Chimmy Ray":qtblbewm said:
I think that the responsibilities here are not fully clarified, and that there is a great misconception about them. The consumer has no responsibility over the company's product. Your only responsibilities as a consumer are:
1) Responsibility of self-helpIt is always desirable that a consumer should not depend on the seller for information and choice as far as possible. As a consumer, you are expected to act in a responsible manner to protect yourself from being deceived. An informed consumer can always take care of his/her interest more than any one else.
2) Proof of Transactions:The second responsibility of every consumer is that the proof of purchase and documents relating to purchase of durable goods should be invariable obtained and preserved.
3) Proper claim:Another responsibility that consumers are expected to bear in mind is that while making complaints and claiming compensation for loss or injury, they should not make unreasonably large claims.
4) Proper use of Product/services: Some consumers, especially during the guarantee period, make rough use of the product, thinking that it will be replaced during the guarantee period. This is not fair on their part. They should always use the products properly.
Those, and only those, are your responsibilities as a consumer.
Your Rights as a consumer are:
1) Right to safety: Right to be protected against marketing of goods which are injurious to health and life.
2) Right to be informed:The right to be informed about the quantity, quality, purity, standard or grade and price of the goods available so that they can make proper choice before buying any product or service.
3) Right to choose:Every consumer has the right to choose the goods needed from a wide variety of similar goods.
4) Right to be heard :Consumers have a right to be heard by manufactures, dealers and advertisers about their opinion on production and marketing decisions. This does not, however, imply that the consumer's decisions have to be or will be followed by the manufacturers.
5) Right to seek redressal :If and when any consumer has a complaint or grievance due to unfair trade practices like charging higher price, selling of poor quality or unsafe products, lack of regularity in supply of services etc. or if he has suffered loss or injury due to defective or adulterated products, he has the right to seek remedies.
6) Right to consumer education : To prevent market malpractices and exploitation of consumers, consumer awareness and education are essentially required.
As you can see, neither set of rights or responsibilities includes you in the direct decision-making process that creates a product. Those who are directly responsible for the product quality is the company and its shareholders. Thus, if you are discontent with a product you can use Right 4- the right to be heard- to voice your complaints (this allows you to indirectly influence the decision-making progress, but there are no guarantees, as always). However, said right does not imply that your complaints will be followed and that your wishes will be granted, this is usually in direct proportion with how many people openly voice their concerns and discontent- if there is a large pool of people that does, the chances of the company taking notice and doing something about it increases. If not, you're in the minority and that's the way it goes- you have no more right over the company's decisions than the company does about your own private life decisions. So sometimes you may be able to create a change (for example: The fan-made project "The Silver Lining", a continuation of the King's Quest series, was served with a Cease and Desist from Sierra-Vivendi. There was enough of a fan reaction that Sierra-Vivendi decided to reconsider and instead fully sanctioned the fan project, as long as they dropped the number from their title and simply call it The Silver Lining. Another example is Richard Garriott himself sanctioning "Lazarus", a Dungeon Siege engine remake of Ultima V which became extremely successful ) and sometimes you may not (for example, the cease-and-desist that closed down a Garfield fan-made game, if I recall). I realize that I didn't phrase my original response correctly, so I will correct that now:
You can either:
-Stick with the product/company
-Look for greener digital pastures
or
-Voice your discontent, knowing that it in itself is a gamble and it may or may not be heard.
It really comes down to markets. If a company doesn't seem to be listening to its clients, what some of the clients can do is support a competing company-- many smaller houses and services have gotten a boot-up based on user discontentment.
