CONSUMER RIGHTS
Be wary of the ‘sale’ trap
Pushpa Girimaji

ONE has heard of off-season discount and festival discount, but recently I saw a shop advertising mid-season discount. Well, I suppose when inflation is ruling at an all-time high and consumers are counting every rupee, retailers need to employ every trick in the trade to attract customers. So long as the discount is genuine, a sale by any name is welcome. However, what one has to watch out for are offers that are far from genuine.

In fact earlier, one saw such price reductions only in respect of clothes and consumer durables. But these days, with the entry of large retail outlets or supermarkets, one sees offers of price cuts on even vegetables, foodgrains and other household items. Given the steep rise in the prices of these items, such concessions are certainly attractive, but one needs to be smart enough to pick up the good bargains and leave out the bad ones.

For example, where there is a ‘buy one, get one’ offer on a food item, one has to carefully check the ‘best before’ date. It is quite likely that the offer is being made because the food is almost at the end of its shelf life. During monsoon, one has to be wary of insect infestation and, therefore, pick foodgrains, particularly pulses, that are fresh and closest to their date of packaging.

Another trick deployed by retailers is to advertise huge discounts of 70 to 80 per cent, without indicating that such discounts are only on a limited number of goods. Buyers who visit the shop in the hope of getting a good bargain may be disappointed, but once they are in the shop, the display would be so attractive that they end up purchasing something else that they really did not need.

Remember, these days there is lot of research on consumer habits, consumer buying and consumer psychology, and retailers plan their marketing techniques on the basis of these. So customers really need to be alert. In the 1980s, after investigating into a number of sale promotions, the Monopolies and Restrictive Trade Practices (MRTP) Commission had come up with a set of recommendations to prevent unfair trade practices and ensure fair play. For example, when a retailer advertises a sale, the goods should be available at the stated price in reasonably sufficient quantities and for a reasonable duration of time.

Similarly, goods on discounted price should be clearly labelled so and segregated from those which are not on sale. The shop should not have jacked up the price just prior to the announcement of sale and the discount should be on the original price, the MRTPC had said. The commission had also emphasised that a retailer announcing a sale should clearly state the purpose of the sale.

For example, if it is meant to get rid of old stock, the sale announcement should say that it is a clearance sale. On the other hand, if it is a discount for promotional purpose, or a festival sale, that must be stated. If it is an export surplus sale or a seasonal sale, the advertisement and the shop window should say so clearly so that the customer is left in no doubt as to the purpose of the sale.

In short, there should be complete transparency in the promotion and transaction, the commission had said. It is time the Union Ministry of Consumer affairs revived these recommendations and ensured that consumers are not taken for a ride.

Meanwhile, customers must remember that under the Consumer Protection Act as well as the Monopolies and Restrictive Trade Practices Act, they have a recourse to justice, if cheated in a sale transaction. Under both the laws, if the trader misleads you about the price or quality or even quantity, it constitutes an unfair trade practice. Similarly, when a shopkeeper advertises a discount sale without actually reducing the price, he is liable to be hauled up. Under both the laws, cease and desist orders can be passed against the retailer and compensation awarded to those who may have suffered loss or harassment on account of such a practice.

Retailers also tend to give shoppers the impression that they have no right whatsoever when they make a purchase at a sale. Do not be taken in by that. Whether it is a regular sale or a discounted sale, the goods bought must be of reasonably good quality and fit for the purpose for which it is bought. If these turn out to be defective, you have the right to a defect-free replacement or a refund. The only exception is where the shopkeeper has specifically described the sale as a sale of defective goods and sold it as such by pointing out the defect at the time of the sale.

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