DS
Dewald S

1 reviews | Active since May 2018

24 May 2018, 11:02

Lewis MUST fall!! Break the Cycle of Poverty.

I've seen it a few times in the media on how ********* Lewis will act to bleed uneducated people into paying off fortunes for basic appliances. A man started to work for me in the garden recently and asked me assistance - he could not keep up with his payments to Lewis. He bought his aging mother a washing machine and phone - for around R8,000. The contract terms? To pay off R702 per month over 36 months - that equates to R25,000 over three years! Only R250 of the monthly installment goes to decrease the debt, which is ludicrous. Obviously Lewis is out to milk every last cent of the general public who are uneducated and unable to calculate the total costs they are committing to. Ethical? Not in a million years - I think it is time for Lewis to go out of business - which they will fast do at the rate they are going. I asked for a discount to pay off his arrears and debt in one go, but received just about nothing. Very, very disappointed in their business approach. If you want to break the Cycle of Poverty, then Lewis MUST fall!!

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Replies (3)
Lewis Stores
Lewis Stores's reply25 May 2018, 13:31
Official

We acknowledge and are in receipt of the complaint / enquiry, and we are in the process of investigating the matter.

Our reference number is:600994

DS
Dewald S's update28 May 2018, 16:45
Reviewer Update
Thanks for great follow-up on the initial complaint and a good discussion over coffee. My concerns on the very high interest rate and cost structure were addressed, as was the fact that from my perspective their approach is ********* and creates a debt-trap that is escaped only with difficulty. The reduction of debt (per month) is roughly equal to the monthly account fees as well as the insurance/interest on the appliances, resulting in a very long payment term and increased overall costs to the client. The combination of the interest rate and the payment terms + additional costs creates a situation that the client will pay off around 3 times the cost of the original cost. I was reassured that this does not create an incentive for Lewis to have customers contract for the longest payment terms possible. Lewis has already addressed a lack of client understanding of payment terms, even though I did not pick up on this when questioning our worker on his debt or on his contract terms (He did sign off on it a few years ago). Thanks for listening to another perspective!
Lewis Stores
Lewis Stores's reply29 May 2018, 06:24
Official

Thank you for bringing the above to our attention.

Lewis Stores.