Misselling is a very common word used these days by everyone. It’s been projected in such a way for the last few years that people have started feeling all agents and companies are engaged in looting the public. But maybe there’s another angle to this and maybe we need think a bit & answer a big question – Is it misselling or misbuying?

• “I was mis-sold a financial product”
• “Agent made me buy this crap and now he is not agreeing to it”
• “My trusted friend mis-sold me idiotic policy promising high returns”

What is Misbuying ?

The first question we need to ask is – How can some one sell you something if you do not want to buy it? Can anyone come to you and put a gun on your head and make you buy? If that happens, I think anyone is bound to agree that it was mis-selling. However, when someone buys a financial product without proper research; or without understanding what they are buying, I would say its more of “mis-buying”. By no means do I want to say that agents and companies are not at fault. If you have not understood the product and bought it, just because some one said some thing verbally or showed you some fancy chart, you need to question it first, inquire about it before buying it and understand the whole dynamics which govern the financial product.

Misselling – What about Investor’s trust ?

While its true that a customer has to do his own research and study, we cant say that companies and the product sellers are not at fault . What about “trust” from the customers who feel that companies will take care of trust part being into business, but most of the times, companies don’t accept the fault on their side by stressing on “Buyer’s Beware” points.

Seth Godin has a very crisp point to make on that.

“Buyer beware”

Really? Is that really the attitude you want your audience to take? That they should be wary of what you say and what you offer and what you promise?

How about “buyer trust”?

How do you deal with customer disappointment or buyer remorse? It’s the difference between “tough luck, you should have read the fine print” and “oh no! How can we help?” If people know you will always make it right, they will beware less and trust more. What do you have to do to create trust? How much would it cost and how often can you produce it?

Dr Kishan has made a very beautiful comment on this topic .

Dear Manish,

What I concluded after my and others’ experiences is that thieves dont come in the dark always. They are not always dressed in masks and armed with lock breakers etc. We can encounter thieves even in broad daylight dressed in finest of clothes with most charming smiles on their faces, so much so that even most intelligent people can fall prey to them.

We all lock our houses when we go out daily, because we dont know when the thieves may come. We all lock our cars when we park them, so as to protect from theft. These “locks” can be bought in the market for some price and applied on the doors.

But there are some other “locks” which can only be acquired by getting knowledge. This cannot be bought from market for some money. And getting this lock is a life long process which entails a lot of effort. This “LOCK” is required for protecting our hard earned money. Or else the charming and well dressed “thieves” shall rob us in broad daylight. This is KALYUG. And thus everyone will rob us if we are not cautious. We can very well say we were ignorant but it is our fault. Not locking a house and expecting there shall be no thieves is not the order of the day in today’s world.

Why dont we educate ourselves against this robbery

Reasons are many- lack of time, lack of access to knowledge, lack of knack of understanding the concepts of money, lack of interest etc. But I think spending some time and taking some effort to save our hard earned money is really required or else money will just slip like sand slips out of our hand.

What I feel strongly

There is no mis-selling, there is only MIS-BUYING. After all its ME who had put the signature on the application form I can blame nobody absolutely nobody for that signature.

Sorry if I sounded too harsh

Time Spent before and after making the decision

Nandish some makes an interesting comment on this, he says – “People spend too much energy and time after buying the product , and not at the time of buying it” .

If you see your past behavior – You might have spent very less time in buying a product and maximum time worrying and cribbing about the product later . However all you need to do is spend some more time at the time of buying and nothing later. All their life Indian investors take decisions on the basis of trust and relationships. They ignore their financial lives and how they deal with it, but at some point in time, we need to understand that world is changing, our country is changing and the whole dynamics of personal finance are changing. We now, need to take responsibility of what we are doing and make our own decisions.

What do you think about this concept of misbuying or misselling ? How much is it a fault of the buyer and how much of seller ?