Due to the invasion of rats in my house, I have been cleaning out my cupboards in the kitchen and the dining room and found a couple of suspicious dairy products that may be laced with the dangerous melamine. Just read from CNN that Lipton Milk Tea was found to be laced with melamine also. Here is a partial list of products currently being tested by BFAD. I am shocked to see, Anchor Products and several Nestle products included in the list.
I have checked BFAD’s website to see if there are any SOP for recalls and if we could still get a refund for products purchased suspected with melamine. However, I only found this memo in their website. There are no indication that products returned shall be refunded. Shouldn’t that be in the law? Years ago, there was a recall for Gerber products in the US and in the Philippines and I noticed a copy of this memo posted on the aisle in Shopwise (memo from the distributor of Gerber) but there was no indication if consumers like me can return the babyfood and get a refund in return. I was deeply disturbed by this since we, as consumers should be able to return any defective products and get a refund for that, right? I know that the DTI has a primer for this in their site. If you find yourself with a defective product, you may return, refund or replace that said product. Happened to me years ago, in SM Megamall. We bought one of those huge televisions from Sony and found it defective in less than a month. We tried to turn the product and SM Appliance refused until we went there ourselves and demanded to see the manager. The manager chose to hide but they promised to replace the item in a weeks time. But they only did this after we hassled them for 4 hours. Costumer is always right, supposedly…
If you have complaints against any establishment, feedbacks about defective products, you might want to file a complaint with DTI’s Consumer Welfare Desk.