Question

Describe some of your duties as consumers if you visit a shopping complex in your locality.

Answer 1

Some of the duties when a consumer visits a shopping complex is to check for certain indicators of the product and make sure that he or she is not cheated by the seller while purchasing goods or services.

Check for Logos or Certifications on the Product

• While buying a commodity check for the logo with letters ISI, Hallmark or Agmark.
• While purchasing the services and goods, these certifications and logos help consumers get an assurance of the product quality.
• If certain quality standards are followed by the producers, then the organisations that issue and monitor these certificates, allow the producers to use their logos.
• However it is not compulsory for all the producers to follow standards, although organisations develop quality standards for many products.
• For example, producers of packaged drinking water, producers of food colours, and food additives have to mandatorily follow the quality standards set up by these organisations.

Consumers’ Right to Choice

• While buying any product it is important that consumers should be aware of their right to choose.
• Sellers cannot force you to buy any product.
• For example, if a consumer is planning to buy a toothpaste, sellers cannot force a consumer to buy even a toothbrush along with toothpaste.

Consumer has to Check the Market Retail Price (MRP)

• Every product will have a price printed on the packaging of the product.
• A seller cannot sell the product at a price higher than Market Retail Price (MRP).
• If the seller sells the product at a price higher than the MRP, the consumer has the right to protest.

Consumer has the Right to Information

• While buying a product, the consumer has the right to be informed about the date of manufacture, address of manufacturer, batch number, ingredients used and the price.