Consumer woes

I am posting here the comment that my colleague Judy Flores-Partlow wrote in response to my entry about corporate greed and indifference. Her experience pretty much says how establishments, especially in the Philippines, can be so apathetic to their consumers.

Big stores like Super Lee Plaza make money out of the people who, day in and day out, buy stuff from their shelves. And what do their customers get in return? A cold shoulder when they raise product-related complaints.

Corporate social responsibility is obviously still an alien concept to most establishments in the provinces. Customers who have been wronged by business establishments often get only a paltry apology and an offer to replace the product, which is quite pathetic considering that the customer had wasted extra time and money to go back to the store again to raise the complaint.

Anyway, here's Dood's story:

"Super Lee Plaza!!! Well, well, I'm not surprised with this. Did I ever tell you pipz that I filed a complaint with the DTI because they charged me twice for one item? It was a few months back, and I did the grocery shopping myself. I have this tendency to be cautious when it comes to shopping, checking out the bill to make sure everything is in order. When I got home, I told my maids to check the taped receipt while they were storing the groceries. It was then that they found out that a container of imported butter (P174.00 ++) was punched in twice. No, not punched in nor swiped, actually they used this "gun"??? That thingy that looks like a gun and reads off the magnetic bars?? Anyways, I went to see the cashier and the Customer Desk representative at Super Lee Plaza but they would not hear of it. To cut the story short, I went to DTI and Hermel took care of the complaint. You bet it's not about the money when things like this happen. My husband, Kano as he is, thinks it is not worth my time for only P170 ++ to fight it off with the respondents. But, hey, I am a journalist who keeps on writing and griping about the laws, whether people follow or violate them, and here I am being told to pass up a thing like this? No way, Jose!!! No wonder consumerism is not a big thing in Dumaguete yet. Think about the girl I knew from Bayawan who bought an item for less than P100 at a downtown department store well-known for China-made items. As soon as she returned home to Bayawan, and that's 100 plus plus kilometers south of here, she discovered the item was defective, perhaps from all the bumps and humps it took from the travel! She said she didn't want to waste the time and fare money just to come to Dumaguete to file a complaint with DTI!!! So, you see, Ching, sometimes our principles make us steadfast in what we espouse and believe in. Compassion can be tricky...it fools us into giving up what we have been trained to fight for, and in the end, we lose. I also felt sorry for the cashier that double-charged me, but I wanted to stress a point here. Stores, big or small, do have responsibilities to their clients and it is only when management understands this that they can offer better services to all who do business with them. :-)"