Somewhat unrelated: Who's Baiting Who?
References:
Watchdog wants criminal action against store cheats (The Standard)
Wednesday, August 10, 2011
The Consumer Council has renewed its call to make unscrupulous sales practices a criminal offense as its name-and-shame drive has apparently failed to stem such incidents, which have risen 10 percent over the past year.
The council received 272 complaints in the first seven months of the year relating to misleading sales tactics adopted by shops selling digital electronic products.
There were 143 complaints against two shops in Tsim Sha Tsui, from January last year until the present - Modern Digital and Sunshine City - which involved a sum of over HK$1.6 million.
Council chief executive Connie Lau Yin-hing said the government should broaden the Trade Description Ordinance to allow unscrupulous sellers to be criminally charged.
Modern Digital is alleged to have sold a Zhongshan couple a camera without proper documents and functions.
The man, surnamed Luo, said he paid HK$6,500 for a Canon camera on Monday.
On returning to his hotel he found there was neither an instruction manual nor a guarantee certificate.
It also did not have a video-taking function which the salesman claimed.
Luo went to another shop in Mong Kok yesterday to inquire about his camera and was told it may be a parallel import worth only HK$3,000.
He later received a full refund after a salesman, surnamed Fung, put it down to a misunderstanding.
PHILA SIU
Camera con must stop, says watchdog (SCMP; paywall)
Consumer Council wants law change criminalising bait-and-switch sales tactic tabled to Legco soon, and names two Tsim Sha Tsui shops that practise it
Ada Lee
Aug 10, 2011
The Consumer Council wants the trade descriptions law changed quickly to outlaw unscrupulous sales practices such as the bait-and-switch tactic and other ruses it says two Tsim Sha Tsui camera shops use.
The council said yesterday that Modern Digital and Sunshine City, both on Nathan Road, were alleged to have cheated customers out of HK$1.6 million since the beginning of last year. It has received 95 complaints against Modern Digital and 48 against Sunshine City in that period. All were from tourists.
It said the shops would press their customers to pay before checking their purchase and then would say the product they wanted was out of stock and talk them into buying a more expensive one. They would also sell second-hand products as new ones and older models as the latest ones.
Council chief executive Connie Lau Yin-hing said the watchdog hoped the government would soon submit to Legco delayed legislation to amend the Trade Descriptions Ordinance. "Then these sales tactics will be criminalised and the consumers can be better protected," Lau said.
The government had been expected to submit to the Legislative Council an amendment to regulate misleading claims and prepayment packages that fail to meet buyers' expectations before the legislative session ended last month, but did not.
The council said both shops, like many others in the area, attracted tourists with huge neon signboards of camera brand names and did not show their shop names on the outside.
The chairman of the council's trade practice committee, William Chan Che-kwong, said it had warned the shops repeatedly but had not seen a change in their sales tactics, so it decided to name and shame them.
In one case, a South African tourist looking for a particular camera costing US$1,250 in Modern Digital was persuaded to buy a "newer and better" one for US$1,400.
The camera had no packaging case or user manual. He was given a free camera bag and was told the receipt could be used as a worldwide warranty.
He later found the camera was an older model and returned to the shop. The shop refused to change the camera because he did not have the packaging case or manual.
Chan said these tactics had existed for decades and were becoming more widespread. As the council had no prosecutorial power, there was little it could do.
The council has alerted the Tourist Commission and Hong Kong Tourism Board about the two shops and will inform the China Consumers' Association and National Tourism Administration on the mainland.
The Consumer Council received 602 complaints concerning audio-visual and digital electronic products in the first seven months of the year, compared with 537 in the same period last year. Complaints of unscrupulous sales tactics rose to 272 from 247.
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