Be careful when buying Netcare Plus vouchers!

It seems that the service of Netcare Vouchers still has a long way to go in terms of administering the service.

Even though it is a fantastic product, the users from all ends still have difficulties with the processing the vouchers…

1. When buying a voucher with medicine (even by mistake) no credits/refunds are made for the portion not used. One has to forfeit that amount. So free money for Netcare (is it even legal?)

2. If the consulting doctor decides to offer the consultation free of charge (no matter what the reason is) it becomes a huge headache for the admin staff on how to handle the situation. I was told that the Netcare management demands from them to use the voucher, even though the Dr offered the service pro bono! No options of credit/refund of the voucher!

As a consumer of this product, I have 2 comments: 1. It is the legal prerogative of any person that offers a service, being a doctor or plumber, to offer the services without charge. The Netcare Vouchers system should make provision for credits/refunds. 2. Like any other consumer service (under the consumer protection act and as a norm in any self-respecting firm and as practiced ethically worldwide) any payment made and not used for the service it was made for must be credited/refunded. Again, the Netcare Vouchers system should make provision for that.

So a word of warning......follow up where that money you pay goes, because it might be gone without you, the consumer, having benefited from it.