Consumers are the king of the market. These are very important for the market as well as business. But somehow consumers are harassed by marketers as well as producers and sellers. Therefore, there may be many problems of consumers to survive in the society.
Problems of Consumers
Consumers have to face several problems day in and day out. Some of them highlight the plight of the Indian consumer. Some of the unfair trade practices prevalent in India are as follows:
1. Misleading Advertising
Businesses spend vast amounts of money on advertising their products and services. Most of these advertisements contain exaggerated and unprovable claims. Commonly seen ‘advertisements of some toothpaste, cosmetics, tonics, body-building, figure-improving, and height-increasing instruments (like Bullworker, “Add-inches,” ‘New Figure,’ etc.) make claims for products without explaining how the claimed qualities of the products produce the benefits suggested.
These are the current consumer issues. Some advertisements include vague and unclear statements like “twice as fast to relieve pain as any other pill,” while others make wild claims (as Increment seeks to do with the giraffe’s height). It is one of the problems of consumers.
Some small business firms indulge in still more deceptive practices, e.g., mail-order sale of magic rings, incredibly cheap transistors and watches, wonder drugs for incurable diseases (like white patches, arthritis), and venereal diseases.
2. Promotional Contests
Some business concerns indulge in practices in the name of promotional contests to attract customers to their products or premises. The innocent and ignorant customers fail to understand the concealed cheating by these concerns in the name of promotional contests like the “Spot the Star” contest. It is one of the common consumer problems.
3. Bait Advertising (Switch Selling)
Sometimes, advertisements contain offers of a particular item at a slashed price. Still, the advertiser intends to attract the buyers to his retail showroom so that they may buy advertised goods offered as bait to them. Switch selling is one of the problems of consumers.
4. Offering Gifts and Prizes
Frequently, there are offers of gifts and prizes from various business firms to attract the customer. Still, there is no ultimate benefit to him since these gifts and awards are only in his name, and the intention is not to give any rewards or gifts to the customer but to attract him to buy the goods not needed by him. In a country like India, where most people cannot afford to meet the necessities of life, manufacturers sell luxury items very quickly through tactics like offering gifts or prizes, bait advertising, misleading advertising, etc. It is the consumer problems related to products.
5. Fluctuating Prices
Prices charged by the business should be fair and reflect the purchasing power of the consuming public. At the same time, price fixes allow cost recovery with average efficiency and enable management to earn a reasonable return on capital employed. However, standards concerning price fairness judgments are not easy to apply and do not remain static.
Stability in prices protects the consumers and assures a degree of certainty to the business community. But rising prices are not uncommon. Still worse is that increasing prices are generally followed by anti-social activities like hoarding, cornering, and artificial scarcity, thus leading to the victimization of consumers. Price fluctuations are only sometimes within the control of the business. It is one of the problems of consumers. However, equalizing the demand and supply of products for the future and discouraging dishonest dealers who indulge in profiteering and black marketing. These are some of the measures that corporate management can take to fight rising prices and help reduce the victimization of consumers.
6. Adulteration
Another ground on which the business community criticizes is the adulteration of goods. The trader uses many methods for this purpose. He adds other cheap materials to the goods to increase the latter’s bulk. The black gram is added to clay pellets, and small pieces of stones are added to the rice. There are substitutions and additions of other materials like animal fat with ghee or harmful seeds with grams and pulses, which are dangerous to human health.
Food and medicine adulteration is a crime like murder. These are the consumer issues examples. When someone adulterates the foodstuff, he is not merely making a big profit but doing a crime. The offense is to injure the health of the consumer.
7. Poor Quality of Products
Consumers complain about businesses that need to maintain their products’ high quality or standard. The Government has set up standards through ag-marking and in various other ways, but the control has yet to go far enough, and its impact on the community is negligible. Here, the consumers are as much to blame as the business because they are not quality-conscious.
8. Deceptive Advertising
Advertising is acceptable as a power in business, and businesses are convinced that it pays to advertise. But there is also the broader problem of misuse of this weapon. It is common when false advertisements mislead consumers; producers can sometimes use advertising to create demand for undesirable products or products not actually required by consumers. The sale of spurious medicines and spurious food with the help of advertisements is not uncommon. Low advertising ethics make the consumers suffer in terms of money, quality, health, and danger to their morale. It is one of the problems of consumers.
High-power advertising creates an artificial demand which induces people to crave for things they do not need. Reducing these wants is now our problem, as generating such wants can harm the economy. People must not desire those things they cannot afford or do not need.
9. Freedom to Contract A Myth for a Consumer
Yet another problem a consumer faces is that he often needs help to negotiate the terms of a contract into which he is entering to effect a purchase. He has to buy at a particular time and cannot wait. Therefore, his bargaining power could be more substantial. When a consumer buys something from a seller, he enters into a contract. It is one of the problems of consumers. There is an offer by one party and acceptance of that offer by the other party.
They may settle the terms of sale amongst themselves. So, that the parties to a contract, make the law for themselves. This is because the law of warranties does not lay down so many precise rights and obligations that the law will protect and enforce. It contains several limiting principles subject to which the parties may create rights and responsibilities for themselves, and the law will uphold those rights and obligations.