Efforts by the Competition and Consumer Affairs Commission to ensure compliance by the business community with legislation requiring traders to provide refunds on goods returned on the grounds that they are defective or for other specific reasons continue to be widely and flagrantly disregarded, Director of the Competition and Consumer Affairs Commission Seema Rambarran said.
“Today you inform the supplier about the legislation and they comply and tomorrow they revert to their old ways,” Rambarran told Stabroek Business, implying that the delinquency of the offenders reposes in a blatant disregard for the law rather than ignorance of it.
As recently as March this year the commission issued a circular reminding the business community that under Sections 22 and 23 of the Consumer Affairs Act, “a supplier cannot remove a customer’s legal right, for example, by displaying a notice saying ‘we do not give refunds under any circumstances’.” Despite this, however, several business houses continue to display such notices. According to Rambarran, while the commission frowns on the display of such signs it is not legally empowered to have them removed. “It is a big problem getting stores to adhere to the return of goods policy, as a number of individuals attempt to return goods and are unable to do so,” she added.
Asked about the commission’s response to receipts for purchase on which illegal “goods not returnable” notice is printed, the director said that based on interventions arising out of complaints made by consumers some refunds have been secured.
Meanwhile, Rambarran told Stabroek Business that the work of the commission is made more challenging by the fact that “there is lot of dumping that occurs. We get a lot of sub-standard products and the Consumers Affairs Act is expected to be tightened to protect us from these types of goods.” She further explained that the Guyana National Bureau of Standards is responsible for the quality and standard of goods entering the country, but “once the goods hit the market that Consumer Affairs Act will take over”.
Rambarran said that even in cases where the quality of the goods for which exchange or refund is being sought is not sub-standard the customer is entitled to a refund of money or exchange of goods on the grounds that the need no longer exists.
Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI) President Clinton Urling told Stabroek Business he believed that the efforts being made by the commission to inure more effective implementation of the Return of Goods and Return of Defective Goods policies was “a move in the right direction and this will definitely seek to up the game where suppliers will have to ensure that quality goods and service are provided”.
Rambarran said that in the immediate future the commission had decided to focus its efforts on enhancing the level of compliance with the return of goods policy by the business community since the number of consumer complaints was growing. Electrical appliances, motor vehicle parts and garments are reportedly highest on the list of consumer goods for which requests for return or refunds are rejected, Rambarran said.
Section 21 of the Competition and Consumers Affairs Act states, “A consumer may return goods if the purpose for which the goods were bought or intended to be used have changed or ceased to exist immediately after the goods were bought.” The act also stipulates that consumers may return items purchased no later than seven days from the date of purchase and that the goods must not have been used, tampered or damaged, must be returned in its original package and must be accompanied by the original receipt received at the time of purchase.
Customers may elect to make a purchase of other goods of the same value in lieu of a refund or, in cases where full refunds are requested the supplier may charge a “restocking fee” not exceeding ten per cent of the purchase price of the returned item. Rambarran explained that the “restocking fee” caveat was crafted by lawmakers as a means of protecting the supplier from possible overuse by consumers of the refund prerogative.
Some businesses in the city told Stabroek Business that they were in compliance with the provisions of the Consumer Affairs Act, but others appeared less than open to the idea of a liberal refund and exchange policy. Water Street businessman Pradeep Samtani told Stabroek Business that he had implemented the policy some time ago, but another downtown retailer told this newspaper, “the return of goods policy is not for me,” her rationale being that she “imports quality stuff.”
Meanwhile, a Sales Representative at Singer’s on Water Street told Stabroek Business that where it is determined that defective items can be attributed to manufacturers’ faults those items are replaced.
In the case of defective goods, the law also stipulates that the seller, at no cost to the customer, must replace goods within 14 days of the goods being returned or repair the goods or return monies in full to the customer. The law further states that in circumstances where the item cannot be replaced in 14 days the supplier must “provide the consumer with a temporary substitute of comparable value for the consumer’s uninterrupted use and enjoyment until the consumer’s goods are either replaced, or repaired and returned”.
