---------------------------------------------------------- Do GOACAN a favour, circulate this email to your family members, relatives, neighbours and friends. Help others be BETTER INFORMED, The time is come for the people of Goa to ORGANISE not AGONISE !! ---------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------ Stand Up for Consumer Rights! ------------------------------
by Ethel Da Costa I take great pride in my role as a mother. Even if it be, a single mother. Children -- as parents universally know, relish and regale in the role -- add colour, strength and meaning to our lives, however erratic, stressful and hectic it may be for us as working mothers or fathers. We leave no stone unturned within our realm of environment, understanding, financial, emotional and physical capability to ensure the safety, health and well-being of our children, regardless of the hardships we may endure raising them as wholesome individuals. It is hence with great distress caused by experiences that find this column standing for and taking up the cause of the consumer (which the media reminds us is KING time and again), unfortunately finding himself/herself short-changed for want of safety, service, attitude and honouring the commitment between two parties when money duly changes hand. Economics is about buying a service for a price through a transaction of value. You pay for a product for services you would like to enjoy through a value expressed in terms of money. Straight deal. I want, I pay, I expect value to the service as a consumer. In short, my money's worth. In doing so, a code of honour is sealed between the service provider and the service buyer. The sale of service from shop to door, however, does not entail taking you, the consumer, to a near death-distress experience causing a loss of faith and honour to this commitment. Consumer Rights in India or Goa is the pits, but for the efforts of a few individual activists who have been taking further the cause of the consumer in Goa. Too often have I heard of consumers being taken for a ride by a service provider, more often than not resulting in criminal negligence of adhering to proper guidelines, carelessness, neglect or taking the consumer for granted, to cause loss of life, property or loss of faith and trust. In Goa, as is my experience, consumers at a receiving end have no clue what to do, or the mode of operation to adopt when faced with a situation which brings him into direct conflict of whether to continue the mode of trust. My recent experiences have disillusioned me with the knowledge that `quality' no matter what the price, need not necessarily mean honoring my money's worth in `quality service,'if not ensure the safety of my loved ones. On the contrary, I have found the opposite true, only to be saved in the nick of time by an act of sheer common reflex, or, as I now assume, a guardian angel watching over us. It makes me wonder what goes on behind the big brands, respected names and all the moving and shaking and celebrity endorsements involved in marketing and branding exercises which cost tons of money. A popular resort in the city, boasting of international standards, recently tossed my unshakeable faith and trust in their services out of the window and into the ocean. It is never to be repaired again. My disillusionment magnifies ten times as it is one of the favourite resorts of my children, in love as they were with the resort's popular Cake Shop. They have been hurriedly enlightened in their young years that safety and hygiene, perhaps, is not one of their resort's strong forte. A terrible lesson learnt through a hearty mouthful of pastry which could have resulted in grave danger of life (except through sheer common reflex spitting the pastry out on the plate following discomfort) to discover a piece of sharp edged glass in the mouthful of goody. It shakes me to the core, and countless nightmares have followed since then. Less said the better of the unbecoming attitude of the resort personnel trying to pacify me with a bottle of wine!! They really believe life is that cheap? The audacity of taking clients for granted! Similarly, finding a rusted needle in a packet of Goan sausage, cooked and served on my dinner plate. Goa's oldest food brand need not come with the statutory safety warning, I learn, when I buy a packet of my most loved sausage. Or, the fungus ridden cake from another city bakery, packaged under chocolate... The consumer, as I can see it, is the SUCKER. Taken for granted, and having to put up with lukewarm apologies, excuses and other annoying noises they make when you seek to pull their pants down. Well, it's time to indeed pull their pants down, as every consumer equips himself with information, laws pertaining to consumer rights, giving more teeth to consumer courts, more arm to consumer activists fighting to enlighten and empower the consumer with laws and rights. If not for your money's worth, then at least for redemption of the sheer loss of trust and faith for taking your esteemed patronage for granted. If you pay for quality, or a quality brand as marketed, you bet you have the right to ask, seek and deserve quality service. No more sucking up to the big names. Time to show that the consumer is indeed KING. Let your money demand the quality it deserves. ------------------------------------------- HEART 2 HEART in the HERALD 02/0706 page 11 -------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------------------------- GOA CIVIC AND CONSUMER ACTION NETWORK ---------------------------------------------------------------------- promoting civic and consumer rights in Goa --------------------------------------------------------------------- GOACAN Post Box 187 Margao, Goa 403 601 GOACAN Post Box 78 Mapusa, Goa 403 507 mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- _______________________________________________ Goanet mailing list [email protected] http://lists.goanet.org/listinfo.cgi/goanet-goanet.org
