Problematic epilation appliance

About six years ago I bought a Rowenta epilation appliance from BI Stores. A few months later I encountered a problem in that its only usable wax had been out of stock for several months. I had complained about this to you and to Rowenta of Germany, and the case was resolved after a few weeks in a friendly manner.

Now I have come up with the same problem as the only wax usable for this appliance with its name Elasticeria has been out of stock for these past five months and, since then, the appliance has been completely useless without the wax.

For these past months I had made tens of phone calls asking about its availability and I have had the same reply - "it will be available soon". I think being out of stock of such a fundamental product for the mentioned appliance is very absurd, quite frustrating for customers, and impinging on consumer rights.

It is worth mentioning that BI Stores are no longer responsible for getting the wax. The present agents/distributors are Tabletop of South Street, Valletta.

Therefore I am asking you to intervene in this matter so that my justified complaint will be resolved as soon as possible since buying an appliance without being able to use it is totally against consumers' rights.

My grievance is: Specific wax for an epilation appliance out of stock for these past five months. (Joyce Farrugia)

On June 14 this letter was copied to Tabletop. We sent them a reminder on August 20 and another copy, with a request for their comments for possible inclusion in this column, to no avail. On October 1 we sent Tabletop yet another copy of the letter and another reminder, still to no avail. In the absence of any communication from Tabletop, I am hereby featuring the letter and, yet again, I ask them for their comments.

Appeal to consumers

At this point I appeal to Ms Farrugia and all those readers who refer their cases to this column to abide by this column's terms and conditions, particularly that "it is up to the complainant to chase the progress of the case with the supplier while, in the process, copying me in".

I do chase suppliers anyhow and, although I get directly involved in many cases, the spirit and/or concept of this column is that you can deal with, and resolve, your problems yourself while using this column as an effective tool. I can assure you that it works in many cases, most of which are not published.

Although I often highlight this point, we still have too many complainants who do not chase the progress of their cases, as explained above. Although I get directly involved in many cases, it is absolutely impossible to do so in all cases. However every letter sent to us is followed up by requests for the suppliers' comments "for possible inclusion in the column".

Most suppliers co-operate with us by sending their comments with clear explanations and most cases are subsequently positively concluded through reasonable dialogue. However the biggest problem is when I publish cases after having sent the relative suppliers more than enough requests for their comments to no avail only to be informed by the consumer, after publication, that the matter was sorted out or the case was resolved.

The most recent such case was featured on September 1. It was about a mobile phone bought by Mark Brincat from Phonica of Manoel De Vilhena Street, Gzira. Initially Mr Brincat wrongly assumed that I would take over and sort it all out. Then he wrongly assumed that I did absolutely nothing about the case, whereas I had been chasing Phonica to no avail and then I featured the case. Subsequently it transpired that the case had been resolved.