Dear Editor,

I hope the suggestion made by columnist Garfield Higgins recently that the Government make it compulsory for all businesses to issue proper receipts is implemented. It makes a lot of sense.

On May 22 this year I bought a fan from a store downtown. It was a cash transaction. After two weeks the fan started to malfunction. It smelled like electrical wires were burning inside of it.

I took it back to the store and asked for an exchange. The store has a sign which says, “No refunds.” I described what was wrong with it. A supervisor then asked me for the receipt. I reached for my wallet and to my surprise almost all the important details of the sale had disappeared from the receipt. On the basis of what could be seen on the receipt, I could not prove that I had bought the fan from the store, because most of the information was ‘rubbed out’. When I described the clerk who sold me the fan, the supervisor told me such a person did not work at the store. I got into a very heated argument with the supervisor, but then realised that I was going to get myself in trouble that might leave my children without a father. I left the store. I learned a hard lesson, which cost me $5,700, plus GCT. I had to buy another fan at another store.

It did not call to mind when I bought the first fan that I should have used my phone to take a picture of the receipt.

Higgins has made a good suggestion here that I hope the consumers will make use of. Businesses should be compelled to give consumers proper receipts, the ticker tapes cannot work.

Fredrick James

St Ann

fredrick.james83@yahoo.com