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Consumers told ‘be more persistent’

by Barbados Today
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A laid-back mentality often associated with Barbadians often causes them to lose out on opportunities to seek and gain justice when faced with poor customer service or defective goods, consumer rights officials agreed today.

Officials from the Fair Trading Commission and Consumer Rights Tribunal made the comment as they appeared on Voice of Barbados’ Down to Brass Tacks call-in programme as the Ministry of Small Business marked World Consumer Rights Day.

Relating his experience, Elvis Caddle, the Electricity Analyst with the FTC: “I realise that customers are not persistent when it comes to complaints. We have a laid back culture in Barbados, so people would make one call but then they do not follow up.

“Customers need to be more incisive in terms of addressing their complaints, do their follow up and they have a responsibility to ensure the information they provide is accurate.”

He explained the procedure followed in terms of addressing complaints about utility companies and other service providers.

He said: “In handling complaints, the Fair Trading Commission makes a decision based on the information given to us.

“We contact the utility involved, we look at each piece of information separately to see whether there was a breach and if the customer is entitled or not.

“Our decisions are not only based on what the customer gives us because we have to look at both sides, so it is not always favourable to the customer because a customer may not be fully aware of everything, for example, the ‘fine print’ in service contracts.”

Alicia Dowell of the Office of the Public Counsel said one of the dilemmas the FTC faced was that it had no power to enforce any decisions made by the Consumer Rights Tribunal, but it was seeking to change this shortly.

She said: “There are issues relating to the enforcement of orders given by the tribunal, and we are seeking to address this. We expect this process to be completed before September this year where judgements are enforced in a systematic manner.

“The Consumer Guarantee Act speaks to the tribunal having the same powers as the Magistrates Court but the members are not magistrates, so there must be some firming up on how this is done.

“A new tribunal came into force last year; it is a young one and we are working with them to build up the enforcement aspect of the Consumer Guarantee Act.”

In noting that there are often complaints posted on social media about poor service, defective products or substandard work done by small operators, Dowell said: “We advise people to take their business to reputable suppliers when they do so and have problems, we are usually able to resolve them.

“The tribunal is the final resort and these cases have to meet certain criteria before going to the tribunal. In terms of recourse when a complaint is made, the complainant has 14 days to respond to the decision, so this gives us a chance to perhaps revisit the complaint, then a final decision is made and the complaint is closed.

“The 14-day period is the appeals procedure, so any determination after that is final.

“We also hope that whether the decision made is in favour of the complainant or otherwise, they will learn from the experience and have a better understanding of their rights.” (DH)

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