Everything you need to know about the reduction of the deadline for handling claims

On Thursday, March 10, it was approved by insistence in the plenary session of the Congress of the republicwith 97 votes in favor, the proposal of reduction of the response time to complaints filed by consumers, from 30 calendar days to 15 business days. Here we tell you everything you need to know about the application of this law.

Tangible benefits

We talked with Crisología Cáceres, president of the Peruvian Association of Consumers and Users (Aspec), regarding the benefits that the application of the law will bring to users. There are two novelties: the term was 30 calendar days (4 weeks) and what has been approved is that it be 15 business days (3 weeks), since business days are counted from Monday to Friday, In practice, the time that providers have to respond to a claim has been reduced by one week.

“It is important that the term has been reduced because there are claims that are more or less complex than others. For example, if you bought a pair of sneakers through a digital platform and one of them arrives without a pin, waiting a month for the missing pin is absurd,” says Cáceres.

What’s more, if we add to this situation that the current law states that the term is extendablethat is, a few days before the 30-day term expires, the provider can inform the user that he requires another 30 days to resolve his case. A reasonable reason to extend the deadline is a complex circumstancefor example, that the correction requested by the consumer is not available at that time or a store with headquarters in another region must be consulted but the manager is on vacation, among other particularities.

However, In practice, companies extend the term by 30 days, without any justification.. In short, the consumer is affected because he has to wait two months for his claim to be answered, however simple it may be. These types of claims have become more acute when it comes to online purchases.

For example, when you go to a clothing store, you can easily try on the garment and be sure that it fits your tastes and needs, and that it is the right size. “In the case of online purchases, it happens that we do not have the products until after paying and that they arrive at the address, one has to trust the supplier”, emphasizes Cáceres.

For this reason there are more online shopping complaints, because the consumer receives something they did not ask for or the product arrives incomplete, or arrives out of time. If you bought a dress for a wedding that was due in two weeks and despite buying it early, the dress arrives after the party, then you no longer need it. These problems have multiplied and companies are not paying enough attention to resolving these claims.affirms the president of Aspec.

The other important benefit of the approval of this law is that it is specified that the suppliers of products and/or services will have a period of no more than 15 business days non-extendable to provide attention and response to consumer complaints.

Another law that is not followed?

As of the publication of the law, 30 calendar days are counted for the regulation to come out and then 30 more days for the rule to come into effect. That is, in theory, in 60 calendar days the law should be in force.

However, the president of Aspec warned that in Peru on the issue of regulation of laws there is a very bad habit of missing deadlines. For example, art. 37 of the Code referring to the labeling of transgenic foods has not been regulated until now and more than 11 years have passed.

Aspec’s recommendation would be to exhort the Executive Power to issue the regulation within the established 30-day period, otherwise the law would be a dead letter.

For his part, the National Institute for the Defense of Competition and the Protection of Intellectual Property (Indecopi) announced that it activated a work plan to implement the standard at the national level through the Directorate of the National Authority for Consumer Protection, in order to achieve compliance by all national businesses, from MSMEs to large companies around the world. country.

Finally, the president of Aspec recalled that this Tuesday, March 15, the world day of consumer rights is celebrated, so the approval of this law is conducive to remembering that consumers can complain about any controversy or problem that affects them. when purchasing a product or service.