NewZealandWoman’sWeekly 59
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1036.Toilet
training
Thecourseofloo
loveneverdid
runsmooth.Y
ou recently bought
a replacement toilet
seat. When you got
it home, you discovered it
didn’t fit your particular toilet.
You went back to the store
to exchange it for one that
would. The store told you
that they didn’t refund or
exchange toilet seats after
they’d been removed from
its packaging. How are you
supposed to attempt to fit a
toilet seat without removing
it from the packaging?
You should have been warned
of the no-replacement
policy before you bought.
In my experience of toilet
seat purchases, it usually
warns you very clearly on the
packaging that you cannot
exchange the goods once
they’re out of the packet.
If your toilet seat packaging
contained such a warning,
then you don’t have a leg to
stand on. If it doesn’t, and
the store gave you no other
warning, you should demand
an exchange.
Before you buy a new toilet
seat, you should carefully
measure your existing seat,
note the brand of the toilet
and get assistance from the
store. Large outlets such
as Mitre 10 Mega provide
sheets of paper with drawings
of toilet seats on them, along
with measurements, to help
you identify the correct
replacement for your loo.
IT’S A BOG-
STANDARD
PROBLEM...KevinMilne
CONSUMERConsumer
Lifting the lid!
Don’t flush your money
down the drain – when
it comes to buying a
new toilet seat, there’s
a common trap to
avoid. Also, changes are afoot
(at last!) that may protect you
when you buy insurance.Y
ou heard that radical
changes are being
proposed so private
individuals don’t have to
second-guess what their
insurer wants them to disclose
when they take out insurance.
What’s that all about?
You’ve no doubt encountered
instructions by your insurance
company along the lines of,
“You must disclose any relevant
fact that would affect whetherwe insure you, or how much
we charge in premiums.”
Consumer groups have
argued for years that such
requirements are unfair. How
can consumers know what their
insurers want to know? So there
are proposals afoot to look at
how the law could be changed.
One of the main thrusts of
the changes is to make it the
burden of the insurer to point
out precisely what factors arerelevant to them, and to ask
clearer, more specific questions.
Such a change is long overdue.
Many times on Fair Go, I learned
of people whose claims were
declined because they hadn’t
provided certain information
their insurer required. This was
not because they were being
evasive – they simply didn’t
know enough about insurance
to understand what they
needed to disclose.