Markets flooded with fake, costly geysers

Factories manufacture low-quality heating appliances with fake monograms

ISLAMABAD:

Traders have increased the prices of geysers and heaters multifold alongside the increase in demand which has come with the change in weather.

With the arrival of winter in Rawalpindi, Islamabad and Murree, the demand for geysers has risen considerably. The sale of gas heaters and electric heaters has also shot up.

Shopkeepers in the city are selling substandard appliances with fake monograms of various big companies. While citizens have protested, the shopkeepers maintain that they acquired the geysers and heaters from the companies themselves.

However, in the inner city of Rawalpindi, in the areas of Dhok Ratta, Kartapura Ratta, Amaral, Dengue Khoi Dhok, Khaba Dhok, Matkial and Lal Kirti Pir, there exist factories which are manufacturing geysers and heaters made out of poor and substandard materials and priced at a few thousand rupees.

The shopkeepers are sourcing these poorly made appliances which have no quality check and hence pose various safety hazards for users and selling them at exorbitant prices by claiming that they are the products of established companies. Geysers, which are being sold for Rs30,000 to 35,000 for a capacity of 25 gallons, are typically sold for Rs15,000 to 18,000 in the market, and that too of better quality.

Citizens Rizwan Abbasi, Abu Bakar Butt, Wasif Chaudhry and Waqas Mehnas said that there is no check and balance by the government and neither is there any institution to monitor the sale of substandard goods. They complained the government is visible only in VIP areas.

Citizens in the markets said that the shopkeepers are looting them by giving the impression that they are selling good quality products.