[size=55:1hmblhaz]novinite 13 August 2010

Bulgarian Consumer Rights Watchdog Vows to Inspect by Surprise


The agents from the Bulgarian Commission for Protection of Consumers will implement new tactics during their checks at the Black Sea coast.

The head of the Commission, Damyan Lazarov, has announced that agents will apply the new tactics while checking the quality of offered services in the Black Sea resorts after Monday.

“The new thing is that the inspectors will check different objects in one day – hotels, stores, restaurants. Until now they were checking only one category of objects per day,” Lazarov said.

In his words, the goal of the changes is to prevent warnings between businesses in the same fields.

“While we inspect the first hotel, all the others are already informed about the upcoming check,” Lazarov explained.

He added that after the first check, the rest of the businesses are informed immediately how the agents look like and are expecting them.

“From now on, the inspector will check one hotel but after that he might decide to check a night club, or a restaurant, or the beach. No one would know where exactly would he go next,” Lazarov said.

He has stated that 1076 tourist sites have been checked since the beginning of the season. 557 have been the checks on the south Black Sea coast and 519 - on the north.

The inspectors have found violations in 142 objects and have shut down another 25, including one aquapark that has announced 57 attractions when in reality only 30 have been offered.

Lazarov has also announced that the Commission for Protection of Consumers has withdrawn 10 types of dangerous goods from the market. They included lighters that looked like waffles and soups that looked and smelled like strawberries, cherries and raspberries.

This is good news and a long time coming maybe this is a sign that BG is getting its act together? lets hope that this sort of initiative continues

sarah

[size=55:3ol71o3r]BNR

Bulgarian consumers do not feel protected

Food, clothing, white and black appliances, electricity, water, telephone – we live in a consumer world where life without a wide range of goods and services is outright unthinkable. Well, unfortunately, as consumers we are not immune to being cheated by vendors. This situation leaves us with two options. One of them is to reconcile with the loss. The second option is to ask for protection of our consumer rights. The National Association Active Consumers has called on consumers to make good use of the second option. The appeal comes to mark March 15, International Consumer Day. This year it goes with the motto, “Get to know your rights, and use them!” It has turned out however that Bulgarians are not fully aware of their rights and are not prepared to fight for them. These findings were presented at a press conference by Bogomil Nikolov, CEO of the Bulgarian Active Consumers National Association. He quoted the findings in a survey of the European Commission about consumption and consumer rights in EU.

“Bulgaria is last in EU in terms of the size of funds that central government allocates to financing consumer organizations”, Bogomil Nikolov says. “In fact, the amount is EUR 3 per 1000 citizens annually. Luxembourg where consumer culture and protection stand at the highest EU level, the annually allocated amount is EUR 2112. Both the Czech Republic and Hungary fare much better than Bulgaria in this respect. The amount in the Czech Republic is EUR 56, and in Hungary it is EUR 107. This situation is unfavourable, because it is axiomatic that the effective system for consumer protection is the cheapest tool for promoting a stable market and for creating competition rules in the business that in turn, act as guarantors of the quality of marketed goods and services.”
One important highlight in the survey is consumer trust in terms of food safety. 46 percent of interviewed Bulgarians said that foodstuffs on the market fail European quality and safety norms, In Romania alone this percentage is higher. In Luxembourg fears over food quality are weakest across EU. The EC survey suggests that the people who feel protected by existing consumer protection measures in Bulgaria account for 27 percent, versus a 57 percent EU average. Besides, consumer rights court rulings in Bulgaria in 2009 were seven, versus 3766 in France and 2574 in UK.

“As consumers we are still troubled by difficult access to justice”, Bogomil Nikolov explains. “There are many reasons for this and in the first place, this has to do with the cost of such a procedure or a trial, and the time they would require. Many people have fears that court claims will cost them much more than the loss they incurred as cheated consumers.”

Vague contracts, false discounts, misleading prices: all these are good reasons for consumer discontent. The most difficult battle that consumers in Bulgaria have to wage is with the monopolies including the electricity, central heating and water supply utilities. More than half a million Bulgarians joined an online protest against them initiated by DNES (Today) civil movement. Across the country DNES has opened outlets where consumers are invited to complain about lousy services and incorrect bills from the monopolists.

[size=55:223pinxw]novinite

Bulgaria's Consumer Watchdog Opens Offices at Sea Resorts

The Bulgarian Commission for Consumer Protection (KZP) is opening seven new offices at summer resorts, where tourists can file complaints.

The information was announced Tuesday by KZP, saying the offices will be available to holidaymakers to alarm or file claims about violations at hotels, food and entertainment establishments.

The offices will be located at the largest Bulgarian summer resorts – Sunny Beach, Golden Sands, Albena, Sozopol, Primorsko, and the Black Sea cities of Varna and Burgas.

This will give KZP an opportunity to monitor more closely services and goods offered at beach resorts while the presence of inspectors will make hotel and restaurant owners and merchants restrain from attempts to cheat tourists.

The offices are expected to shorten the time for KZP to respond to complaints since inspectors will be able to issue sanctions on the spot.

Sound good to me

Ah this sounds like the report I read and posted on the topic 'Why English aren't buying in Bulgaria'. Its a bit late to start inspecting just as the season begins but at least people can complain if a foreigner knows where to complain!!!

Your right oldun typical of Bulgarians to start something like this at the last minute and this will only be helpful if as you say visitors know where to complain and more importantly are they going to provide translators for the visitors from the various countries?

Every step in the right direction is good news, Yes? Miracles may not happen overnight but they do happen for those who believe in them!

[size=55:304bmgcf]Sega daily

EU Citizens Entitled to Return Distant Purchases within 14 Days

All EU citizens who make distant and off-premises purchases (including ones made over the Internet) will have the right to return the goods within 14 business days of receipt without giving any reason and without any costs.

The provision is part of a new EU directive aimed at increasing consumer protection in distance (including on-line) and off-premises purchases.

The directive was adopted by the Council of the European Union on Monday.

Apart from on-line trade, the new rules also apply to goods purchased through mail-order catalogues, through cut-out coupons in newspapers, or goods bought over the phone.

The new legislation also extends to purchases stimulated by radio and TV adverts telling consumers that they will be eligible to a certain discount if they call within 10 or so minutes.

In its current form, Bulgaria's Consumer Protection Act sets a twice shorter period for a right of withdrawal in such cases, provided that the customer has filed a written notification to the trader within 7 days of receiving exhaustive information about the return policy of the company and its full name and address.

If the trader has failed to send the required information to the customer, the distant/off-premise purchase can be cancelled within 3 months without any costs, according to experts from the Commission for Consumer Protection.

The new EU directive states that the trader must deliver the goods to the consumer no later than 30 days from the conclusion of the contract.

If the deadline has not been observed, the consumer will be entitled to terminate the contract and the trader will reimburse all sums paid under the contract.

Under the new rules, if the trader operates a telephone line, the consumer does not have to pay more than the basic rate when he contacts the trader, taking account of the right of telecommunication services providers to charge for such calls.