Metro Manila (CNN Philippines) — We often hear department store cashiers or even public transport drivers reciting this halting and stale excuse: “Sorry po, kulang ang barya ko. Walang panukli. Okay lang po ba?”
More often than not, most consumers do not make a big fuss when they get shortchanged, especially when they are in a hurry or considerate enough to think about the person next to him in a grocery store.
They just walk away and sometimes never count their change.
What consumers do not realize is that unclaimed change – whether big or small – means more money for business establishments.
According to Rodolfo Javellana Jr., president of the Union of Filipino Consumers and Commuters (UFCC), it is necessary for all business establishments, retailers, and public utility vehicle drivers to give due change to consumers and commuters.
Javellana said: “Just think of a supermarket serving 1,000 customers a day and all of them get a change short of P1. Just for a P1 change, which is not given back, that’s extra income of P360,000 a year for a single establishment.”
Javellana said consumers should be protected against unfair and deceptive practices.
Some consumers, however, do not tolerate this trade malpractice.
John Concepcion relates how he always argues every time he was overcharged or shortchanged by establishment cashiers.
“I always felt I was ripped off every time I was shortchanged. No matter how small it was, it matters to me,” Concepcion said.
Some cashiers, Concepcion disclosed, will even ask him if he would like to donate his change to charity – making it appear that there is an unwritten policy that each customer should follow.
Berbom Murillo, meanwhile, recounts his experience with jeepney drivers who deliberately shortchange passengers.
Murillo, who commutes daily, said: “The minimum fare is supposed to be P7.50. But most of the time, when I give P10, I only get P2 instead of P2.50.”
Murillo added that what irks and bothers him more was when these drivers take advantage of their passengers.
“The most irritating thing is, the driver wouldn’t even inform me that he doesn’t have 50 centavos as a form of courtesy,” he said.
Recent published reports have quoted Rep. Mark Villar of Las Piñas City as saying that he was confident that his bill, the Exact Change Act, would pass into law before 2016.
The House of Representatives recently approved on third and final reading House Bill 4730 or the Exact Change Act – which seeks to prohibit business establishments from giving insufficient change or no change at all to consumers.
Villar, chairman of the House Committee on Trade and Industry, said the State should protect consumers from trade malpractices and from substandard or hazardous practices.
According to Villar, the practice of giving insufficient change or giving no change at all to consumers is something that is “often taken for granted.”
If passed into law, violators will be fined from P500 to P25,000 or 3% up to 10% of the gross sales of their business establishment.
