PUBLIC INTEREST RESEARCH GROUP
ESTABLISHED APRIL 2001
ACCOMPLISHMENTS TO DATE
1. By highlighting local lender’s then despicable
practice of deliberately Naming &
Shaming their mortgagor’s with their FOR SALE BY MORTGAGE public advertisements in
which they would list in bold prints
the borrower’s NAME
& ADDRESS as if selling the
Borrower and not their property, PIRG
successfully fought relentlessly to dissuade this puerile practice from
uneducated Bankers and lenders by repeatedly writing to all such advertisers. Shamefully,
this despicable and destructive practice was started by indigenous African
based WORKERS BANK at a time when the country experienced its first severe
downturn in the 80’s forcing many honest people into unexpected financial decline
and unable to pay their mortgages. Today, due to PIRG, this destructive paradigm
of NAMING & SHAMING of
mortgagors no longer exist.
2. PIRG reassured and reinforced the RIGHTS of consumers by
its public advertisements highlighting banking malpractices, misfeasance and
malfeasances. Banks, Consumers and their Government stood up and took notice,
while Republic Bank later publicly advertised a reduction in fees on 15 of
their financial products.
3. PIRG petitioned Government for the establishment of a
Banking Ombudsman (Now the FSO: Financial
Service Ombudsman) who could hear and resolve consumer’s complaints against
their banks.
4. Following the seizure of BWIA’S aircraft in
5.
Following the
shocking and unprecedented publication of REQUEST
TO CONTACT in which Government micro lender Nedco placed the photos
of 23 of their delinquent borrowers in all three daily newspapers in March and
April of 2002, PIRG mounted a
zealous campaign engaging all methods possible to dissuade this uncivil and
nefarious practice from becoming the commercial norm in our society. Getting
nowhere with the newspapers more concerned about their lucrative advertising revenues
than civil and social responsibility, we then sought the intervention of the
Honorable Camille Robinson Regis, the then Minister of Legal Affairs with
responsibility for Consumer Affairs who
was successful in forcefully writing these newspapers about their practices,
prompting written assurances to PIRG
from the Trinidad Express that they would no longer be publishing photo ads of
their delinquent borrowers, captioned REQUEST
TO CONTACT.
6. PIRG
campaigned VIGOROUSLY for local banks to cash their own cheques at ANY of their
branches, staunchly arguing that cheques were drawn on BANKS and NOT on the “branch”
of the account holder. Prior to PIRG, banks would obliviously refuse the
encashment and direct the payee to the drawer’s branch however far, however
insensible. At that time local banks
were so backward that they didn’t even keep signatures of account holders from
other branches but were avaricious to charge customers $20.00 to $30.00 to
“fax” the cheque to the respective branch for verification while the customer
sat and waited for a response.
7. LETTER
WRITING. PIRG
has written numerous letters to various financial institutions on behalf of
their borrowers in order to successfully resolve consumer issues.
8. PIRG also wrote to warehouse retailer PRICESMART in December 2008 complaining about their then just
created policy of searching the handbags of their Members on checkout, and
received a prompt apology from their country Manager who assured us that that
policy would be discontinued forthwith. Letters have also been written to Hilo Food Stores (now MASSEY)
complaining about their sale of porous perishable items, poor customer service,
unreasonably long check-out lines due to lack of cashiers. We have in the past
written to Westmall about the then unacceptable condition of their toilet
facilities for its shoppers, and to fast foods giant KFC about its untrained and unmonitored staff offering a level of
customer service quite incongruous to that offered by its Franchisor in North
America where consumers are treated with deserving respect and prompt service.