Lack of laws to discipline errant firms, hurdle for consumer

The recent treaties India signed with China and Japan to pump in a sum totalling $55 billion into the Indian economy will mean that more goods and services from these countries will come into India, offering the consumer more choice in the market.

After all, whether they are bullet trains, hi-tech electronics or improved storage facilities for perishable goods, the end-user is always the consumer whatever may be the amount spent in any economy.

With the opening of the economy a couple of decades ago, and products of all sorts freely flooding the Indian markets, the consumer today can proudly say that he is being offered the best of goods and services that are available in the world. Initial skepticism that this would benefit only the upper and middle classes was clearly shattered in the last decade, when survey after survey showed that people in rural areas were purchasing refrigerators, air-conditioners and washing machines, once believed to be luxuries which the poor could hardly afford. In fact, the differentiation between ‘luxury’ and ‘necessity’ has got so blurred in recent times, that air-conditioning in restaurants and meeting halls is no longer looked upon as extravagance by all strata of society. 

Inspite of all these healthy signs and the availability of the latest gadgets concurrently in India and the rest of the world, there is a disconcerting gap in the attitudes of companies selling the same products in these regions. In the West, for example, complaints against goods purchased are given top-most priority and most retail outlets do not have the slightest hesitation in refunding the consumer the amount he has paid for his goods or offering him an exchange in case he is dissatisfied with the product. As a rule, this facility is not easily available to the average Indian. Even though the Department of Consumer Affairs of the Government of India has stated that the mantra of “Goods once sold cannot be returned or exchanged’’ is not permitted and amounts to unfair trade practice, most Indian retailers blatantly print this statement at the bottom of their cash memos and adhere to it strictly in practice.

Lack of after-sales service and prompt redressal of complaints can lead to immense harassment to the unfortunate consumer who lands up buying a product which has in-built defects. Even though courts have held that a product which malfunctions within a few months of its purchase will be presumed or deemed to have a manufacturing defect, manufacturers continue to give a tough time to the consumer who buys such a product. Customers who have had the misfortune to buy a defective mobile set or a two-wheeler narrate stories of untold misery in getting the manufacturer to even acknowledge their complaints. Even when these issues are taken up by representative consumer bodies, most companies turn a deaf ear to the calls for help. In most Indian hospitals, the medical care may be world class but the post-operative care lags far behind and leaves much to be desired. Similarly, Indian consumers feel that the products they get are world class but the after-sales service is almost non-existent. 

With international e-tailers like Amazon, E-bay and others vying for the Indian market and news reports stating that the on-line purchase system is making inroads into the marketing and sales of goods, the problem is likely to further intensify.  It would be far easier for the consumer to fight with a face he sees in his store than an unknown post box address in Gurgaon or Noida, with call centres giving mechanical answers and unfulfilled promises of succour. Lack of laws and regulations to discipline errant manufacturers and retailers is the other major hurdle for the consumer to succeed in his attempt at getting justice in such cases. 

Complaint about consumers

The flip side of the story is that manufacturers complain that selling in India is not like selling in countries in the West. There are complaints from companies that consumers often mishandle goods or spoil them inadvertently, and then without acknowledging their own mistake, want the company to make good their losses. Though this is true in a small number of cases, mis-selling and misrepresentation adds to the scenario as glib ‘agents’ sell miracle products or get-rich-quick schemes to gullible consumers, who fall into the trap inspite of knowing that whatever they are buying is too good to be true. As a consequence, all consumers are tarred with the same brush and looked upon as potential cheats!

The bane of the consumer movement in India is the total lack of unity among consumers, which prevents the movement from presenting itself as a strong lobby, which can influence policies and decisions. In other parts of the world, consumer unity is so strong and feared that car manufacturers and pharma companies are known to have recalled their products from consumers’ homes and retailers’ shelves just on the fear that an adverse report may trigger a backlash which may hurt the company and send it into terminal decline. Powerful and efficient regulatory bodies add to this control mechanism as companies like Microsoft have found out to their discomfiture. 

The Indian consumer has a long way to go from the crossroads at which he finds himself today, but before he proudly proclaims ‘Consumer is King’ may be he should start a cleansing process by which he should first learn to behave like a king – demanding, but being just in his demands.

(The writer is with the Consumer Guidance Society of India,Mumbai)