Beware of this Establishment if You Visit Baguio City!

I have been a business teacher for more than 10 years already. In some of the subjects I teach, I lecture on the basics of Consumer Rights. And as such, I am aware of the Consumer Act of the Philippines.

This is intended to share my experience at the Camp John Hay Factory Outlet Store. This is one store we visit at least once a month and I never fail to buy whatever I am interested in. But this will be HISTORY!

Let me share my bad experience which I hope won't be experienced by others. They had some items

displayed and marked “50% on selected items.” They had this rack where one side had some tube blouses where the prices on the tags were crossed out with red ink which gave me the idea that they were on sale.

There was this pink tube blouse that caught my attention and since it was the only one of its

color among several blacks and browns, I thought that it was a good buy. I checked the price tag, it WAS Php 525.00 and saw that red ink across the price. However, since the CURRENT selling price was not indicated, I checked the black and brown ones and saw they had the SAME code: MX09077 and that Php 262.50 written in red ink and the price of Php 525.00 was also crossed out with red ink.

So I brought the item to the cashier and was ready to pay for it. However, when she entered the

code on the POS machine, the price Php 525.00 is registered. Then the cashier asked me, “Kinuha niyo ba ito sa may 50%?” ("Did you get this from the items marked 50%?) and I answered “Yes.” The sales lady behind me whom I assume to be the one in-charge of that area where I got the item called out and said “Oo, 50% yan. Naka-sale yan.” ("Yes, that is 50%. That is on sale") The cashier again tried to enter the code on the machine and it still registered Php 525.00. Then she asked me (which really irked me), “Sigurado ba kayo na doon niyo kinuha? Kasi baka naihalo lang eh.” ("Are you sure you got it from there? Because it might just got mixed up.") Again, the other sales lady told her colleague, “Oo, naka 50% yan.” ("Yes, that is on 50%") The cashier then proceeded by telling me that the item was NOT on sale. And I told her that I can report them for price deception because the price tags proved otherwise.

They called their supervisor and the supervisor told me the same – that the item was NOT on sale. She instructed another employee to get another blouse perhaps so that they could check the price. While they were at it, I decided to go back to the rack to take a picture of the price tag on the black and brown tube blouses which I thought I could use as an evidence just in case. To my surprise, the black and brown tube blouses were no longer on the rack! Yes, each and every piece of them! I looked around and found it somewhere else away from the rack. I was given the impression that they had an intention of keeping the merchandise because of what happened. The supervisor kept explaining that the item PROBABLY was not included in the discounted items otherwise, it would have been read by their POS system. HELLO??!! The pink, brown, and black tube dresses had the SAME code!

Articles 82 and 83 of RA#7394 (Consumer Act of the Philippines) states that “Price tags, labels or markings must be written clearly, indicating the price of the consumer product per unit in pesos and centavos and that there shall be no erasures or alterations of any sort of price tags, labels or markings.”

Sure, they said SORRY but did not have any clear explanation of the issue at hand. I ended up not buying the item because I was not so happy with what happened. Even my companions ended up not buying the items they wanted to purchase.

Concerned offices and agencies should do something about this!

To the concerned establishment (and others out there who are doing the same) remember, getting new customers would cost much more than maintaining ones already doing business with you!