As threatened here’s another little rant of mine that’s been rejected by the local paper, so in a desperate lunge for a readership I turn to The Dope:
In Eastern religions the circle symbolises the recurrent nature of life. In Western society it symbolises bureaucracy, otherwise known as getting the run-around.
Let’s say a second-hand furniture store, with a flashy but trashy name that I won’t mention here, takes a few thousand dollars worth of your furniture for sale on consignment. Next time you think to check you notice their shop is closed for renovations. Six months after the advertised re-opening date it is still closed for renovations - we all know how long they can take, don’t we? Their phone is answered by a modem and their email by nothing at all.
So you lodge a complaint with the [state] Consumer, Trader & Tenancy Tribunal, which takes just a few short weeks to come around. No representative of the store appears and they are ordered to cough up the goods. But how is this fearsome instrument of the state to be served? By good old Australia Post of course, posted to the closed store - the one place they are known not to be. The CTTT have no investigative arm and no way of tracking down the store’s principals to see their order served. Have you thought about trying the [federal] Australian Competition and Consumer Commission?
Regrettably, the chap from the ACCC informs me on the phone just a few short weeks later, they do not “mediate between individuals and the suppliers or acquirers of goods and services”, nor can they supply any information about the company, its trading position, or its owners to me. Have you thought about trying the [state] Office of Fair Trading?
The response from the OFT comes around just a few short weeks later. Gratifyingly they have “made inquiries into this matter” which include the drastic step of contacting the local plod. Sadly, they inform me by mail, Waverley Local Court - excuse me, the registrar of Waverley Local Court - has deemed the matter to be civil in nature and the police cannot take further action (further than none, that is). Had said Registrar had been within earshot when this missive arrived he may have changed his mind about the civility involved. Have you thought about contacting the CTTT?
So you have no furniture, no money, no details of those who have defrauded you, and none of the government agencies set up to protect consumers are able to help in any way. Your furniture has effectively been stolen and yet somehow it is not a criminal matter.
It’s not often an opportunity arises to be run around by experts twice in one week: today I attempted to exchange some US currency at a major bank. The teller recoiled in horror when she saw there were $US50 notes involved, as Bank Policy dictates that (due to inflation since Biblical days) higher denominations only are the root of all evil and have to be handled with Hazmat tongs. My money must be held for 5 working days, presumably in a lead-lined bucket in the basement. Salvation, however, was at hand: this only applied to some branches and not others! I was cordially invited to walk the streets of Sydney in search of such a haven, as there was no way of telling in advance which branches were suitably protected and which not (I was thinking in terms of some badge or secret mark over the doorway, but no). I declined and so have become an accidental speculator on the Forex market; I can only hope the US dollar appreciates before my next trip there.
One can only hope the old saying is true: what goes around comes around.
) it’s theft. Downright theft. I know this because my cousin is a police officer and the same thing happened to her best friend about 2 years ago and it was sorted out real quick. Try ACCC? Fair Traiding?