KUWAIT: Recently,an image of a 'fake discount' offered by a popular international furniturestore went viral on social media. It was a photo of a bill of that storeshowing a piece of furniture originally cost KD 24 before the sales season,while the same piece during the sales period cost KD 29 before the discount andKD 26 after the discount. The social media user who spread this picture chargedthe store is cheating consumers, "who are now smart to figure out fakesales". He claimed sales are not real as he knew the price of the productand was waiting for the sales period to buy it.
Kuwait Timesconfirmed the veracity of this claim with the Consumer Protection Department ofthe Ministry of Commerce, which is in charge of probing cases of cheating. Theinspector said the price of the product was KD 24 more than a year ago, but thestore later hiked the price up to KD 29. And during the sales period, theydiscounted the price to KD 26.
"After wesaw this picture on social media, we went on an inspection to this store toseek clarification of the claim, which turned out to be false news. We are notsure if the social media user who spread it had the intention to tarnish thereputation of the store on purpose, or if he was not aware that the originalprice was old and not valid," the inspector named Mohammed told KuwaitTimes.
The ConsumerProtection Department rarely receives complaints about fake sales. "Wehave only received a few complaints from customers complaining a store wascheating during the sales period. But when we went to check the store, we foundthe customer was wrong. The big and popular stores don't make such mistakes andthey usually follow the law," he added. All stores should obtainpermission from the Ministry of Commerce to hold sales. "After the storegets the permission, our inspectors check the store to confirm the discountsare for real. In case of any violation, the store will pay a fine,"Mohammed pointed out.
By NawaraFattahova