Similar to UK Citizens Advice Bureau

Consumer laws are one thing that puzzle me here in Spain. When you buy something in the UK and it breaks or something goes wrong within the first year, you take it back to the store where you purchased it from and they would either replace or repair it. Your contract of purchase is with the store - however that does not seem to apply in Spain.

After 15 days the store does not want to know and you have to contact the manufacturer or service centre yourself. If an item can be repaired then it is up to you, the consumer, to get the item there and at your cost. Considering that both are in the EU and should in my opinion adhere to the same laws I do not understand this discrepancy.... but then as anyone who lives in Spain quickly realises, customer service is sadly lacking here!

Many a time I have walked into a shop to find the assistant on the phone - not to a customer but very obviously a personal call. Now that´s ok-ish if there are no customers but as soon as someone walks in they should hang up - but no, usually that is not the case. They will happily carry on talking to their boyfriend or best friend about the previous night out, totally oblivious to you standing and glaring at them. Then when you make attempts to get their attention they will grunt and roll their eyes and if you are lucky hang up to serve you... but this is done most begrudgingly and they give the impression that they are doing you a big favour! I bet many of you have first hand experience of this.

Another thing to be careful of here is pricing - do not assume that the price on the shelf is the actual price of the said item! Yesterday I went to Media Markt in Alicante and found this out. After spending some considerable time comparing and researching I picked up two D-Link cameras for my computer. The price on the shelf was 89.99 euros - in fact, there were 2 identical price labels. However, at the till the price came up as 159.99 euro each! We explained to the cashier and she said to go back to the computer section and ask. Eventually we found a sales assistant and he nodded that according to the shelf the price was 89.99 but he took one of the price labels off and went to the computer at the end of the aisle. After tapping in the code he said that the price was coming up at 159.99 - which we already knew. We said that technically if that is the price on display then we should be sold it at that price.

We asked him to call the department manager  (Vicente Toreja) who came down and explained the same scenario to him. He walked over to the shelf, picked up the box and turned it around to the barcode and compared it to the price ticket on display and said you can see that is not the same code. When I asked him to show me the correct price ticket, pointing along the entire shelf as there wasn´t one with 159.99 he just shrugged his shoulders, put the incorrect price ticket back on the shelf and said you can leave now! What really annoyed me was his uninterested rude attitude that we had interrupted whatever he was doing to come down to the shop floor - he did not apologise that the wrong price was displayed and knowing it was wrong made no attempt to correct the fact either! And this was the manager ... what hope is there for the staff who work for him - does he really expect everyone to double check that the tiny barcode on the box matches the one on the shelf? My advice - avoid Media Markt if you can!

We went to the customer service desk and asked for the "Hoja de Reclamaciones" - complaint form and filled it out - it is printed in Spanish and English so don´t worry if you do not speak or write Spanish. Fill out the form and then the store stamps the bottom and fills out their details. They hand you back the original top white copy, which you need to take to the complaints office and a green copy which is for you to keep. If you have receipts or evidence you should also include copies - I will be attaching the picture of the price on the shelf with mine.

If you do have problems in shops you really should complain through the official channels - yes it can be inconvenient but if people don´t then nothing will change. You can always go to your local OMIC office - there is one in every town and ask for their help to make a complaint. OMIC is the nearest equivalent to a Citizens Advice Bureau and they are very good.

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