Friday 12 August 2016

The Voice - Consumer's Voice

Can I change my mind?

Kindly clarify. I bought a dress from a store at Game City last week Wednesday. Yesterday I took the dress back as I did not use it for the intended purpose because it does not fit well. I also have evidence in the form of a picture, that indeed I did not wear the dress to the intended event, I wore a different dress. I had removed the tag from the dress but I had it together with the receipt. The shop took back the dress and told me that I cannot get my money back, and this is also stated on the receipt. I was further made to understand that I would rather get something in the shop for the same amount. So at the moment there is nothing that I want to get from the shop, and I was told I will get a call when new stock arrives, which they always do because I'm a regular customer. All I have right now is the receipt which shows that I have paid P1,099 and that I will go and collect an item of the same value from new stock. Also, if I find something that's worth a lesser amount I will not get my change back, it has to be the exact same amount or more. Now my question is, what if I don't ever get to find something that I like in the shop? Is this practise even lawful?


Yes, this is completely lawful.

As a consumer you only have a right to return an item if it’s faulty or if it was somehow mis-sold. If the dress had been second-hand, torn, was so badly made that you couldn’t wear it or disintegrated the first time you washed it, then you could have taken it back and you would have been entitled to one of the three Rs: a refund, replacement or repair. That’s your right as a consumer.

But you don’t have a legal right to change your mind.

In fact, the store could have refused to do anything for you. Think of it from their side. Have they done anything wrong? They sold you the dress in good faith, you presumably tried it on and chose to buy it and it’s not their dress any longer, it’s yours. Offering you a replacement item was actually quite a reasonable thing for them to do.

Sorry I don’t have better news for you. Hopefully something amazing will turn up in the store sometime soon.

Can I get a Range Rover?

I saw a post on Facebook which said “For the very first time on Facebook! We are giving out 10 Range Rovers to 10 lucky winners! From now till the August 10, 2016. Do you want to participate and WIN?”

Can this be true?


No, it’s certainly not.

I have some shocking news for you. You might need to sit down and take a deep breath before you read any further.

You can’t believe everything you see on Facebook.

In fact, you can’t believe everything you see on the Internet. Every time you see something remarkable or surprising on any part of the internet the first thing you should ask yourself is “Why is this liar lying to me? What does he want from me?”

In this case, there are no Range Rovers being given away. Companies like Land Rover just don’t do this. I’ve seen messages supposedly from a range of well-known companies such as British Airways and Emirates and even individuals such as Bill Gates offering free stuff if you just like their post and share it with your friends. But they’re not really from these companies and people, they’re fake. This is a form of “clickbait”, a trick to get you to click somewhere, boosting the popularity of a particular web page or Facebook profile, probably to increase their advertising revenue.

Please don’t fall for this. Don’t click on like, instead report the post to Facebook so they can remove it.

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