2010 Smart Consumer Calendar - Video Vignette Transcript

Ontario Consumer
-> Ontario consumer speaking. Narrates over various images of shoppers.
“A lot of consumers really don’t know their rights on the marketplace.”

Ontario Consumer
-> Ontario consumer speaking. Narrates over various images of sales transactions.
“I think everyone had a bad experience with consumer service. My personal experience was in retail.”

Ontario Consumer
-> Ontario consumer speaking. Narrates over various images of shoppers.
“I think I should know my rights because I don’t want to be taken advantage of.  And I don’t want to be taken advantage from someone who does know the laws and don’t want to inform me of the laws.”

Chris Ferguson, Director, Consumer Protection Branch
->Head shot while he speaks. Narrates over various images of shoppers, the calendar and himself walking through a mall with the calendar.
“We get 55,000 phone call complaints and about five to six thousand written complaints every year.  The three biggest traps that we hear most about are not reading the fine print on contracts, buying on impulse sometimes under pressure, not keeping receipts.  Smart Consumer Calendar, I think, is a very useful product for consumers because it tells them where to go for help if they have problem with a specific issue.”

Ontario Consumer
-> Ontario consumer speaking. Narrates while looking through calendar.
“The calendar is good, it just kind of brings these basic ideas to consumers.”

Ontario Consumer
-> Ontario consumer speaking. Narrates over images of the calendar.
“You just read it and it is easy to read. And you just look at it and you look at it kind of like ‘I didn’t know that’.” And it just brings it into your head, nice and easy.”

Ontario Consumer
-> Ontario consumer speaking. Narrates over an image of the calendar.
“It is a good way to get information, especially general information that people don’t already know.”

Ted McMeekin, Minister of Consumer Services
->Head shot while he speaks. Narrates over various images of shoppers.
“An informed consumer is a smart consumer. And a smart consumer is able to spot and avoid all those scam artists out there who want to take advantage of people they perceive as being vulnerable. We want to do everything we can in the province of Ontario to make sure that we provide a framework, so that consumers can be smart consumers.”

Ontario Consumer
-> Ontario consumer speaking. Narrates over a visual of a gift card sign.
“I think I am going to be a little more cautious. I knew I had rights, but I had no idea what they were.”