Wealthy business places must not do these heartless things

Jun 16, 2013 Letters

Dear Editor,
During the People’s Parliament’s presence at the public park (on High Street opposite Parliament and which has been permanently closed because of our occupation)), we got to know one of the guards, Monty Green very well. He was from RK security service and he got into problems because of his assistance to the People’s Parliament. Last Friday about 15.00 hours, I met Monty who explained a dilemma to me
He went to a huge shoe outlet and bought a pair of boots. He said he did not receive a receipt because the attendant said special sales do not carry receipts. His problem is that he bought the boots for someone who will have to reimburse him. But he had no proof of the amount he paid.
I took the item out of the plastic bag. You are not going to believe what I saw. The boots were of different sizes. We went to the store. There is a permanent special sales section with the sign, “Goods are not returnable.” There are about ten boxes of absolutely useless footwear. I examined the items myself. These are things to be thrown away. Even if you give them away they serve no purpose. They are just goods damaged beyond repair. It was unbelievable that a wealthy firm like this store was selling these things
The son of the owner was in charge. He agreed to reimburse Monty. I told him that was not the issue. The point was why the store was putting this rubbish for sale.
My emphasis to the son was that only poor people buy this useless stuff so they are being given a very horrible deal. At the Walter Rodney Commemoration event later in the evening, I told Tacuma Ogunseye about the incident. He said he made a purchase from the special sale a few years back and when he was ready to use the pair of shoes, he discovered that they were no good
The Guyana Consumers Association no longer functions and it is amazing that no group has sought to replace it. Poor, very poor folks are being denied their money’s worth and this nation does nothing about it. Monty’s friend would have ended up wearing on the same pair of feet a pair of boots with two different sizes. I call upon Red Thread, TUC, FITUG, PNC, PPP, WPA, AFC, 1823 Coalition, People’s Parliament, SASOD and other stakeholders to do something about starting up a new Consumer’s Association. The victims of horrible consumer exploitation are poor people.
Do you know Chinese stores are selling broken chinaware. Go and see for yourself coffee cups and plates that are badly chipped. These cups can cut your lips or tongue. Poor folks buy them because they cannot do better. The political parties have constituencies that vote for them that are such victims.
How can any store put up a sign that reads, “Goods to be purchased as they are,” and those items are in sealed boxes. Suppose it is rubbish that you unwittingly paid for? So, can gas stations mix their fuel with water with a sign at the pump that says, “We will not accept complaints if spark plugs malfunction due to our gas?” Why not accept a sign at a supermarket that informs you; “If your beef is mixed with donkey meat we are not responsible.”
I ask the question again: “How can a store sell products that cannot be used? For me, what is most morally revolting is that multi-billion entities are involved. Last week, I wrote on a peculiar sale I saw at Acme Photo Studio. Three weeks before, I complained that the $5000 AVVIO phone GT&T is selling has a structural fault. Mine is still malfunctioning. No one does anything about these abuses. People just get on with their wretched lives in this Kafkaesque, Dostoyevskian, dystopian hell-hole where pain and suffering come to be accepted as inevitable punishment from the ancient Greek gods for simply being born as Guyanese. You wonder if any Guyanese know the intrinsic philosophical difference between abuse and freedom
Frederick Kissoon

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