Consumers’ rights
I BOUGHT a refrigerator (product code 610591) on Aug 20. The product was faulty from day one. The answer back confirmatory second message dated Sept 10 says “Dear customer! Our technician shall attend to your complaint 201809-007299 in 24 hours.”
Despite my several phone calls to the technician and company’s service (Lahore), the trouble shooter never turned up.
In the developed world, such cases of sales and negligent post-purchase ‘service’ are severely penalised (under law of tort and crime). Consumer protection groups take care that production dinosaurs do not go scot-free.
Dawn letters column teems with grievances against callous departments. But, there is no Ralph Nader in Pakistan to establish a consumer –protection advocacy group. Nader’s efforts in the US led volunteer law students to spearhead ‘Nader raiders’, ‘Public Interest Research Group’, and ‘Public Citizen’.
These associations led to groundbreaking investigation and overhaul of the US Federal Trade Commission. To satisfy the groups, the US government was forced to enact several landmark pieces of American consumer protection laws, including the Clean Water Act, the Freedom of Information Act, Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, and the Whistleblower Protection Act.
In Pakistan, hapless citizens like me could only pray for divine relief as there is no earthly help, except Dawn.
A.J. Malik
Rawalpindi
Published in Dawn, October 30th, 2018
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