If you’re gearing up to buy a used car, you might be thinking about whether to go through a private seller rather than a licensed dealership.
While buying a vehicle privately can be cheaper, it also offers less security, so it’s important to know what steps to take to avoid ending up with a lemon or being scammed out of your money altogether.
With fuel prices recently hitting record-highs and Perth’s petrol price cycle changing from weekly to fortnightly, it’s a particularly important time for consumers to have the information they need to save money at the bowser.
That’s where our free FuelWatch service can help, with a revamped website containing interactive mapping features that makes it quick and easy for WA motorists to find the best deal.
Christmas may be a time for giving, but there’s one type of person you wouldn’t want to reward with a free gift this festive season – a scammer.
Unfortunately that has been the outcome for about 200 Western Australians so far in 2021, who reported to WA ScamNet that they had been tricked out of almost $700,000 while shopping online.
The fake websites and social media pages have pretended to sell everything from barbecues to motorhomes, but consumers never received the items, nor saw their money again.
Perth’s rental market might be tight right now, but that doesn’t mean tenants should accept living in a home that’s falling into disrepair, nor tolerate surprise visits by their landlords.
Unfortunately we have received an increased number of complaints about both scenarios. In 2021, Consumer Protection received 188 complaints relating to repair and maintenance issues and 29 complaints about unexpected visits, which are illegal.
If you’re renting a home, chances are you’ve paid a security bond at the start of your lease to guard against damage or unpaid bills.
Typically worth four weeks’ rent, the bond is a large chunk of money that many tenants may be relying on receiving back at the end of a tenancy to help with the costs of moving and finding a new place to live.
The McGowan Government is reforming the tow truck industry in Western Australia to protect people involved in traffic accidents and combat bad behaviour and price gouging.
Confusion over the true cost of funerals will be targeted by proposed regulations being put forward by the McGowan Government as part of the current reform of funeral industry pricing practices.
With discussion in the community about possible inflation and interest rate rises, many people will be looking at ways to save money to balance the family budget.
One way to save money while grocery shopping is using unit pricing, which shows consumers not just the cost of a product, but what the value of that product is as a cost per standard unit of measurement.
If you’ve ever left a shop wondering whether you have been charged the right amount, then it’s worth knowing that price scanning is an area monitored by Consumer Protection.
Each week our team of compliance officers visit shops across the Perth metropolitan area to investigate whether prices advertised on store shelves match the amounts customers are charged when the goods are scanned at the checkout.
Known as ‘price scanning audits’, these checks are also done by our officers in country towns to ensure regional consumers are paying the advertised shelf price for goods.
While there are many success stories of people who’ve met through apps, websites and social media, there are also numerous tales of scam victims left heartbroken and with a financial loss.
Sadly, dating and romance scams are on the rise in Australia. In WA last year, 85 victims reported losing $3 million to this type of scam, up from 72 victims losing $2.2 million dollars in 2020.
