Consumer complaints result in Cartrack agreeing to pay R10 million in client refunds and fines

The recent settlement agreement between the National Consumer Commission (NCC) and Cartrack is proof that it is worth pursuing valid complaints against providers of goods and services.

The tracking and fleet management company agreed to:

• Pay an administrative fine of R5 million
• Refund a total sum of more than R5.1 million to consumers
• Cancel affected contracts without charging a cancellation fee
• Amend their terms and conditions to ensure consistency with the provisions of the CPA

The NCC had received complaints from 210 people saying that Cartrack failed to provide remedies to consumers. Upon investigation, the Commission found that the terms and conditions ('Ts & Cs') of the sale agreements were inconsistent with the Consumer Protection Act (CPA) on some complaints.

Cartrack agreed to settle 167 of these without admission of liability and to avoid lengthy legal proceedings.

It also agreed to enhance its Ts & Cs to remove any potential vagueness.

Finding too little detail to her taste available upon her return to SA after an overseas trip, Wendy Knowler went through the lengthy process required to obtain the full file from the Consumer Tribunal.

A huge portion was devoted to a case which hinged on a telesales call which did not divulge all the details to the potential client, one of the consumer journo's pet peeves.

"They tend to talk up the good stuff and are vague about the not-so-good stuff."

In this particular case, Cartrack rejected a claim on its warranty of up to R150,000 when a hijacked car is not recovered.

"The company's been very big on marketing this... and it's the main Cartrack complaint I get; that people are denied the payout because of Ts and Cs."

In 2022, four months after enlisting Cartrack's services, the client's vehicle was hijacked.

When it was not recovered, she lodged a claim for that R150,000 and it was rejected on the grounds that she'd defaulted on payments.

When the woman provided proof this was not true, Cartrack shifted the reason to the fact tht she hadn't lodged her claim within 30 days of the incident as required by the terms of contract.

"There was a long report by a Commission investigator stating that these conditions were not communicated to her during the telesales call, contrary to what the CPA requires... It's interesting, because that is what most telesales calls are about; they don't give all the nitty gritty, they just say it's in the terms and conditions."

"I'm particularly delighted that there's finally been some regulatory oversight on Cartrack's warranty given how much they punt it and how many people come to me and say they didn't get it, and then of course their Ts and Cs have to improve as a result of this settlement."

For more detail on the settlement, listen to the interview audio at the top of the article