Holiday gifts don’t always live up to expectations, in fact they can be outright faulty. The first line of action is to return to the retailer where the item was purchased for the guarantee, which, at the discretion of the retailer could be replacement, refund or repair.
However, if a retailer will not do good on the guarantee, the Ministerio de Economía is the place to file a complaint starting tomorrow.
Consumers laws in Costa Rica provide for a 30 business day guarantee on all retail purchased. This year, Economía has set a final date of February 7 to file a claim for all holiday purchases. Claims are accepted where the is not willing to honour the guarantee and/or the consumer feels slighted.
The guarantee does not apply is the consumer doesn’t like the colour or the size of an item, ie a shirt is the wrong colour, or the screen size is too small or the fridge door opens the wrong way. The guarantee provisions is strictly for faulty or defective items.
According to the Ministerio de Economía some 47% of all cases filed last January was where a retailer did not honour the warranty.