Guarantees, scams and the euro

I am a visitor to Malta and an avid reader of your column. You are doing a great job but sometimes it seems to be an uphill struggle in Malta. There are still companies who do not give good service, and unfortunately I have had dealings with them. They give a six-month guarantee and state that it is up to them what guarantees they give!

Consumer satisfaction seems to be a secondary consideration to some companies. I would like to endorse the comments of several of your readers concerning Aplan, a company with customer service very much to the fore, unlike another company which has an extreme take-it-or-leave-it attitude.

Concerning your item in The Sunday Times on May 27, we too received the lottery winning ticket, 528, but we cannot understand how they make the scam pay unless it is the small amount on the telephone calls to Spain, because the winnings can be paid by cheque and there is no need to send bank details. This is an option only if the money is to be paid directly to the bank and the agent fee is not asked for upfront, but it says it will be deducted from the winnings at source. We are sure it is a scam, but where do they make the money?

The third point is a request for information. When Malta adopts the euro in January 2008, money can be exchanged from Liri to euros for up to three months, I believe, but can postage stamps also be exchanged, and if so, what is the time period and where can they be exchanged? (James Frobisher)

I will deal with the three issues under separate headings:

Guarantees: I will first deal with this issue with a particular focus on those traders who mislead and confuse consumers regarding the validity period of the guarantee.

As regular readers know, we have been referring to this issue for many years. While there are still too many traders who persistently exploit consumers' ignorance regarding guarantees, giving up is not an option. So I will yet again clarify the issue and will continue to do so for as long as is necessary.

There are two types of guarantees - legal and commercial. In accordance with the law, the legal guarantee protects the consumer against a latent defect. (i.e. a defect which cannot be seen or noticed when an item is bought).

The commercial guarantee is not obligatory. Moreover, the validity period of the commercial guarantee is determined by the traders. The conditions too are determined by the traders and should be explained in writing. A copy of the commercial guarantee, outlining terms and conditions, must also be given to the consumer.

Basically, the commercial guarantee gives traders an opportunity to offer a better service than that offered by their competitors. For example, while bearing in mind that the legal guarantee is valid for two years, traders can offer commercial guarantees valid for three, four, five or more years.

However, rather than offering a better and longer commercial guarantee, there are too many local traders who offer one which is valid for six months. There are also traders who mislead consumers into believing that the commercial guarantee is the only guarantee. Such traders manage to cheat consumers by denying them the remaining one-and-a-half-year validity period of the legal guarantee.

Unfortunately, there are too many traders who take advantage of consumers' ignorance by offering a commercial guarantee with a short validity period (six months), thus making consumers believe that the commercial guarantee is the one and only guarantee. However, the truth is that the legal guarantee is obligatory and is valid for two years, no matter what!

Lottery winning ticket: This is another scam whereby thousands of people are informed about their supposedly winning ticket. Those who reply to the winning notification are asked, among other things, to pay for the processing of their winnings. By notifying so many consumers that they won, there will always be a few who will fall for it.

I personally participated in one of these lotteries, and when I received the notification I asked them to take the money from my winnings, whereupon they dropped me like a ton of bricks.

Regarding prices, while we, as consumers, operate in a liberalised marketplace, it is our right and duty to shop around until we find the right price. Finally, in situations where the price of a specific item in the UK costing £100 sterling is marked Lm100 in Malta, we must not buy it. More importantly however, we must clearly tell the seller why we are not buying it.

With a particular focus on Mr Frobisher's comment that "There are still companies, and unfortunately I have had dealings with them, which give a six-month guarantee and state that it is up to them what guarantees they give!", I must inform him that in accordance with Maltese law the legal guarantee is valid for two years - no matter what. Moreover, in no uncertain terms, the legal guarantee is obligatory.

Exchanging liri to euros: As to whether postage stamps can also be exchanged, and if so, what is the time period, I referred this to Melvyn Mangion, manager, public and media relations, National Euro Changeover Committee, who replied: The NECC has published guidelines for the usage of Lm-denominated value documents and stamps (Guideline: NECC/00-10/06). These can be downloaded from www.euro.gov.mt.