By YOURI KEMP
Tribune Business Reporter
ykemp@tribunemedia.net
BAY Street merchants have been accused by The Bahamas’ consumer protection watchdog of overcharging cruise ship passengers and other tourists on their credit card purchases
Lavade Darling, the Consumer Protection Commission’s senior supervisor for education, research and training, told a media briefing at the Prime Minister’s Office: “There are certain stores on Bay Street that are targeting our tourists, particularly cruise ship passengers.
“They would purchase an item for ‘x’ amount of dollars. Then they would give you some free items, and when these tourists get back to their home, they find that the credit card has been charged $10,000 or $15,000 for an item that really should have cost only what they agreed to purchase.”
Mr Darling did not identify the culprits, but made clear the issue is something the Commission is “not addressing” by itself and is “working with the other relevant agencies” within the Government to combat the problem. “It’s not something that we can address totally on our own,” he added. “(The Ministry) of Tourism is aware, and we’re working with them to resolve the cyber issues.”
Such practices, if they are occurring, would threaten to harm The Bahamas’ integrity and reputation as a world-class tourism destination - the very image that the Government, various industry promotion Boards and individual resorts and operators are seeking to promote.
Mr Darling, meanwhile, said another focus for the Consumer Protection Commission is that businesses are still requiring consumers to purchase a minimum amount, and also levying a fee, for credit and debit card purchases. This, he added, violates the merchant services agreement that these businesses have signed with card issuing companies and financial services providers.
“Another area of concern for us is credit and debit card fees,” Mr Darling said. “That’s something that comes up quite regularly because the merchant services agreement for using a credit card stipulates that you’re not supposed to have a minimum purchase and you’re not supposed to be charging a convenience fee to use a credit or debit card.
“So that is a matter of major concern for us… We had a meeting recently with the Central Bank to speak about that, and one of the things that came out of that meeting is that we’re going to be looking at introducing legislation to actually enforce the merchant services agreement because moral suasion is obviously not working. These merchants are aware of the terms of their merchant services agreement.”
The switch to digital transactions and cashless payment systems further accelerated due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Many merchants were not prepared to handle the sudden shift to electronic payment forms during lockdowns and other associated restrictions.
The Consumer Protection Commission officials acknowledged that making it more difficult, and expensive, for consumers to pay using debit and credit cards not only violates these companies’ merchant services agreements but also works against the Government and Central Bank’s drive to move the economy away from reliance on cash to digital transactions.
Mr Darling said: “The Government of the Bahamas has stated that they want us to go cashless. So using your credit or debit card should not be more expensive than using cash. But it goes against the stated policy objective of the Government of The Bahamas.
“As a statutory agency, those type of matters are a concern for us, and we are addressing them. So what we’re going to do is develop a financial literacy campaign that we expect to launch in a few months, where we’re going to be speaking to particularly small businesses, SMEs, about how you can lower your costs with digital transactions.”
Mr Darling said other frequent consumer complaints received by the watchdog related to the timeshare industry. “Persons basically purchase a timeshare,” he said. “They want out of it, right, and the Act provides the conditions under which you can get out of your timeshare. The problem is that the timeshare operators are not giving them the opportunity to get out of their timeshare. So that’s a major concern for us.”
The Commission also wants to strengthen its governing legislation so that it is better placed to deal with complaints against funeral homes and cemeteries, both of which are sectors that are largely unregulated.
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