Urinating on the floor of a commercial bank

Dec 23, 2015 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

The things that poor people have to put up with in Guyana are simply unbelievable. The National Consumer Commission (NCC), a governmental body, went on a trip to Regent Street stores to lecture owners on their legal obligation to consumers under the law. Store-owners were told among other requirements that all goods are returnable. One would have thought that with the change of government in May, the NCC would have started looking at its own obligation to itself.
The NCC gives a yearly stipend to an NGO named the Guyana Consumers’ Association. This body just does not exist and its dormancy dates back to over two decades. It once had vibrant leadership under Eileen Cox. Ill-health visited Ms. Cox and her incapacitation brought on the demise of the entity. Mr. Pat Dyal is the only person the association has. Mr. Dyal, a brave soul, is not in vibrant health himself.
After seven months of a new government, you would have thought that the NCC would have initiated a process to resuscitate the Guyana Consumer Association. Mr. Leonard Craig, Chairman of the Broadcasting Authority told me that two years he approached Mr. Dyal about the re-birth of the association, but talks failed to get off the ground.
Why did the NCC go to commercial entities on Regent Street and not the huge business places where consumers’ rights are flippantly de-recognized?
The Stabroek News did an editorial in its business section and I did two newspaper letters about a Regent Street shoe store owned by one of the country’s richest men that sells useless items. As you enter the store there are a few dozen boxes of shoes, all of which are either damaged beyond repair or just worthless items. There is a huge sign in that section that says “Goods not returnable.” This very poor chap came to me to say that when he took home his pair of shoes home, he found out that one size was bigger than the other.
Management refused to reimburse him. They told him that sale items were not returnable. These were sale items that should not even be in the store in the first place, but at the garbage site in Eccles. One year after I wrote those two letters and the Stabroek News editorial, I visited the store. Nothing has changed. The NCC and the Bureau of Standards didn’t pay this entity even one visit. They cannot. Like the police force, like the Labour Department, the NCC and the Bureau of Standards can be found on the lawns of the rich and powerful waiting for their gifts.
It was reported in the press that one of the Regent Street owners that the NCC visited was so upset he almost chased them, but he couldn’t do that because the NCC has the legal right to visit and make an inquiry at any store it chooses. And the NCC made sure it chose the type of commercial outlets it wanted to visit that day in Regent Street – the small ones. Since that Regent Street escapade of the NCC, it has gone quiet. It has not ventured out in the commercial centres since. Obviously, National Hardware should be on the list of big retail establishments.
On Monday, a consumer, Donna Wharton came to the offices of the Kaieteur News to speak to me. She said after she collected her stuff from the bag bay at National Hardware, she found two items were missing. She reported the matter to the Brickdam police station. Brickdam summoned the bag bay attendant, who refused the request. Ms. Wharton returned to the station, only to be told that the police cannot force him to go to the station. That was the end of the matter.
I can give the NCC this woman’s number. Will the NCC visit National Hardware and investigate why the guards have to examine your purchase when you are leaving? Will the NCC visit all the pizza establishments which have a policy that once an ingredient or two are missing from the toppings, you still have to pay the same price. New Thriving Restaurant does the same thing for some of its menus.
Will the NCC extend its jurisdiction to the commercial banks whose customers are not offered washroom facilities? One of these days, in the largest bank, Republic Bank, some eccentric gentleman is going to “drop his physical” (to use Rastafari lingo) and pee on the ground inside the bank. Will the NCC extend its coverage to GPL and GWI who treat their customers like if they were lepers? But then again, this is Guyana.

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Urinating on the floor of a commercial bank

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