AMONG the most distressing complaints which the Guyana Consumer Association receive are those relating to household electrical equipment such as washing-machines, cookers, food-mixers, blenders and vacuum cleaners which become dysfunctional in a short time after use.

These items are usually purchased by ordinary simple consumers, many of them from the countryside. Most of these folk never visit the long-established stores, since there is a widespread myth that the prices in these long-established stores are much higher than those of the numerous small stores which have proliferated in the downtown areas of Georgetown, and to a lesser extent in New Amsterdam. Most of these small stores are owned and operated by foreigners, mainly East Asians.

Most of the goods sold in these establishments are deceptively cheaper than goods sourced from established manufacturers with known brand-name products but the quality and durability are invariably inferior.

This is particularly true of household electrical appliances. Most of these appliances bear brand-names of which Guyanese consumers have never heard and which are suspected of being given to products in an ad hoc manner; sometimes they may even carry forged well-known brand names.

A fairly high proportion of these appliances perform very poorly or become dysfunctional in a few weeks and the purchaser has to incur the costs of repairs since these items are often sold without warranties or have no more than four-week warranties, which in any case is difficult to enforce for a variety of reasons. Almost all these East Asian appliances carry no spare parts.

Consumers are urged to protect themselves by the following action:-
(1) Before purchasing consumer durables and other household appliances, ascertain what is on offer at the established stores. Check on the brand-names, the guarantees or warranties which go with the product, the repair and technical services which are provided, the availability of spare parts, whether free or subsidized transport delivery service is provided, and to insist that from the time an appliance is reported as being out-of-order to the time of its return in good order, that time should not be debited to the period of the warranty since the consumer would not have been able to enjoy usage during that time.

(2) If a consumer decides, for one reason or another, to buy his appliance from one of the smaller recently established stores he should:-
(a) Insist on being given a proper bill or receipt which should carry the name and address of the store; the correct price clearly stated; the item purchased adequately described; the date of the purchase; and revenue stamps if required. Except you have a valid receipt of purchase, you cannot prove ownership, for example, if a police problem were to arise; or you wish to return the purchase; or you wish to complain about the item to the store or to the Guyana Consumers Association (GCA). If the store refuses to issue a proper bill, do not make the purchase.
(b) In the purchase of electrical home equipment or appliances, the price is only one of the several factors you should take into account. Some of these factors are outlined at (1) above.
We will however emphasize a few of these factors:-
THE WARRANTY
Many of the stores tell you there is a month’s warranty but this is meaningless as the store will never honour it and this was done simply to dodge the requirement in the Consumer Protection Act which provides that if no warranty is given an automatic 6-month warranty becomes applicable.
REPAIR FACILITIES AND SPARE PARTS
All these small stores have no technicians or repair facilities and they never stock spare parts. If one’s appliance goes bad, the purchaser will almost certainly have to abandon it, thus losing the money he had paid.
VOLTAGE
Check carefully on the electrical voltage.
TRANSPORTATION
Established stores offer free delivery of purchases within a certain radius and subsidized delivery outside of that radius. Small stores offer no delivery. Delivery costs could increase price sharply.

Consumers are strongly enjoined to ‘Get value for money’. And remember in buying electrical equipment, price is only one of the several factors to take into account.
In the event a consumer has exhausted all efforts to have problems with the vendor redressed, he may contact the Guyana Consumers Association at email: patdial26@gmail.com
By Pat Dial