Family Economics And Consumer Education 3 (2+1)

Lesson 17 : Consumer problems

Introduction

Consumers face a number of problems of unfair trade practices in their day to day dealings. Their problems are related to traders and various organizations involved in supplying goods and services.
These problems may be the results of

• Scarcity of goods and services
• Varying incomes
• Product development
• Environmental changes or
• Social structure

The problems of the consumers are encountered in markets, banks, government and private offices, hospitals, schools, public distribution agencies etc.
The problems of consumers are broadly divided into

• Problems related to products and
• Problems related to services

The following discussion provides the details of these two types of problems.