The Director-General, Consumer Protection Council (CPC), Mrs. Dupe Atoki, has urged businesses to live up to the specified guarantee and warranty policy for the products and services they offer.
Mrs. Atoki, who addressed key industry operators in automobile, electrical/electronics, heavy duty equipment, online markets and superstores subsectors of the economy yesterday at a meeting in Lagos, said the success of the drive of the country to diversify the economy would hinge on the quality of products and the entrenchment of guarantee and warranty in the country’s business culture.
She stressed the Council’s commitment for the entrenchment and adoption of business cultures and also support government’s renewed drive to unbundle the economy, but regretted that manufacturers and distributors have not only short-changed consumers by their failure to honour their products or services’ implied guarantee or warranty, but have also abused consumer rights with ouster clauses, such as “no refund of money after payment,” and “goods received in good condition cannot be returned” on their receipts.
The CPC chief lamented that multinationals that uphold these tenets in their home countries have come short of implementing them in Nigeria.
“Worse still is the fact that even multinational corporations that adhere strictly to the tenets of implied, or specified guarantee and warranty in other countries, come up with all sorts of devices in Nigeria to renege on same,” she said.
Describing the situation as unacceptable, Mrs. Atoki advised businesses operating in the country to emulate their counterparts in other climes where “the concept of guarantee and warranty is taken for granted because manufacturers in those countries do not only strive to produce according to specifications, but also make after sales service an integral part of their marketing strategy.
“As a result, businesses in such climes have clearly articulated policies on return, repair, replacement, or refund of money for products which do not meet the expectation of consumers”.
She observed that the almost non-existent after sales service culture among businesses in Nigeria has denied consumers of simple redress of their complaints without the intervention of the Council.
“It is a common occurrence to see businesses invent reasons to justify why consumers should not derive the desired benefits from their purchases,” she lamented,
Adding that it is disheartening for instance, “to see a consumer purchases a product, which should serve for a number of years, but malfunctions after a few weeks, without any indication of support from the supplier.
