Yesterday’s post (Consumer Complaints in Tenerife – Don’t Waste Your Breath) told the story of Nancy and John who were ripped off in a camera shop in Tenerife and then went on to describe the complete lack of care or assistance offered by the one place that ought to be every tourists’ first line of defence when abroad – the Tourist Office. If you haven’t read it yet, you might want to start at the beginning.
Many years ago my mother lost a good deal of money on a tourist scam in Thailand. While losing the money hurt, it didn’t hurt as much as the knowledge that there was very little she could do to get back at the scammers. That sense of helplessness after being ripped off in a foreign country sticks in the throat for a very long time and taints otherwise happy holiday memories forever.
With that in mind, the arrogant and indifferent attitude of the girl I spoke to in the Tourist Office yesterday is inexcusable. Why spend millions of Euros on promoting Tenerife as an excellent tourist destination if tourists are not met with excellent services when they get here? Quite honestly all the five-star hotels and golf courses in the world won’t make Tenerife a world class destination if holiday makers are stone-walled when they seek assistance once they’re here.
Having read yesterday’s post Pamela Heywood of Secret Tenerife kindly sent the following information which might help Nancy and John or anyone else who finds themself in a similar situation.
According to the Canarian government’s own website, there are still Oficinas Municipales de Informacion al Consumidor (Municipal Consumer Information Offices), which handle reclamations, at all the following addresses (including Arona.) There are email addresses listed too.
http://www.gobiernodecanarias.org/cicnt/temas/consumo/informa/tenerife.htmlThere’s some alternate info here: http://www.denuncias.info/oficina-consumidor-tenerife.html
PuntoInfo list those offices, plus consumers’ organisations and ombudsman:
http://www.todotenerife.es/index.php?sectionID=44&lang=1&s=6&ID=510There’s information on the Servicio de Información y Atención Ciudadana here:
http://www.gobiernodecanarias.org/siac/Consumers (of all nationalities) certainly do have rights, but sadly, this is not the first time I’ve heard a version of this story and I’m sure it’s a case of “if we tell them we can’t help them, they’ll go back to their country and forget about it,” which is just as bad for the Amable image.
Pamela also nudged me in the direction of the Consumer Affairs Division of the European Commission which led me to discover a couple of useful resources:
This is a website set up to address unfair trading practises across Europe. It is an interesting site and includes examples of misleading advertising and a black list of unfair commercial practices one of which is: Traders who bait with one product and switch to promoting another. This is one of the ruses commonly used by cowboy camera salesmen in Tenerife.
Their remit is specifically to aid non-Spanish nationals who have had their consumer rights violated in Spain. In other words, if you are a Brit who was sold a pig in a poke in Tenerife – they are there to help you!
Specifically the European Consumer Centre in Spain exists to:
– advise consumers on their consumer rights
– act as mediators in cross-border complaints and claims
– provide informationn and promote EU and national legislation and case law
Now I have a question for the Tourist Office:
How hard would it be to gather this information and have it ready as a hand-out for those who have need of it because they were ripped off in Tenerife?
And lastly a pop quiz. Failure to give the correct answer should disqualify you from employment in any sector of the tourism industry.
What creature best describes the role tourists play in Tenerife’s economy?
a) Lambs to the slaughter,
b) Fish in a barrel or
c) The geese that lay the golden eggs?
Doh!
A camera shop in Playa de las Americas sold me a camera which soon proved to be unsatisfactory and seriously overpriced. The 2GB SD card was probably worth 15 euros and they charged me 95 euros. My receipt said no refund unless goods faulty. So I asked if they would exchange it for a more expensive model and they said,”No”
After an hour or two negotiating I left and the following morning, having read your column, I visited the Oficina de Informacion Turistica, Playa de las Vistas. The lady on duty was very helpful and suggested I ask the shop for a complaint form in English…which they were legally bound to give me. When they refused to give me the form, she then called the local Police. Finally, after more talk, the shop refunded my full payment. The attitude of the Tourist Office lady and the Police was exemplary. Make sure you buy from one of the many established honest traders.
I am happy that the page helped you sort it out. There are a few other posts on the topic of cowboy camera salesmen on eTenerife and although many comments come from those who have themselves been ripped off, there are a few which seem to take the ‘Buyer Beware’ approach and are quite unsympathetic.
Your comment proves that providing this information is important and that once informed what they can do aout it, people are more than happy to folow up for themselves. Well done, you!
I’ve just come back from Tenerife yesterday and yes I hate to have to admit this I’ve been ripped off by a camera sales person in Los Gigantes. My son wanted to buy a camera he and his girlfriend had seen back home and was advertised at lot less in the shop there. When we inquired we where told that this camera was not as good as another he could recommend us at a very reasonable price. The camera he offered us was he said a Nikon D90 and back home it retail around £650+ and he was offering it to us for 440euros
As I did not know anything about cameras I asked my son to ring his girlfriend and ask her to check it out on the internet which she did and confirmed it to be a great camera. the guy in the shop even spoke to her and told her what a bargain we would be getting. As we where totally gullible I agreed to buy the camera. He tried to sell us a case and memory card for an extra 180 euros luckily I refused to do that. When we got back to the villa we checked the camera and realized that it was not the camera we wanted, we went straight back to the shop to demand he either give us the right camera or our money back. He then said that he never had a D90 there in the first place and only said the one we had was like a D90 and we must have misunderstood him. I then threatened him with the police and he kept saying that there was nothing we could do but he would give us another camera which was more expensive plus memory card and case. By this time I was getting very upset and just wanted to get out of the shop. We took the camera and as it was getting late and we where leaving the next day I didn’t do anything else about it. The camera we came home with is more expensive but still cost a lot more than I would have paid at home. I feel very upset and sad that there are people like this and now don’t want to ever go back to Tenerife.
I have already posted elsewhere on my experience in Los Cristianos where I too was conned. The more Comments I read from other people the more I am convinced that we are looking at organised crime here and that probably many of these shops are linked. The video camera I purchased is counterfeit as is the packaging etc., and the “Jessops” catalogue I was shown was obviously a fake. Much as I like Tenerife I am so disgusted by these Asian con men I will never return.
el pasado 9/3/2013 compre en NTM DIGITAL, C/san juan 2-28400 puerto de la cruz.tenerife.
un tablet “YASHICA touchpad IV, tab 10106-4gb OS.android 5.0 full hd, 3d,enfin entre otras cosas la compre, solicite direcciones de distribuidores oficiales en Barcelona Capital,por si me fuera necesario me dieron tres por falta de una,una vez de vuelta de vacaciones se me ocurrio ir a dichas direcciones para comprobar el servicio, mi alegria ha sido encontrarme
con que en dichas direcciones no existen dichas distribuidoras o similaresalguna de las cuales hacia 5 años que dejo de trabajar y existir dicha tienda.
he llamado por telefono a la tienda NTM y da la casualidad quee l “jefe” no esta y no pueden darme nuevas direcciones en barcelona para servicio tecnico `pues lo lleva él exclusivamente.QUE puedo hacer?? dode me dirijo?? me han timado bien muy bien
YASHICA EUROPE:
Cette société n’existe pas!!!!! Mefiez vous et n’achetez surtout pas.
Cette société est en fait une arnaque totale, il propose dans les magasins d’électronique toutes sortes de matériel pour lesquels aucune garantie n’existe. Des feuilles de garanties sont imprimées et fournies aux clients, mais aucune société n’est répertoriée à ce nom et aucune adresse sur internet pour cette société!!!
De plus le matériel ne correspond pas à ce qui est imprimé sur les emballages.
Exemple: une tablette Yashica 10″ 1GB de RAM sur emballage,ne possède en fait que 512MB de RAM. l’écran tactile se bloque dès 5 ou 6 utilisations et il faut éteindre la tablette et la rallumer pour la débloquer, la batterie ne se charge qu’à 70% maximum. Les commerces d’électronique qui vendent ce genre d’appareils ne vendent que des FAUX: Canon, Nikon, Philips.. etc.
Mefiez vous donc de ces arnaques qui sont surtout située dans les grands lieux touristiques comme les îles Canaries.
ripped by indians in puerto colon cash @ carry shop by little bastard with wonky eye bought yacashi no good cam corder under pressure
really feel bad about how i was treated.
after 14 days of a really good holiday.
was scammed by these robbers on south beach puerto colon in the shop on corner facing the sushie restaurant.
ALL HOLIDAY MAKERS BE AWARE OF THIS TRIBE THEY ARE EVIL
having been to tenerife a few times this time a asian shop in playa las americas sold me and my partner a yashica hi def camera took us three days to collect and they still tried to scam us when going to collect it after bringing the police in we walked off smiling keep away from this shop its run by a little idiot called vikki keep well away
Could anyone tell me what a Yashica TouchPad 6, model TAB-0896 with all applications tablet would cost in Scandinavia or even Great Britain? I believe I was ripped off in Tenerife. The model is not yet sold in Finland so I cannot find the price here. Very appreciative for your response,
Pirkko Pelkonen in Finland
Hi Pirkko,
there is no such brand like Yashica anywhere in the world. There is one con Indian man who brings copied chinese gadets and supply it through out canary islands by the name of Yashica. So in other words whatever you purchase in canary islands doesn’t have a guarantee and these con indian men charge you exhoberant prices in which you can actually purchase 10 branded like Apple, sony, gadets with all the accessories and at ease of your comfort from home in your own city . Not to forgot the guarantee which you won’t get from these con indian men. One more example I can give you like they force you to purchase hard disc for your camera or tablets , these hard discs are nothing but the normal memory cards which you can purchase any where for the price of 5 to 15 euros while these guys sells you for 1000 or sometimes for 2000€ by telling you lies.
All you can do is go back to the shop with national police and get your money refunded.
This is the easiest way because they fears of only national police and they get arrested same time because even the police is also aware of all this scams.
was ripped off in Tenerife but thanks to Maria Jose Rodriguez Valentin was re-imbursed £1400 email mariav@adeje.es
Klick and Save Cash and Carry Mr Ghandar Singh robber of the first magnitude he claims he owns 85 shops and the Sheraton Hotel, the Spanish Authoroties know these rip off merchants and should be doing more to close them down, they are keeping tourists away from the island and costing the tourist industry millions of euros
Visited Tenerife July this year, i purchased a tablet from videosonic Parque Santiago Playa de las Americas, he informed me he would change eerything over from spanish to English for me and could i pick it up before i go back to the UK. When i returned the day before we left he said his mate would take us to his friends shop and he would explain everything we wasnt happy but agreed, this is when they tried to scam us i wanted to purchase a disk for the tablet i gave him my bank card but he said payment had been refused which i found odd as i knew money was in my account at this point my partner said he would pay for it on his which he did. At this point i received a text from the fraud department of Barclays Bank asking if id authorised 3 payments totalling over 4 thousand pound i replied no. The bank automatically blocked my card and i spoke to the shop owner/thief. at this point my partner asked for a refund of money they had taken out of his account which we found out was £704 they instantly did this as i threatened to get the Police. My advise to anyone visiting Tenerife is be careful of these 2 stores the one named above and Paradise Selections Loc 29-32 38670 Adeje. I’m going back to Tenerife in October and will definitely be paying these thieves a visit think i might need a Bond incase im arrested.