I received a call the other day from a company selling greeting cards on behalf of a well-known charity. The woman was persistent but not pushy; I figured it was a good cause and I agreed to buy a set.
The cards were duly posted to me. They're lovely, and I paid for them happily. End of story.
But my happiness about this deal would turn to anger and frustration if I received another set of cards in a few months, and then another, with demands for further payment.
That's what has been happening to scores of small business owners across the country, who, on getting a call from a telesales agent from Johannesburg-based Haltrex Systems, agreed to buy one printer cartridge, only to have repeat orders delivered and being threatened with legal action if they refuse to pay for them.
Earlier this year Gail Lambert of Howick Protea Farm told me how she'd received a call last August from Haltrex Systems, offering her printer cartridges.
She agreed to place an order for one colour and one black cartridge, she says.
They were posted to her, she paid, and "I thought that was that". But five months later, another parcel arrived from Haltrex, containing two colour and two black cartridges.
"I immediately phoned the company to say I did not order these nor did I need them and that I would return the parcel.
"I was firmly told by 'Mark' that this was a 'back order' and that I couldn't return the cartridges."
Lambert posted them back anyway and was then called by "Mark" who told her that she'd been "handed over" for non-payment.
My most recent complainant is Pretoria psychologist Linda Blokland who says she has been using Haltrex cartridges in her practice for a few years.
"My receptionist dealt with the orders. Haltrex would deliver cartridges - often when she was not in - and leave the boxes on her desk," Blokland said.
"The cupboard was filling up with them."
When she asked the company to cease delivery, she was told she had a binding contract to buy bulk cartridges.
"That was the first I had heard of it!" she said.
In March Blokland insisted that they close her account and she paid all her allegedly outstanding amounts. But the cartridges kept coming.
"Haltrex Systems manager Tony told me I could not close the account without a reference number and I could not get a reference number because I had a contract with them to continue!"
When she posted a complaint about Haltrex on consumer website hellopeter - joining a long list of others - he agreed to stop the "account".
In August I contacted Haltrex Systems manager Tony Dharmiah, who named the company owner as Michael Skry but said I could email him (Dharmiah) about the complaints I'd received.
This I did, and it was Skry's lawyer who responded. "Our client's directors are in fact abroad and will investigate what has been contended upon their return," he wrote in an e-mail on September 1.
Finally last week, Skry called me from Australia. He said that he was aware of the "problems" and had put various systems in place to rein in his sales staff.
"Trading is tough and sales are down, so some of them are acting in a stupid way," Skry said. "I have given them a warning."
There are no binding agreements or contracts, he said.
"We give discounts depending on the size of the order," he said. "That's where the misunderstanding could come in."
But it was not the company's intention to "force or pressurise anyone", Skry said.
Skry said he'd appointed two new directors who would be responsible for the day-to-day running of the company.
He has also changed the name of the company to NewTech International.
The Consumer Protection Act has a section that deals with what so many people accuse Haltrex Systems of doing - demanding payment for unsolicited goods.
It states, among other things, that if "a supplier delivers any further goods to a consumer, other than in terms of a different agreement or transaction, those further goods are unsolicited goods".
The same applies to the delivery of "a larger quantity of goods than the consumer agreed to buy".
And the person who has received the unsolicited goods can either keep them without paying for them, or send them back at the expense of the supplier.
If consumers pay for unsolicited goods, for whatever reason, they are entitled to a refund from the supplier, plus interest.
So come next August, when the act becomes binding on companies, such tactics will be very risky business for those who try to get consumers to buy more than they agreed to.