Dial 155 to Seek Clarification on Trading Matters

The two new Government initiatives the Environment and Climate Change Adaptation Levy (ECAL) and the E-Transport system, kept the Consumer Council of Fiji busy last year.

Consumers resorted to the toll-free number 155 to seek clarification, advice even raise their concerns on matters.

This included traders charging 10cents per plastic bag levy without having provisions to reflect the charge on the receipts, and the e-ticketing machines not working in some buses.

Council chief executive officer Premila Kumar said in many cases, traders and service providers were practising against the new legislation.

The Helpline received a total of 7665 calls from January 1 until November 30, 2017 from consumers throughout Fiji.

Necessary advice and assistance were provided to all the legitimate cases noted.

Summary of consumer complaints

A total of 3422 genuine calls were recorded in the database over the past 11 months last year.

The table on the right shows the top 10 recurring complaints from January 1to November 30, 2017.

■ 874 advises were given to consumers via the Helpline.

■374 cases were classified as weak due to consumers’ inability to provide the Council with relevant documentation which could assist in pursuing their complaints.

■A further 28 cases were deemed incomplete calls as consumers failed to show up with documentation relating to their complaint.

■654 calls were made by the complainants to follow up on their logged complaints while the remaining 1501 cases were regiustered by the Council for further investigation and redress.

■From the 1501 registered cases, the Council managed to solve 1299 complaints while 115 cases were referred to other regulatory authorities.

■87 complaints are still pending due to delay from the complainants in facilitating more information with regards to the respective complaints.

About Consumer Council of Fiji

The Consumer Council of Fiji (CCOF) is a statutory organization established under the Consumer Council of Fiji Act -1976 (Cap 235).

CCOF is an advocacy (not regulatory or enforcement) organisation, conducting rigorous research and policy analysis on key consumer issues.