Can any­one tell me what role the Con­sumer Pro­tec­tion Di­vi­sion plays in pro­tect­ing us the un­sus­pect­ing cit­i­zens of T&T? My meet­ing with a fe­male of­fi­cer of that di­vi­sion to com­plain about an un­scrupu­lous Chi­nese trad­er in Port-of-Spain had me feel­ing more de­ject­ed and be­wil-dered than I was be­fore go­ing to the di­vi­sion for re­dress. I bought a hair­piece for $60, which I took to my hair­dress­er a few blocks away.

Af­ter look­ing at it, she prompt­ly told me to re­turn it for colour No 2 in­stead of No 1. The store pro­pri­etress blunt­ly stat­ed that she didn't have any No 2 and re­fused to re­fund me my mon­ey, as she claimed that it was a "per­son­al item." Pro­duc­ing my cash bill was there­fore not an op­tion.

I im­me­di­ate­ly head­ed to the Con­sumer Af­fairs Di­vi­sion, on­ly to meet a not so ac­com­mo­dat­ing of­fi­cer who, af­ter hear­ing my com­plaint, con­curred by say­ing the par­tic­u­lar item was a per­son­al item and they could not ar­bi­trate on my be­half. When I asked if she could at least call and talk to the pro­pri­etress, she re­mained res­olute and stat­ed that she didn't want to en­cour­age that prac­tice. My ques­tion to that di­vi­sion is: what con­sti­tutes a per­son­al item apart from un­der­wear, which is the ac­cept­ed norm? Am I to as­sume that the fol­low­ing are not per­son­al items: shoes, jew­el­ry, cloth­ing, bags, make-up, ac­ces­sories, nail pol­ish, per­fume, tooth­paste, stock­ings etc?

And what will be my ex­pec­ta­tions when a re­quest is made for a re­fund for any of these re­turns? The Con­sumer Af­fairs Di­vi­sion needs to get its act to­geth­er by be­ing more vig­i­lant and proac­tive and by ed­u­cat­ing the pub­lic on mat­ters of this na­ture. What is it do­ing about ed­u­cat­ing the pub­lic with re­spect to the pur­chase of for­eign-used tyres, which in most in­stances are de­fec­tive and can cause se­ri­ous ac­ci­dents? Can any­one tell me what is a per­son­al item?

J Cyrus

Port-of Spain