Mike O’Connor: Why consumers are fed up with being ripped off and treated like idiots

The big supermarkets, airlines and carmakers are beginning to learn that Aussies have had a gutful and are beginning to fight back, writes Mike O’Connor.

My wife went to the supermarket on Saturday, and on her return, I gathered from her demeanour that it had not gone well.

Silence reigned for a few moments like the stillness that presages a gathering storm as she dumped the groceries on the bench and then let fly.

“So I’m in the supermarket,” she said, “and I’m looking for this particular spice and I find it and it’s almost $15, which seemed like a lot but there was a sign saying it was a red-hot special so I think, ‘well, everything’s going up in price’ so I pay it.

“Then I go across to the independent food market to get a few other things, and while I’m there, I check to see if they’ve got the spice I’d just bought and they do and it’s half the price I’ve just been charged.

Stores that advertise something as being a red-hot special when it is available 50m away for half the price is false and misleading advertising, says Mike O’Connor. Picture: NCA NewsWire/David Mariuz

“It’s not the money. I just hate being ripped off and treated like an idiot,” she roared.

“What did you do then?” I asked, but I already knew the answer.

For when the fires of outrage have been stoked, my dear woman in full flight is a force with which to be reckoned.

“I went back to the supermarket, showed them the receipts for the two different amounts and asked for my money back, to be told that they don’t do refunds.”

“Oh dear,” I thought to myself. “That was most unwise.”

“So I told them that it was no wonder their brand was being trashed in the media and asked to see the manager,” my wife said

“So the girl goes away and comes back with a colleague who is not the manager who tells me that they can’t help me and they don’t do refunds.

Consumers are at the mercy of the big supermarket players, says Mike O’Connor.

“So I told him that I wanted to see the manager and that I wasn’t going to leave until I did. “He eventually arrives, takes one look at me and the receipts and gives me a refund,” she says, the dark clouds beginning to dissipate.

“That manager,“ I thought,” is destined for great things.”

The staff were right, of course.

Under Australian consumer law, companies are not required to give a you a refund if you have found the same product at a cheaper price.

But you could argue that advertising something as being a red-hot special when it is available 50m away for half the price is false and misleading advertising.

It was a small matter in the grand scheme of things, but showed that consumers are at the mercy of the big supermarket players.

And just because they say something is competitively priced and value for money doesn’t mean that it is and that “special” claims should be treated with a healthy degree of caution.

In Europe, if your flight is delayed for more than three hours, you are eligible for up to $900 in compensation. In Queensland, you get a meal voucher. Picture: Richard Walker

Airlines in this country, in spite of their protestations that they value their customers, have been treating consumers as mugs for years.

In Europe, if your flight is delayed for more than three hours, you are eligible for up to $900 in compensation depending on the distance you were travelling.

Here you get a meal voucher.

In the US, if you get bumped off a flight, you can get up to $2200.

I sat in the Virgin lounge in Melbourne recently and watched as the two flights before mine were cancelled and mine was delayed by 90 minutes.

The young guy near me was on a cancelled flight but desperate to get to Brisbane and so headed off to check the alternatives.

He was soon back with the news that Qantas would carry him but wanted $1200 for a one-way ticket. Compensation? Forget it.

The Federal Court has ordered Mazda Australia to pay $11.5m in penalties for engaging in misleading and deceptive conduct.

Even with consumer law on your side, you are not guaranteed justice without a fight as some Mazda owners discovered.

This month, the Federal Court ordered Mazda Australia to pay $11.5m in penalties for engaging in misleading and deceptive conduct and making false or misleading representations to nine consumers about their rights.

The court found that the company had made 49 separate false or misleading representations to the nine consumers who had endured serious faults with their vehicles within two years of buying them.

It ruled that Mazda had ignored or rejected requests for refunds or replacement vehicles even though their vehicles had undergone multiple unsuccessful repair attempts, with one vehicle having had three engine replacements.

The bottom line – don’t take “no” for an answer.