by Ricky Jimenez
This column continues to serve the consumers with timely tips on how to be on the look out for “deceptive, unfair and unconscionable sales acts and practices” as worded in the Consumer Act of the Philippines (RA7394).
Such acts and practices for all intents and purposes come in various forms. This week we give one familiar modus operandi: somebody you don’t know calls you up on your cell phone with the good news you are about to receive something for nothing. It can come as a free gift, free insurance coverage, free accommodation in a plush hotel for a night or two, etc.
It starts with the fact that you are a cell phone owner. How your contact number came to be known by someone you don’t know from Adam makes the call a pleasant surprise. It is probably because your SIM pack provider has business alliances with some enterprising sales or marketing people, or if during the political campaign season, with some well-entrenched political parties. That is why you receive so many political campaign updates, however biased. Or by your own volition, you happen to have signed your name on an attendance or registration log book and have written in the same space your mobile phone number. No brainer, this one.
Our story source is the Department of Trade and Industry-Davao City (DTI-DCFO). It starts with a teaser: “Do the best things in life come at a price?”
“Have you been offered a free gift? Free insurance, free dinner, free accommodation in a plush hotel for a night or two?
Be careful with free gifts. They may not be free after all.
This is what Joe (not his real name) experienced. One day, he got a call informing him he will be given a free gift – free accommodation in a first class hotel in Metro Manila for two nights. How the caller got his telephone number was not clear. But he remembers having signed up in a guest list of a company distributing giveaways in a shopping mall.
He was told that he would be given free diner if he stayed for an hour where the gift he will receive will be explained.
Upon arrival at the designated place, he was offered juice. Then the real purpose for the gift surfaced: he was offered a time sharing package in hotels here and abroad. It was quite expensive but could be purchased through credit card. The one-hour period passed. No sale was concluded as Joe insisted he could not afford the package and that he did not have any travel plans in the near future.
How about the gift?
It was given to him in the form of a certificate, but Joe did not feel like getting the free dinner as the offer seemed to have been forgotten. But here’s the hitch. When Joe called the company offering the time sharing package that offered him a two-night stay in a Metro Manila hotel, he was told the hotel was fully booked at the dates he specified. Fuming mad, he called the Metro Manila hotel to verify. The hotel had many rooms available.
Lessons learned by consumers and suppliers:
Be smart like Joe. Nobody can force you to buy anything whether you can afford it or not.
Always go back to the purpose of the purchase. Do you need it, or do you just want it? Or worst, were you placed in a situation where you felt too embarrassed to refuse because you accepted the free gift?
Will such selling strategies be profitable in the long run? Or will it tarnish the sponsors’ reputation rather than earn them goodwill?
After all the best things in life may just come with a price after all
You may have had your own unique encounter with an unknown phone caller offering you a free gift. Maybe your version of the same story may even be more amusing. Just to keep you forewarned. Don’t be taken for a ride. There are so many FAMAS AWARD- caliber telemarketers waiting for a chance to make a fast buck at your expense. The next time you get a call from out of the blue with eye-popping offers, tell the caller:”Istoryahi!” Never mind if he understand the joke or not. (email me at rjrjrajimenez@gmail.com)
