the invasion of privacy in Oman

From advertising pamphlets on your house's gate, and others that are left under your windscreen wiper to the annoying junk emails and worthless SMS you get in your mobile phone; the invasion of one's privacy in Oman has become a common tendency for companies that are seeking to woo customers to try out their services and products at special introductry prices and the such and all in the name of business.

Has it become the common practice for a business to invade someone's privacy to annoy you with phone calls at inappropriate timings throughout the day just to find out if you are interested in listening to their sales and marketing representative? And since when has it ever been seen in any telecommunications company around the world that if a certain business is targetting a certain segment of the society that it is allowed to convey the information that would allow or help such a business to get to the right people?

Such questions that need to be answered by the Omani Consumer Protection Agency instead of having them fight a useless battle that is being argued by the Ministry of Industry & Commerce to be a clear violation of consumer rights when most - if not all - Omani businesses serve the policy of 'goods once sold shall not be returned or exchanged' in matters of printed bills or motion of selling products.

If a person was to buy a certain garment, then most likely they would try it out at the same time to find out if it works out for their size or not before choosing to buy it. Whereas the example that is looked upon by the Consumer Protection Agency is that whatever the goods that are sold the consumer should always have the option of exchanging or returning the product no matter what the reason may be.

Sounds a bit daft, doesn't it?

In any case, it is the beginning of having to make it clear that the Omani Consumer Protection Agency is indeed in the business of protection consumer and customer rights, nationwide. A message, that was meant to be sent off ever since the formation of the said Agency.

Better late than never.