‘Car buyers complain for a reason’ – consumer protection agency

CASA TALES 3

AFTER two consecutive weeks of dishing out bitter-tasting stories of love lost between car owners and their casas (car dealerships), INQUIRER Motoring now airs the side of the government tasked to look after the welfare and protection of all consumers.

In a statement sent to INQUIRER Motoring, the Bureau of Trade Regulation and Con- sumer Protection (BTRCP) said that all complaints submitted to the agency are taken seriously. “Buyers complain for a reason,” it read. And for every complaint, “the DTI process of mediation or arbitration will take place.”

According to the BTRCP office, the Department of Trade and Industry receives consumer complaints of varying “nature,” including those that pertain to “Defective Products and Ser- vices,” “Product and Service Warranty,” and “Deceptive Sales Acts and Practices.”

BTRCP also sent to INQUIRER Motoring a statistic sheet of complaints specific to car dealerships nationwide encompassing the dates Nov. 5, 2012 to Jan. 31, 2013. During that time, a total of 49 complaints had been submitted and received by the agency. Of that number, 21 had been resolved/dismissed; the remaining complaints are in varying degrees of processing and resolution.

BTRCP (currently headed by Director Victorio Mario A. Dimagiba) and DTI have established a process for handling consumer complaints. It is embedded in Republic Act No. 7394, or the Consumer Act of the Philippines. At times, BTRCP explains, the mediation process is swift. However, there are instances when the process takes much longer, depending on the complexity of issues all parties have to resolve.

The agency clarified, however, that BTRCP is not the DTI agency that handles mediations and arbitrations. BTRCP, it clarified, is a policy, program and project office. The DTI regional offices across the country handle and resolve the actual consumer complaints.

When asked about the pending Philippine Lemon Law, BTRCP said, “The DTI supports the Philippine Lemon Law bills in the past Congress, but this is a legislative process wherein Congress controls the process.”

House Bill No. 4841 titled “An Act Strengthening Consumer Protection in the Purchase of Brand NewMotor Vehicles”—or the Lemon Law of 2011—would give buyers of brand-new cars the right to demand a replacement “with a similar or comparable motor