Overpricing beyond MRP - 2014's First Activity

[Gray Face of India]

Hi friends,

As a first activity in 2014, we thought of doing something regarding overpricing, that is beyond MRP. Its a very casual scene that things are being sold over MRP in various places. We found that it happens mostly in OMR and in most Bus Stands.

Our idea is to take up Koyambedu Bus Stand, purchase products from various shops and also pay the price requested by the shop vendor, even if its above MRP. The key idea here is to document the whole process, by video capturing the conversion between one of us and the shop vender. We planned to take a minimum of 10 videos, but depending on how many people participate, we shall cover more. Would be great if could take around 50 videos.

Once the videos are taken, we shall call State / Central Consumer authority and see if the respond immediately. Then also we shall draft a complaint letter and send to the appropriate authorities, following it up with RTI.

Those who are interested in participating in this venture, please post here and provide your thoughts / suggestions / improvement to the base plan.

Planned Date: Feb 2, 2014

Few References:

http://www.consumer.tn.gov.in/telephone-numbers.pdf

http://www.consumer.tn.gov.in/Flying_squad_mobile.pdf

http://www.consumer.tn.gov.in/contact.htm

http://consumeraffairs.nic.in/consumer/?q=node/46

[Saiyasodharan R]

Time: 11:00 AM
Venue: Koyambedu Bus Stand

We will meet at 11 am and brainstorm / plan on the activity, segregate into groups and start real activity at 11:30 AM

Those willing to participate, please reply here or msg me @ 9952998132

[Subhash Gandhi]

Today's activity went well with 7 people participating: Saiyasodharan, Alexraj, Satish Bonthu, Lakshmanan, Bala Chandar, Natesan Sukumar, Rishi

The activity went for more than an hour and We recorded around 8 videos (will be uploaded and shared tomorrow), covering the sales of products beyond MRP and the shopkeepers refusing to issue Bill.

The next steps are like:

 1. Filing a complaint with District Consumer Forum regarding overpricing in general and showing today's video footages as a sample of whats happening in the city. (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1F-s0qgBE0aYSEn67P0lckZqvBvU8_vidhHiIKEJXBgM/edit?usp=sharing)

 2. Filing a case against the individual shop owners in Consumer Court for over pricing and asking for a compensation of Rs. 10000

PS: The real intention here is not to spoil the livelihood of the shopkeepers, hence the first complaint wont be written with the full intense of punishing them. We should understand that the shop keepers themselves couldn't be held completely responsible for the mess up. Its a big corrupt system where various hidden stakeholders are involved and the shop keepers are at the front face.

Please post your suggestions / feedback here.

[Saiyasodharan R]

We did a bit of study on "Bar Codes" and we found that bar code is to unique to each item, but is uniquely assigned to a type of product. That is, all Pepsi bottles of 600ml bottle will be having same Bar Code and hence it can be registered a couple of years back...

That solved some of the confusions.

References:
http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/gadgets/high-tech-gadgets/upc.htm

There are online service to get details of product based on Bar Code and also to find UPC based on bar code picture:

http://online-barcode-reader.inliteresearch.com/default.aspx

http://upcdatabase.org/code/8902080104093

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_Product_Code

[Subhash Gandhi]

Hi all,

The complaint letter is more or less finalized and shall be found @ https://docs.google.com/document/d/1F-s0qgBE0aYSEn67P0lckZqvBvU8_vidhHiIKEJXBgM/edit?usp=sharing

Still pending are couple of video links to update and few acts/sections to be updated, which will be done in a couple of days.

Thanks to Satish Bonthu, for providing deep insights into this :-)

The letter will be sent before this friday. Please provide your valuable suggestions, feedback before that.

Thanks :-)

[Subhash Gandhi]

Complaint posted last thursday and the copy of the same will be uploaded and shared soon..

Another exciting news is, our sting operation got highlighted in ToI today:

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/chennai/Spy-camera-sting-busts-vendors-at-Chennai-Mofussil-BusTerminus-who-swindle-customers/articleshow/30724894.cms

On Wednesday, 15 January 2014 10:01:14 UTC+5:30, Gray Face of India wrote:

[Subhash Gandhi]

Hi Friends,

Its been more than a month (14.2.2014) since we filed the Complaint to concerned department on our MRP Operation.

Couple of weeks back, Natesan sir, on a casual visit to CMBT, found few shops having a hoarding that they are selling at MRP price. That's a good sign.

But we are yet to hear from the authorities on our complaint. So, we drafted a RTI to enquire on the status of our complaint. Please review it, add in your points. We shall send it next week.

This RTI is now written with Corporation of Chennai (CoC) in mind. Once the draft is over, we shall make copies and change it to address other 3 departments. Thanks :-)

Complaint shall be found @ https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-gCgoai7fLW2hdokbHfPygmnUQz-dHB60_lqCG6dN2o/edit?usp=sharing

[Subhash Gandhi]

Hi,

Here is our success in pictures. As Natesan sir told, I found a couple of shops having the board `Selling at MRP Price` and took snaps of them (with their permission and knowledge this time :P ) and appreciated them :-)

 

I bought a biscuit packet just to make sure and they are genuine.. :-)

On the other side, still there are no reply from the departments for our complaints and hence a RTI was filed last month.. Still no response, so we will the First Appeal in next week.

[Subhash Gandhi]

Hi all,

We are following the MRP Overpricing complaint with RTIs and First Appeals. There were a couple of incomplete responses and forwards happened.

2 months back, Labor Inspector, CMBT Circle called us and told us that they are inspecting very regularly and fining shop owners who sell over MRP, blah, blah, but still couldn't control. We requested to provide us with their `Inspection Reports` of their Inspections for the RTI that we filed and that's it. No word from her till date. 

So we filed Second Appeal with Information Commission last week. Let's see If the Information Commissioners make the PIOs to do their duty !

Will keep posted !

Complete Story @ http://grayfaceofindia.in/2014/02/mrp-sting-operation-cmbt-terminus/