Sign up with Googlesheez, only saying that CH may have a point. just thought it would contribute to state that fedex is not the only one overseas company who has these views about SA. Expansys does not longer accept SA credit cards - they claim it was because of some crime reason.
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CRIME in SA: FedEx SA no longer accept cash (or other payments)
- Thread starter PeterCH
- Start date
sheez, only saying that CH may have a point. just thought it would contribute to state that fedex is not the only one overseas company who has these views about SA. Expansys does not longer accept SA credit cards - they claim it was because of some crime reason.
What views of SA? That sounds like simple business sense for a company that delivers nationally,yet your assumptions become Fedex's offical view on SA.
Expansys DO accept SA credit cards,they have a SA website,partnered with premiumstores...thank the crime if you want.
www.expansys.co.za
There's a gazillion websites which refuse to ship to SA, and specifically SA.
Some sites refuse to ship outside North America, some refuse to ship outside the EU, the richer Asian countries, Brazil, Australia and US and many, simply refuse Nigeria and SA and accept shipping to Mongolia and Nicaragua.
So yeah, SA is singled out. Some examples: DvdEmpire and MoviesUnlimited.com, DigitalEyes - 3 companies which shipped to SA,
no longer do so - but they still ship to Malaysia, Serbia and Cameroon.
LOL.
FedEx not accepting COD (they still had some COD stickers to paste on my Priority Box) is not a pure business decision. The reason their manager gave me, in explicit terms was that their drivers were targetted by hijackers. I would assume that hijackers would also take the deliveries, and outside of documents and medical research samples much of what these guys deliver is probably expensive, but
they specifically seem to be targetted because of the cash they carry. For good measure, the manager told me that CCs and cheques were
also not acceptable, which I would find silly as they just delivered an item to a house or company where a dubious person could have signed for it (they don't check ID) and if the customs duty on an item is x, the value of the item would be 8x or so, ie a much larger loss. Strange but anyway. EFT is a stupid way of conducting business, they should then allow credit cards over the telephone, the way Mr Deliver bills you for the pizza they deliver. EFT means you need safe internet access, an internet banking account and one more hassle to go through when you
just paid a lot of money to have your parcel delivered. Not to mention the delays.
All in all Crime in SA seems to be increasing as every year I receive a half dozen FedEx/UPS/TNT/DHL deliveries and this is the first time
that cash on delivery was not good enough.
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I do. Think this logically. The customs duty on an item will never equal the value of the actual item. So if they trust anyone at address X to sign in for that Apple Macbook Pro worth R30K they should also trust the same person to provide them with a bank guaranteed cheque for the customs duty on that amount. Remember if some clown signs in for the delivery and you never receive it the courier is responsible and will have to cough up the reimbursement. No signature - no receipt - no product and therefore a larger loss. They just want to pass the hassle of EFT onto the customer - because they are scumbags. They don't want to deal with a possibly bad (not forged but one without coverage) cheque and someone who has no money in his bank account - so instead they make you pay upfront - which is BS. Maybe if they had an SSL website where you could enter a CC number and pay that way (they could even charge 2% extra for CC processing - heck they already charge R114 for customs duty processing anyway - on top of the shipping charges you pay at the retailer and the money SARS actually takes).
To me it just seems that they want to pass the trouble onto the customer.
FedEx btw in SA is outsourced to a 3rd party company, MyExpress or something like that. FedEx doesn't have its own presence in SA.
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I know that and wasn't trying to dispute that but merely some assumptions that was turned into the official view of Fedex.You'll also find about 90% of them refuse because of the fraud in AFRICA not SA crime levels,same with Romania and Indonesia.The fact that many see Africa as a country and South Africa as just a region doesn't help either.
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they didn't a few months ago
EDIT: oh and
It's now operated by premiumphones, not expensys themselves, expansys has closed their own SA branch.
They already soft launched before that date.They never operate an own SA branch,they just used the .co.za domain.
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I don't think the two are related directly but fraud/financial crime and violent crime do correlate. It's not suprise that Nigeria and South Africa are extremely dangerous countries while at the same time major sources of online fraud.
The FedEx manager told me the reason why they no longer accepted cash. It was to protect their drivers. Those were the words used. She further added that they were being attacked, robbed off the money and their lives were put in danger. Another FedEx employee in Cape Town later in the day confirmed that reason to me. This is what they told me and hence, unless they lied or I heard incorrectly on two occasions or I'm lying here (easy to check, call FedEx yourself) that is the 'official view' of FedEx SA (which is operated by a 3rd party not FedEx directly).
It may be that the drivers are not being attacked but are pocketing the money and later claiming to have been attacked. I would gather that a hijacker would steal the contents of the van itself but a variety of criminals exist some with a greater penchant for cash while others may prefer goods which they can fence.
Below is a response I got from them some time ago, which confirms that SA has earned itself a bad reputation abroad.
This message was received long before they opened the SA Expansys site.
The prices on the SA Expansys web site are far higher than the Hong Kong site so I wouldn't consider shopping there.
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I hear you and no,i don't say you lie but unless they put out an official statement,this is all the opinions of some employees.Supaswift is the licensee for Fedex SA and for various other African countries btw.
No foreign online shop will refuse to ship to SA because of the rise of violent crime.Fraud yes,postal theft yes,but violent crime doesn't affect their service to you...but it will affect the service of a local delivery guy with cash in hand.That's why i don't see the relevance of phenom's post of Expansys.
If say your company does some paid work for the ANC,that doesn't tell me anything about your company's political views,it was just a business decision.Protecting your drivers by refusing to handle cash is a business decision that's normal around the world.Many companies around the world are moving away from cash handling.
Cash is not king anymore.
I will however agree with you...they can at least set up some online pay solution.
It doesn't look like Bwana's replied, but this seemed to have gone into effect for all branches from November 14th onwards. I know the Cape Town branch wasn't accepting cash when I went there last, and they had a big sign saying so in front of the accounts window. According to the email "We do apologise for the inconvenience but do urge you to keep in mind that the security of our customers and our staff is the highest priority."
Sounds like it's because of crime.
Drunkard #1
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Is it legal to refuse cash? IIRC, SA cash is legal tender in SA (obviously) and therefore legal for settlement of ALL debts in this country. (So is gold, by the way.) Maybe the consumer protection act will make things clearer.
Edit: I did recall correctly, according to Sharrrock, 4th ed, the relevant act is the South African Reserve Bank Act, 1989 (s 17).
Edit: I did recall correctly, according to Sharrrock, 4th ed, the relevant act is the South African Reserve Bank Act, 1989 (s 17).
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The reason for not accepting cash anymore was the high rate of crime. You may call it a business decision and suggest that cash is no longer king but do you have the data to back that up? AFAIK couriers still accept cash in Europe and product specific COD deliveries for other products still occur around the world. If anyone has received taxed goods in Europe or US, how
do things work over there?
In SA where internet access is limited, banks are closed by 3:30pm and fraud levels regarding bank deposits are significant (and expensive), one would think that cash would still be king.
Good point. Thanks for that.
Well in a way they still "accept cash". You just have to deposit it at FNB instead of at their premises.
Secondly, I think that's only for the settlements of debts. So they can refuse to sell you stuff if you bring cash, they only can't refuse it to settle an account. And presumably if you kept trying to settle your account with cash, you'd discover your account would get downgraded to CASH ONLY status pretty quick.
Drunkard #1
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I think that the issue of debt is tricky. It depends on when a debt has been incurred, ie, when has the sale been completed. If memory serves, a sale is completed, and a debt created, as soon as the process of offer and acceptance is completed; not (possibly much later) when the debt is settled. There must be some case law. Any attorneys?
I agree with PeterCH, companies that don't treat their customers well deserve to go out of business. This also applies to my other lost cause, companies who quote ex VAT, despite this practice being illegal. (VAT Act s 64-65)
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Sorry - didnt see this - it was the PE branch. They sent out an email about this mid-November.
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It appears to be a generalised trend and probably has to do more with rising crime than with more modern business practices.