Protect consumers, Govt urged

second annual Customer Service Conference organised by the Contact Centre Association of Zimbabwe in Harare yesterday.

“The plight of the consumer has become worse especially as there is a limited role of regulatory authorities which makes the consumer unaware of his or her rights and responsibilities and therefore the need for Government to intervene in coming up with an active Consumer Protection Act to protect the consumer,” she said.

Ms Siyachitema added current legislation includes the Consumer Contracts Act 8:03, the Trade Measures Act 2: 98 and the Food and Food Standards Act 3:21 among others have all become “obsolete and archaic”.

She said instead of ensuring a level playing field between consumers and service providers, it was the consumer that is currently being disadvantaged as most service providers were conducting their business in a “bullying” manner.

Ms Siyachitema said for an effective Consumer Protection Act to come into play there were a number of issues that need to be clearly outlined among them protection against unfair, unreasonable and unjust contract terms.

Speaking at the same occasion, a social entrepreneur and network marketing executive from South Africa, Mr Tony De Gouveia, warned local businesses to be wary of taking consumers for granted as consumers now possessed the power to make or break a company courtesy of social media.

“Consumers are now much more advanced, educated and informed ahead of service providers through social networks whereby they influence each other regarding an array of things and business is no exception,” he said.

He went on to say that before the era of social networks, a consumer would simply register their displeasure to the service provider whereas now one would just take to social networks that reach millions the world over to register their displeasure.

This, he said posed a serious threat to a company’s image and reputation that could spell doom for their product or service on the market.

Mr De Gouveia said that businesses were now operating in an era where one could not afford to disrespect the customer anymore.

“With reports suggesting that Zimbabwe is now in pole position in terms of people who are now connected to and are using search engines, this should be a wake up call for businesses to make sure they leave no room for not respecting customers anymore as one little mistake may spell doom for their business,” he added.