Inflation does not stop its march. The March measurement closed at 4.7% and stood at 51% year-to-year, the highest record since 1991. The cimbronazo aroused the Government, which deployed a package of Kirchnerist measures to turn off its own "Notre Dame" in full election year .
One of the initiatives will consist in the freezing of prices of 60 products of the basic basket for six months, starting on April 22. These items will include oils, rice, flour, noodles, milk, yogurt, yerba mate, tea, sugar, preserves, polenta, cookies, jams and beverages. In total, there will be 16 companies and 2,500 businesses that will participate in the program.
In this way, it seeks to appease the acceleration of the food item, which accumulates an increase close to 60% in the last year, the second highest of the measurement after transport.
In addition, the Government announced that it will launch a new regime of Commercial Loyalty, which will be issued by decree and that will aim to "avoid abuses of dominant positions or possible monopolistic behavior of large companies."
Faced with this scenario, the administration macrista appealed to the help of technology to apply a "personal brand" to the prices: it will bring to the users different ways so that they can report irregularities, such as missing products, infractions to the program Caring Prices or misleading advertising , among others.
In this context, a consumer defense association will present this Monday before the national executive an application to raise the claims is so simple how to point the cell phone to a QR code.
Thus, this technological tool will not only be a way to facilitate transactions and avoid commission charges paid by businesses, but it will also become a fundamental ally in the fight to monitor prices.
Scan and report
QR codes offer greater agility when paying for a purchase, which explains to a large extent its strong growth: with the use of a virtual wallet (such as MercadoPago, TodoPago or ValePEI), the user simply scans one of these with his cell phone graphics and pay with your card or account balance.
Appealing to this speed, the Association of Defense of Consumers and Users of Argentina (ADECUA) designed a system so that citizens can report infringements of the shops.
According to iProUP confirmed, the association will deliver to the Government on Monday a project of its authorship for its implementation. Thus, each point of sale will have associated a QR code that must be placed in a visible place for any citizen to make claims from the cell phone.
"We want any person to let us know immediately any missing product, if you see price differences in gondolas, if the amounts are not displayed as appropriate, etc.", points to iProUP Sandra González, owner of ADECUA.
He adds that the objective of bringing this functionality to mobile phones is that consumers "can make claims instantaneously, at the moment, otherwise they will be diluted".
"Once we receive them, we will pass them on to the enforcement authority, beyond which we have attention to the public, what we intend is to facilitate the complaints and that they can be done quickly and easily," González completes.
In addition, the specialist notes that they are working with other consumer advocacy organizations to promote this type of solution, which aims to breach commercial loyalty more expeditiously and get more widespread.
Stricter laws
The Government announced that it will modify by law a law 22,802 of Commercial Loyalty, so that the Ministry of Internal Trade has more powers to sanction unfair or anti-competitive behavior and thus protect consumers, small businesses and SMEs.
The current regulation establishes that the consumer must have "true information" about the goods and services that he wants to buy and that the suppliers handle themselves with clear rules. This information arises from the advertising and promotions carried out by the brands, the content of the packaging and the origin of the products.
One of the points most questioned by consumer associations is that fines are usually very low and this leads many of the big companies to break the law.
The reality shows that in very few cases has it been possible to apply extreme measures, such as the closure of the establishment for a period of 30 days. Even, the regulations provide that in cases of recidivism the sanctions may be aggravated and even provides for the seizure of the merchandise in violation.
For the norm, it is a repeat offender who, having been sanctioned, incurs another similar infraction within the term of three years. This point could also be modified by shortening the times.
Everything from the cell phone
In addition to the system designed by Adecua, based on the scanning of the QR code of the establishment, other ways to make complaints simply and from the cell phone gain prominence.
One of them is the Mi Argentina application, the "hub" of government paperwork. To make a complaint, you must enter the search "consumer protection" and click on the item that allows you to initiate the complaint.
Another option is the "Where to Buy" app that displays the prices of products that are marketed in the nearest stores, according to the information that the companies notify to the macrista administration based on the Precios Claros program. In case the informed amount is not respected, users are enabled to report them simply by pressing a button.
"It's a shortcut that allows you to directly open the form to claim, instead of going to the Claros Prices website and looking for the form," says Kevin Furman, programmer of the app, to iProUP.
For its part, the Buenos Aires Government has several channels to receive complaints from users.
"We have the application BA147, which allows any citizen to report breaches of the Commercial Loyalty law, either because the trade does not report the amount of the product, find differences with the price in a gondola or observe deceptive advertising," they say. iProUP sources of the Secretariat of Attention and Citizen Management of the GCBA.
The app has an average of 400 consumer complaints per month: "They are orders for inspection and within 72 hours an inspector comes to the premises to verify the type of violation," they complete.
The Secretariat also indicates that the City receives complaints through the WhatsApp number +54 9 11 5050-0147. "That line works with a Boti (chatbot of the Buenos Aires government) and allows all kinds of requests, which are processed thanks to the use of artificial intelligence," he adds.
Chat and claim at the moment
In addition to complaints related to commercial loyalty, Boti accepts different types of inquiries. The operation is simple: the citizen greets and the system responds with a list of frequently asked questions. In addition, it gives the option to perform specific searches in case the conversation requires it.
In dialogue with iProUP, Felipe Miguel, chief of staff of the City of Buenos Aires, explains the reasons why it was decided to disembark in the messaging app.
"Definitely, WhatsApp is one of the most used communication channels, in Federal Capital it is even number one," he points out. He adds: "This tool is very friendly, that all the neighbors can chat with the City as they do with friends and family makes this system is perceived as very simple and accessible."
Boti is a fundamental channel of attention for the government of Horacio Rodríguez Larreta, since it is available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. However, the officials clarify that it does not replace the existing communication channels but it is added as a tool to approach the porteños in their day to day.
The "WhatsApp" project took more than half a year of development and involved all the spheres of larretism. The challenge, they say, was to transform the contents that people already consult in different ways that the City grants in a conversation oriented to the exchange of text.
"The idea is that it becomes the main channel of contact between the neighbor and the City, the first instance for everything they need," says Felipe Miguel.
The Buenos Aires authorities believe that Boti will have a strong role to report businesses that fail to comply with the regulations and anticipate that it will be a very expeditious channel to report abuses.
The head of the Cabinet clarifies that when Boti can not answer a question, "he will ask for clarification, and at the third consultation, if he does not understand it, he will derive the concern so that the neighbor can be treated by an operator".
Once again, the cell phone becomes a great ally that brings simplicity and agility in the claims. In the framework of the Care Prices plan, nothing better than having an app at hand to report breaches.
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