson tells you, and buying what they’re selling on the spot without taking time to do your own checks first. Wendy Knowler picks up the story in today's ECR Consumerwatch…
22 Jun 2017 8 min

'This is a SA upset at a corporation that puts us all in a box'

Consumerwatch's Wendy Knowler speaks to hip hop artist, MarazA about being humiliated at local supermarket, PicknPay. Rapper, MarazA videoed himself and his friends being detained at the exit of the Pick n Pay in Killarney the other night while their purchases were “verified” and then posted it online.
8 Jun 2017 1 min

Rapper MarazA on his supermarket humiliation

So it’s become a Twitter storm - rapper MarazA videoed himself and his friends being detained at the exit of the Pick n Pay in Killarney the other night while their R8300 purchases were “verified” - and then posted it on social media. And it’s become a major race issue…
8 Jun 2017 7 min

Rapper MarazA tells Wendy Knowler his story

SA rapper MarazA was detained at the exit of a Pick n Pay in Joburg on Monday night while his R8300 purchases were “verified”. So what actually happened. Wendy Knowler spoke to the former KZN resident to find out more…
8 Jun 2017 3 min

Selling your car online? Know the risks, warns Wendy

So you want to sell your car privately to get a better price than you would if you went through a dealer, but how safe is it? One of the case studies in the Ombudsman for Short Term Insurance’s annual report for 2016 which was released on Tuesday will let…
1 Jun 2017 6 min

Sleepless nights for customers after bed store closes

Beds for Africa was a major national bed retailer with at least 14 branches around the country, seven of them in KZN, but many of them have been closed or sold in the past six months, including the Hillcrest, Newcastle and Richards Bay branches, leaving only a few open for…
18 May 2017 7 min

Online scams: Spot them before they catch you

The reality is that e-fraud is growing as fast as e-commerce, so while you may be thinking "no way would I ever fall for that puppy scam", you may go online to buy something else - a football jersey, maybe, or a camera - and end up unwittingly transferring money…
11 May 2017 7 min

A decade on, the Edcon club fee is declared illegal

South Africa’s biggest non-food retailer has been found guilty of charging hundreds of thousands, if not millions of its account-holders an illegal fee. Find out more with Wendy Knowler in today's ECR Consumerwatch.
4 May 2017 5 min

What’s your beef?

How can it be legal for a product called a beef patty to have as little as 36% beef in it? That’s generally how people react when they hear that a beef patty contains little more than a third beef. But it’s perfectly legal - provided the percentage of beef…
27 Apr 2017 6 min

KZN’s got heart (problems)

While cancer is what most people are suffering or dying from in all other provinces, in KZN it’s cardiac or cardiovascular events - heart and blood vessels issues, in other words. The data doesn’t apply to the entire population, but to the 40% who have long term insurance products -…
6 Apr 2017 4 min

No party for Ford as Fiesta recalled

I think it’s fair to say that 2017 has not got off to a great start for Ford South Africa. And late yesterday it got a bit worse - the manufacturer announced the voluntary recall of another Ford. Wendy Knowler has the details…
30 Mar 2017 6 min

Consumer implications of airlines' new tech ban

The ban on taking laptops and tablets into the cabin on certain flights into the US and UK is about a lot more than not being able to do some work on your laptop on that long haul flight, says Wendy Knowler.
23 Mar 2017 6 min
200 – 220