Kas H

Be wide awake when dealing with Market Master Direct

Sequence of events in dealing with Market Master Direct (MMD) On 8 January 2018 at 18:30 Mr Corné Du Plooy of Market Master Direct (MMD) visited me and my wife to explain what the product entails which they sell to their customers. As I understand it, they sell you a software platform with an electronic tablet, which should then be used to access the software to buy or sell shares on the JSE. According to Mr Du Plooy they also provide a supporting service with regular sms information which provides you with guidance to buy or sell shares. In their sales agreement MMD describes the product they sell as an analytical JSE monitoring software programme. After a lengthy, complicated and quite technical explanations of what the product and the process entails, Mr Du Plooy Also explained that it will cost us R275/month for the support service they provide on an ongoing basis and R475/month for the software platform and tablets. My wife and I are both entirely ignorant regarding the buying and selling of shares, but Mr Du Plooy presented the deal so attractively that at the time we thought it to be a good idea. He even presented us with two tablets still in their new wrappings and succeeded in convincing us that this is a great opportunity not to be missed. Instead of asking time to think about the proposition and all it entails, Mr du Plooy skilfully convinced me to proceed and I foolishly signed all the contract papers he presented. He did mention that you could withdrew from the agreement after six months, provided you actively participated in the process. Prior to signing the agreement, I noticed that that the Standard Terms and Conditions of Sale did include a cancellation cause which stipulates that the agreement could be cancelled within 5 working days provided the tablets are returned unopened. Shortly after Mr Du Plooy left, I noticed that R21 950 has been deducted from the budget facility on my credit card. This came as a great shock to me and I immediately started talking to various people who all warned me against this type of practice. On the morning of 10 January 2018, I sent Mr Du Plooy a sms from my cell phone indicating clearly that I want to cancel the agreement. In response, he left a missed call on my phone. The evening of 10 January 2018, I wrote my first email to Market Master Direct indicating to them that I would like to terminate the agreement in terms of clause 6.1 and 6.2 of their sales agreement. Although I mistakenly referred to clause 1.6 instead of clause 6.1 I did refer correctly to clause 6.2 in the text message and the contents of the above-mentioned email makes it quite clear that I wanted to cancel the sales agreement within the allocated 5 working days. Late on Thursday afternoon (11 Jan. 2018) I received a phone call from a Maritza from MMD stating that if I do not cancel the agreement, they are prepared to offer their services at no charge for 6 months – referring to the R275 service fee. At the time, I was in a meeting and asked her to phone me again the following morning (12 January). The only response I received from MMD was a missed call late the Friday afternoon of the 12th of January 2018. On Sunday the 14th of January, I followed my first email of 10 January 2018 up with a 2nd email as well as the phone calls to MMD up indicating clearly that I still want to cancel the agreement. In the first email, I stated that the tablets are still in their original wrappings as required and should be collected, as I did not have MMD’s new address. Mr Du Plooy mentioned to us on the 8th of January 2018, that their office is in Durban Road, Bellville, so it was clear that the address indicated on the agreement forms were not valid. On Tuesday the 16th of January 2018, I phoned MMD again, Maritza answered the phone and I confirmed to her once again that I am not interested in the free offer, that I want to cancel the agreement and that I would appreciate an urgent response from MMD in writing, including clear instructions in terms of where I could deliver the tablets. The next day on the 17th I wrote a third email urgently asking for the written response on my previous correspondence that Maritza promised during our telephonic discussion the previous day. On the 18th I phoned Maritza again and asked for their address to enable me to deliver the tablets at their offices. At first she responded that she would give me the address, but after consulting with Mr Du Plooy, she refused to provide me with the address. After this, I made at least four calls to Mr Du Plooy’s cell phone. When he eventually answered he was quite hostile and in essence pointed out to me that I’ve now missed the deadline for conforming to their cancellation clause 6, but promised to phone me back. He never phoned back. I tried phoning him again, but he simply ignored my call. I followed this attempt up by sending him a sms to which he responded by asking if I think I adhered to the requirements of clause 6. I responded with a sms stating that in my view I did as best as I could under the circumstances. He did not respond to that sms or a follow-up sms in which I asked him if we could not discuss this matter in an amicable manner. On Friday the 19th of January 2018, I asked the Paarl Police if they could assist me in obtaining MMD’s address. A Sargent Dixon kindly phoned MMD on my behalf. Maritza (MMD) responded by saying that she cannot give out their address and the Police should contact Mr Du Plooy on his cell phone. His phone immediately went onto voice call when Sargent Dixon tried to contact him. On the 22nd of January 2018, I received a Settlement offer from MMD. I decided to agree to the settlement offer in principle, but made some minor corrections to their written offer and returned it to them on the 23rd of January 2018. On 29 January 2018, I signed a mutual Settlement Agreement with Market Master Direct as outlined in the attached agreement. In August 2018, I noted with shock that MMD failed to cancel the monthly debit order of R275. At That stage they have already deducted 7 monthly deductions from my bank account. After August 2018, they attempted several more deductions from my bank account, but I instructed my bank (ABSA) to reverse all deductions. Currently MMD still owes me a considerable amount of money. Earlier this year, I reported this company to the Consumer Goods and Service Ombud and later to the National Consumer Council. None of these organisations could make contact with Market Master Direct, so it is unclear if they are still doing business. I would be very interested to know if any of your readers knows anything about this shady company? Kas Hamman