Retailers under heavy fire from consumers

“One set of cheap things. The goods are of low quality and these people want you to buy on hire purchase and then give you six month’s warranty that they don’t even honour,” explained one hotline caller who purchased a computer from one of the largest household item suppliers in the country.

A 2005 report by the Ministry of Legal Affairs revealed some startling complaint figures for specific items and suppliers. According to the report, the 1,056 complaints registered for last year 2005 was the largest number received by the Consumer Affairs Division in a decade.

Complaints regarding large appliances dominated with more than 60 percent of these being based on problems with refrigerators. Most complaints were from customers of a particular store.

When asked why the retailer had so many complaints lodged against it, the company’s Corporate Communications Officer, replied, “I don’t know, we have complaints but there is an entire department dedicated to that. There are different issues, many of which we deal with. I wouldn’t say that the complaints are due to the quality of our products. I stand 110 percent behind the products that we sell.”

She was adamant that, “many customers misuse our products and not all are forthcoming with information. Many of them use the products for business and our products are not for commercial use. Many people make complaints based on the complaints made by their friends, neighbours or whoever.”

The Chemistry Food and Drugs Division of the Ministry of Health has also been dealing, to a lesser extent, with infringements upon the rights of food and pharmaceutical purchasers.

A senior officer at the Division explained, “we ensure that safe, wholesome and properly labelled goods are available to the buying public. When we find expired drugs, we audit and destroy the good immediately.”

He highlighted an incident in which an entire consignment of canned food was inspected and approved but when someone randomly took an extra tin for testing a large cockroach was found. The division destroyed the product and has been keeping a watchful eye on the supplier since.

Beyond the issue of contamination, officials at the Consumer Affairs Division of the Ministry of Legal Affairs explained that many consumers fail to recognise their rights due to ignorance or the inability to articulate these rights.

“It is a consumers responsibility to ensure that they get value for money. The fact is that the objective of business is to make profits, in order to accomplish that they get consumers to spend with a smile, through ads and so on. We provide a legal framework but the first line of defence is to know your rights and ask as many questions as possible,” said Consumer Affairs Division Outreach Officer Ray Coward.

Bureau of Standards Implementation Officer, Joanne Beharry reinforced this.

“We have found suppliers selling goods with labels in other languages. We seek to have them modify such products but alot of the suppliers aren’t conscious of the labelling. This is where consumers have to be mindful,” suggested Beharry.

(Sunday Newsday found that many groceries sell items with labels in Chinese and Spanish.)

When asked if the number of complaints about supposedly faulty goods received by the Consumer Affairs Division was as a result of poor testing by the Bureau, Beharry denied this.

She explained, “If we only approve the higher quality products, we squeeze people at the lower end who can’t usually afford these goods out of the market. When the lower quality goods don’t last as long as others, people complain.

A total of 69 percent of the complaints received in 2005 by the Consumer Affairs Division were resolved by last year’s end and many others have been resolved since.