When Thomas Johnson, a Standard Bank client for 30 years, told Wendy Knowler that for two months the bank had been telling him his thumbprints couldn’t be verified against Home Affairs records, and handed him a letter saying it couldn’t do any transactions on his profile until Home Affairs sorted the matter out, she took up his case with both the bank and the department.

A first-time car owner was sold a “tailor-made” Dotsure policy with a 1 000km monthly cap and no hail cover. When he crashed six months later, his claim was rejected for exceeding the mileage limit 10 days earlier. This is a wake-up call for anyone with car insurance, writes Wendy Knowler.

A single glass fitment outlet in the Western Cape tourist town of Hermanus replaced nine windscreens after guinea fowl strikes in September alone, and some insurers see the seasonal spike too, says Wendy Knowler.

A woman’s estranged husband had used her ID to get an upgrade and a new handset on her MTN account back in 2024, leaving her blacklisted for the debt. Wendy Knowler took up the case.

The National Consumer Commission has announced more than 50 vehicle recalls so far this year. The names that don’t feature in those recall notices are the Chinese brands rapidly capturing the SA market. Why? Wendy Knowler investigated – and the answer was not reassuring.

When Janet Freemantle’s white Hyundai i20 started peeling yet again, and the dealership, which had twice resprayed it under warranty, told her it would do no more because the car was more than 10 years old, she asked Wendy for help. After her query, Hyundai approved the repair of all the affected areas at no cost to Freemantle.

There’s no legal justification for accommodation venues to impose a “no refund” policy on deposits. Don’t get too excited, though – a consumer can cancel, but the company can retain a reasonable penalty, says Wendy Knowler.

When Andrew Armstrong told Wendy Knowler that Woolworths had asked him to pay twice for a R384 cake, and then insisted for more than two weeks that the duplicate payment had been refunded when it hadn’t, she took up his case. But there was a sweet ending to the story.

If there’s one talk every South African family needs to have this Heritage Day weekend, it’s the fraud conversation: how to spot it, how to stay safer, and how to help your loved ones if they’re at risk of it happening to them, says Wendy Knowler.

It’s gone! ProNutro, the cereal generations of South Africans breakfasted on, won’t be returning to the shelves in any form.