OK Stores refuse to communicate

On September 25, 2006, Alexander Cortis sent the following letter to OK Stores and copied me in:

I recently purchased a Tefal food processor and a Tefal steam iron from OK Stores in San Gwann, a retail outlet of OK Ltd, 4/5, Timber Wharf, Marsa, who, I was told at the shop, are the official importers of Tefal products.

I paid for the goods but I only picked them up some days later. I had assumed that the guarantee forms would be enclosed in their respective boxes and would automatically be for the legal national requirement of two years. The forms I found inside the boxes related to the UK. I went back to OK Stores to enquire about the guarantee cards and was handed two forms to fill out, of which I enclose photocopies.

The guarantee, as you can see, is only for 12 calendar months and, when I queried this and said it should comply with Maltese law, I was informed that they did not have to, nor, in fact, are they legally under any obligation to give a guarantee at all. Having read your columns every Sunday since my return to Malta after 40 years abroad, I insisted they must be wrong and that a two-year guarantee was statutory.

Their reply was that the goods were guaranteed for one year, but if any fault occurred within that first year, they would repair it free of charge and that part (and only that part) would then qualify for a guarantee for the second year. This directive, I was informed, comes from the highest echelons within OK Ltd.

I insisted that they must be wrong and I informed them that I would be writing to you to ascertain the facts. Would you please be so kind as to let me know through your usual Sunday page?

If, as I suspect, I am right, naturally the easiest thing for me to do is never to shop at OK Stores again, nor ever buy any other Tefal product while OK Ltd remain the official agents in Malta. As I am setting up home from scratch I would have needed to buy many of the household goods they sell, so their short-sightedness has lost them all the business they would have had from me which will now be directed towards traders who, it is to be hoped, adopt a more professional approach towards their customers. In due course, I shall by writing to Tefal in France about this matter. (Alexander Cortis)

On November 8, 2006, we copied this letter to OK Stores and asked for their comments, to no avail. On December 13, 2006, we sent them another copy, again asking them for their comments, to no avail. On February 2 we copied this letter to OK Stores yet again, asking them for their comments, still to no avail.

We have thus given OK Stores more than a fair opportunity to explain what they did or did not do and why. At this stage I must stress that asking traders for their side of the cases involved is in their interest. Indeed last Sunday I referred to another case involving Digital Zone who, just like OK Stores, chose to ignore our repeated requests for their comments. Burying their heads in the sand is definitely not a solution. On my part, I have made it crystal clear that I don't give up. In such situations, the traders involved will only make it worse for themselves.

Finally, I must stress that, in accordance with Maltese law, the legal guarantee is obligatory and it is valid for two years no matter what. Consumers are advised to retain the receipt of the item bought. Treat it as a document which confirms the validity of the legal guarantee of the bought item. Moreover the receipt confirms the outlet from where the item was bought.

Then there is the commercial guarantee, which is not obligatory. Since we operate in a liberalised competitive marketplace, traders can offer a commercial guarantee, over and above the obligatory legal guarantee. This gives traders the opportunity to offer a better service than other traders. Unfortunately however, rather than give consumers a better service, there are traders who exploit this situation by offering a commercial guarantee valid for six months and they mislead consumers by informing them that after six months they are no longer liable and the guarantee has expired.

However, the truth is that, after six months, the legal guarantee is still valid for another year and a half. It is indeed sad having to repeat that many traders exploit consumer ignorance regarding this issue and confuse consumers accordingly.