Refunds, damaged products major complaints in Q3

dubai — Emiratis and Indians lodged the highest number of complaints in the third quarter of 2020 with Dubai authorities and most of the overall complaints were related to refunds, non-compliance with the terms of the agreement, damage or defect in the product and commercial fraud, Dubai Economy said in a Press statement on Sunday.

The third quarter of 2020 saw the Commercial Compliance and Consumer Protection (CCCP) sector at Dubai Economy receive 14,274 total consumer complaints, 39 per cent higher than the 10,266 complaints received during the same period in 2019. Total consumer issues handled by CCCP during the period reached 15,403, of which 14,274 were complaints, 707 were observations and 422 were enquiries. Of the total complaints, 50 per cent were submitted through the Dubai Consumer app, 35 per cent through the Consumerrights.ae website and 15 per cent through the call centre.

The largest share of complaints (32 per cent) was about services, followed by electronics (16 per cent), e-commerce (12.6 per cent), ready-made garments and accessories (8.2 per cent), furniture (7.3 per cent), automobiles (5.5 per cent), freight (5.2 per cent), car rental (3.28 per cent), decoration and building maintenance (3.22 per cent), textiles and personal items (3.16 per cent), car workshops (2.4 per cent) and hair salons (1.1 per cent).

A majority of the complaints (28 per cent) was about refunds, followed by mon-compliance with the terms of the agreement (15.85 per cent) damage or defect in the product (15.14 per cent), commercial fraud (10 per cent), non-compliance with after-sales service (6.23 per cent), additional fees for the service or product (5.21 per cent), replacement (4 per cent) and unauthorised commercial activity (3.36 per cent). The remaining were distributed among: legally untenable shop policy, non-compliance with warranty terms, refusal to repair a device, price hikes, non-adherence to the terms of promotional offers, non-compliance with the price list, value-added tax, and fraudulent purchase of gold and diamonds.

39%

More complaints received in Q3