The Voice - Dear Consumer's Voice

Dear Consumer’s Voice

I had a bad experience buying perfume from a store at Riverwalk Shopping Mall.

I went to the shop to buy my favourite perfume but they persuaded me to buy some Chanel instead. They even called the manager of the store on his cellphone to come back to the store to give me a discount. He came back very quickly and he did indeed give me a reduction. However as soon as I got it home I realised it was a fake.

I returned it the next day but they refused to take it back or replace it with an original claiming that I had already opened it.

What can I do?

They’re crooks, simple as that. Don’t ever buy anything from him again and although we can’t name the store (yet) you should tell everyone you know that they sell counterfeit goods and can’t be trusted.

There seems to be an epidemic of counterfeit goods at the moment. Whether it’s DVDs that contain several pirated films, illegal copies of computer software, branded clothing or perfume it’s all rubbish and illegal as well.

Regardless of things like copyright law the store has broken Section 13 (1) (b) of the Consumer Protection Regulations by selling you something that caused a probability of confusion about the source of those products they sold. If it said Chanel on the box it must be Chanel. If it turns out that it isn’t Chanel they are crooks, simple as that.

The bad news is that you’ll get no support from the Government enforcement authorities. But don’t despair, you’re not alone. The good news is that Consumer Watchdog and The Voice love a fight. Bring us the bottle of perfume you bought and we’ll send it to the nearest Chanel distributor for testing and if they can prove it’s a fake we’ll expose them as well as reporting them to the Police.

Watch this space!