The Department of Consumer Affairs (DACO) today imposed a fine on a store located on the first floor of the Plaza Las Américas shopping center, for “lack of sufficient labels”.

As DACO Secretary Aidan Rivera Rodriguez explained, “We issued a fine to a store for not having the proper labels because it wasn’t the first time we had issued the warning, and it was like the second time, so we followed through with the fine. It’s a clothing store here on the first floor of the mall. “.

The fine was added to 35 others issued so far this Christmas season.

So far we have paid 35 fines because the “shoppers” that have been advertised in the past two weeks have not complied with our regulations. This situation has been corrected for these sales and whoever has committed the infringement provides the corresponding explanatory notes and what is a special sale will be honored rain check or an alternative substance, as provided by our regulations,” Rivera stated.

He explained that these fines now go to the litigation department to check whether it is a repeated offense or not, and accordingly it can fluctuate between 400 to 5000 dollars.

On the other hand, DACO has received some customer complaints about the specials, but most of them have been addressed.

“There are many situations that we have encountered. I brought out a ladder from a large hardware store, it was for private sale and we received many complaints that they did not make rain check or a replacement item. Our intervention caused customers to start receiving a rain check So they can look up that ladder later.

“I also highlight the seasonal items that consumers look for a lot, there’s the Apple Watch, there’s the Playstation, but we’ve addressed all the complaints we received about this,” added Rivera Rodriguez.

The secretary commented that the number of complaints received was “similar to other years”, though he stressed that it was “odd that dozens were linked to the ladder” of the hardware store chain.

This Black Friday, DACO activated the entire department (about 60 people) to act as inspectors, including about 30 employees who came from the Electric Power Authority (PREPA). Everyone has been trained to be able to do this job as an inspector.

In general, the stores visited were in compliance, Rivera Rodriguez commented, and since the specials were spread out over several weekends rather than one day as was usual, “they received a lot more merchandise than they expected, and they had Sell ​​it.”

“In that sense, it seems to me a positive for everyone, consumers on the one hand that they have what they’re looking for, and commerce that enjoys economic development,” he said.

Although all was going well, Rivera Rodriguez insisted that DACO would continue to ensure that promises to the consumer were fulfilled for the remainder of the Christmas season.

“We are not lowering our guard although at the moment we have not found anything that catches our attention, except for the above. DACO will continue to monitor, and will continue to do its job throughout the Christmas season. We urge the public to contact us immediately if they see something other than Regular. He assured that we will have premium employees over the weekend and throughout the entire Christmas season to give immediate compensation to consumers.”