Bad service woes to end
OMBUD HELPING CUSTOMERS RESOLVE ISSUES
POOR service, bad quality products and broken promises are some of the problems faced by consumers.
However, when you buy a product or service, you can feel safe and empowered in the knowledge that if anything goes wrong, there is an ombudsman ready to hear your case and resolve disputes. What exactly is an ombud? An ombud is an independent service that deals with a complaint you may have with an organisation, and if that organisation has not been able to satisfactorily deal with your complaint.
Ombud services are free for consumers to use, and are an alternative to going to court to sort out a problem.
An ombud acts as an independent referee who looks at both sides of the argument, makes inquiries, asks questions and comes up with a remedy or solution that they believe is fair.
What types of ombuds are there?
Ombud schemes tend to cover a particular industry or sector. For example, the financial services ombudsman deals with complaints about financial services companies; likewise the motor industry ombud would deal with motor-related complaints.
There is an ombudsman for the press, for short-term insurance, for long-term insurance, for banking services and for credit.
The consumer goods and services ombud (CGSO) has now been established to deal with consumer complaints within the consumer goods and services industry in an efficient and fair manner.
The CGSO educates consumers on their rights and assists in resolving disputes that arise between consumers and the industry, in terms of the Consumer Protection Act.
Previously, if you had a complaint regarding goods and services, it would have been handled by the National Consumer Council (NCC).
The hope is that the new retail ombudsman will ease the burden of the NCC, which receives an average of 8 000 complaints a month, and allows for far speedier complaint handling.
Ebrahim Mohamed, the chairman of the NCC, says the CGSO will therefore play a vital role in having complaints dealt with in a speedy and efficient manner.
SA Retail Council head Patricia Pillay says the ombudsman is a service to the consumer.
“We receive complaints which range from not being able to return groceries that were purchased in a spoiled state, to buying face products that caused an irritation,” she says.
Pillay adds that the CGSO call centre has been running for the last year and the success rate of the resolution of complaints has been good.