Consumer rights & responsibilities

Time was when consumers looked only at the price in deciding to buy. Not anymore. Buying patterns the world over have changed with the advent of more competition, inventions and innovations in products and services. Consumers now check for quality, and only later the price. Value for money is how marketing men analyze the demand of today’s buyers.

A buyer may not be conscious of his discerning taste. He has gotten so used to it that he does it by rote. An executive would mechanically pick out a newspaper from a pile because of its tested breadth of news coverage, opinion and entertainment. A housewife would replenish the medicine cabinet with what she’s sure are effective pills. A teenager would study what cellphone model to pester the parents to buy, then wait for a sale to drag them to the store. Even the laundrywoman knows from experience what detergent to use to satisfy the amo.

Businessmen keep pace with buying trends by researching what consumers want. Many have set up customer relations departments not just to handle complaints but more to gather information on preferences. Home appliance and car makers even have employees calling clients to check their satisfaction with products or after-sales services.

Since we, buyers, are No. 1 in the minds of sellers, we must be aware of our rights as consumers. In observing Consumer Welfare Month, let’s review those eight rights:

(1) The right to basic needs. We need guarantees to survival, that is, adequate food, clothing, shelter, health care, sanitation, education. To ensure quality at affordable prices, don’t be taken in by the bandwagon of brands. High prices do not always mean high quality. Look for alternatives and make sure that a wide assortment of supplies and choices are always available, especially during calamities.

(2) The right to safety. We must be protected from goods and services that pose dangers to life and limbs. Manufacturers must test their products for safety and give out complete information about parts or ingredients. That way, we can avoid those with mixtures to which we’re sensitive.

(3) The right to information. We need protection against dishonest or misleading labels and ads. Manufacturers must give us pertinent data on their products’ limitations and precautions. We must read up on an item before buying it. And take note of the fine print in sales contracts, service warranties and credit terms.

(4) The right to choose. To ensure value for money, stores must offer a wide array of products in various brands, models, sizes, shapes and colors - with different prices and uses. We must specify what we want. No need to rush into a store just because there’s a sale. It pays to canvass prices before purchasing.

(5) The right to representation. We can reasonably demand that lawmakers and bureaucrats express our interests in crafting government policies. Let’s spare time to join public hearings and consumer groups.

(6) The right to redress. We must be recompensed for unsatisfactory goods, shoddy services or misrepresentation. Manufacturers must repair, replace or refund money for defective goods brought back to them within a reasonable period of time. The Consumer Act prohibits the old no return-no exchange rule on most products. There are few exemptions, like books. When complaining about a product or service, show pertinent documents like receipts, contracts, job orders, returned checks. Look for the manager, if necessary.; most complaints are fixed at that level. If not satisfied, write a formal complaint to the right government agency. Depending on the product, service or nature of the complaint, these are handled by the Departments of Trade and Industry, Health, Agriculture, or Interior and Local Government, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, or Securities & Exchange Commission.

(7) The right to consumer education. Businesses, government and consumer groups must inform us of new policies, laws and developments affecting our purchasing power. We, in turn, must keep abreast of trends by reading newspapers and attending community meetings.

(8) The right to a healthy environment. It’s not enough for manufacturers to provide us with good products at lowest possible prices. They must also keep our surroundings clean as they make and distribute products. Government must enforce environment and sanitation laws on factories, stores and shops that pollute the air, water and communities with smoke, litter or noise. We can also prod them to reduce and recycle their waste.

All rights have accompanying responsibilities. To effectively assert our eight consumers’ rights, we must take on five duties:

* Critical awareness. Don’t buy on impulse or panic. Let’s be alert to the point of questioning ourselves and sellers about the use, price and quality of goods and services.

* Action. The only way to get a fair deal is to assert ourselves and act on it. Passive consumers are an exploited lot.

* Social concern. Awareness of our rights should translate to concern for the needs of other citizens, particularly the poor and powerless, in our own locales and in other parts of the country and the world.

* Environmental awareness. Not only manufacturers and the government, but we too must ensure the cleanliness and conservation of our surroundings. We must ourselves reduce and recycle the waste resulting from our consumption. And that goes for habitual litterbugs.

* Solidarity. To better assert our interests as consumers, we must band together and find time to expand our influence and education.

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A denial is not necessarily true. Cain denied seeing Abel moments after slaying him.

Malacañang Senior Deputy Executive Secretary Waldo Q. Flores denied (Feedback, 26 Oct. 2001) having ever written to Tokyu Land Corp. about garnering the highest number of points to be the RP government’s consultant in developing real estate holdings in Tokyo, Kobe and Hyogo. He also said I was "misinformed on the details" of the prequalification of five of the 14 Japanese engineering firms that applied for consultancy.

Hmm, that’s strange. Three letters on Malacanang’s letterhead and bearing Flores’s signature attest to it. Too, Flores is the one who appears misinformed when he said he hasn’t met with Tokyu Land executives ever since he conducted the bidding last Sept. 13. His boss, Executive Secretary Alberto Romulo, called to say he’s investigating my exposé last Saturday (Gotcha, 20 Oct. 2001). Romulo wondered how a prequalification was held, much more a bidding, when he decided two months ago to postpone for better economic times all plans to develop RP’s land holdings in Japan.

The plot thickens. But I trust Romulo to dig deep into the mess and sniff out the close relations between the seemingly unacquainted persons involved. He cannot allow eager Japanese businessmen to be squeezed of their cash in Manila in the mistaken belief that they’ve won juicy public contracts. That would scare away already scarce foreign investors.

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At 52, Antonio T. Carpio must be the youngest justice ever to join the Supreme Court. That’s why some lawyers wondered aloud why somebody in the prime of his private career would take on a gruelling job where he’d be cloistered like a nun.

But those who really know him aver that Carpio is very deliberate. If he allowed the Judicial and Bar Council to nominate him to the Tribunal, it’s because he’s ready for 18 years ahead of deliberating questions of law and Constitution with 14 illustrious justices. They foresee his contributions to jurisprudence to on issues that will affect the economy.

Who knows, he just might become Chief Justice ten years from now. Then again, that can be ten boring years ahead for a lawyer who’s used to handling big clients.

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