Dear Editor,
Guyanese citizens are been ripped off by certain Chinese’ store operators and there seems to be no recourse. About three months ago, in the mood of the clean up the city phenomenon, I embarked on a project of grooming the street people living in and around the city of Georgetown; I call it the Clean Up Our Street People project. The project has taken on a life of its own. We usually groom the residents at the East La Penitence Night Shelter and the street people downtown, by Guyana Stores.
Last Thursday I bought a tent from the Glorious General Store at the corner of Camp and Hadfield Streets to use for shade from the sweltering sun when grooming the street people. The tent was the size and colour I wanted and I observed no defects in it when I examined it at the store.
However, as we were opening it at our downtown location, three of the cross pieces bent and by the time the breeze blew on it for the four hours we were cutting the guys’ hair, the tent was a total wreck.
As we were closing and folding up the tent, a couple of the bent pieces broke.
Editor, it is obvious that the tent was made of very inferior materials, and was of undeniably poor quality. That a tent which was made to be opened and closed, would disintegrate so substantially with its first opening and closing, speaks to the mediocrity of the material and construction of the product.
So without any doubt in my logical-thinking mind, that I would be adequately refunded, I drove back to the store and calmly explained my plight. The Chinese man from whom I had earlier bought the tent and who had examined it with me, told me that I cannot be refunded because I left with a “good” tent. When I insisted that there is a Consumer Protection Act that governs these kinds of situations, he told me to return the next day to speak with the “boss”.
I went back the following (Friday) morning as I was advised to. When the boss finally came, much to my chagrin he too told me that I cannot be refunded. All my prodding and logical explanations seemed to be lost in translation. I explained to the Chinese proprietor that the Consumer Protection Act allows for me to return an inferior made product. He just shrugged me off.
It is as if they expect you to buy their product and never use it.
I told him that the law says that he is obliged to refund me for damaged goods. As I was speaking to the proprietor and those others listening on, I got the impression that they concluded that they are not subject to the laws of Guyana.
I explained to him that I was way within the 48 hours I have to return the product, and I had my bill. All my pleadings were to no avail. Instead, I was told that I could do what I want (when I said I will complain to the authorities). And I was also told that I could bring whoever I want to bring (when threatened to have a member of the Consumer Protection Agency come to their store).
Editor, what further complicates this issue, is the fact that I have been in touch with the Consumer Protection Agency ever since Thursday, the day of the incident. On the very Thursday, someone from the agency promised to meet me on the following Monday, across from the store. I went to the assigned meeting place and waited from 8.45 to 9.20. The representative from the Consumer Protection Agency never showed up. When I called back I was told to return the next day (Tuesday) and I did. Again I waited from 8.45 to 9.20 and again the Consumer Protection Agency representative never showed up. No one even called to apologise or explain why I was made to waste my time.
So now I am doubly mistreated, first by the lawless shop owner and then by the irresponsible representative of the Consumer Protection Agency. In addition, the Glorious General Store has both my money and the broken, flimsy, tent.
Editor, the Guyanese consumers need to know that there is a law that protects them against predatory business owners. They need to know that they do not have to lose their hard-earned money because they trustingly and in good faith, bought an inferior or defective product. They need to know that their government, in their interest, has put in place a system to protect them in these eventualities. They need to also know that everyone living in Guyana is subject to Guyanese law.
Part IV of the Consumer Protection Act, Number 19, sub section (1&2), says:
(1) Subject to subsections (3) and (4), where a customer is encouraged to acquire goods by the vendor’s declaration and description of the goods and the customer subsequently discovers that those goods are defective in material particular from that intended to be purchased, the customer may return those goods to the vendor.
(2) The vendor shall immediately offer to the consumer, in exchange for the returned goods, monetary compensation to the value of the goods or such other amount as may be agreed between the consumer and the vendor.
I am clearly within my legal and consumer rights to be fully refunded for that piece of trash that that the store sold me.
Maybe if more Guyanese would write, complain, picket and sue these stores, and if the Consumer Protection Agency representatives would keep their appointments and represent us as consumers, then maybe that collective onslaught would cause the Chinese, or whomever else, to be careful to import and sell more durable and reliable stuff.
I am now thinking of suing that store and naming the Consumer Protection Agency as a respondent.
In the meanwhile, I will borrow a tent as we continue with the grooming of our brothers and sisters in our Clean Up Our Street People project.
Yours faithfully,
Pastor Wendell Jeffrey