Dubai tourists lodged 1,800 complaints last year

DUBAI — Seven per cent of the total customer grievances in the emirate last year were from visitors, according a senior official at the Dubai Economy.

As many as 1,826 consumer complaints were lodged by the tourists comprising 64 countries with GCC nationals topping the list, according to Mohammed Ali Rashid Lootah, CEO of Commercial Compliance and Consumer Protection at Dubai’s Department of Economic Development (DED),

“Most of the complaints were related to either not refunding the car rental deposit or delay in refunding the deposit,” Lootah told Khaleej Times.

The GCC nationals topped the list at 76 per cent, followed by those who came from Asia and Australia at 6.2 per cent and European states at 4.7 per cent.

The DED received the most number of complaints on car rental agreements at 42 per cent; followed by consumer services at 16 per cent; electronics at 12 per cent; various customer grievances at 5.6 per cent; and purchase of automobiles at 5.5 per cent.

“We have resolved the complaints by studying every single complaint and if the information provided by the consumer was accurate we ensured that the companies comply with the regulations and those that have repeated complaints were fined,” Lootah added.

“Receiving complaints from tourist consumers indicate that they know their consumers rights and they trust that their rights are protected in Dubai. The good news is, out of the more than 1,800 complaints registered at DED last year, more than 90 per cent of the cases were resolved,” Lootah added.

Lootah has also reminded Dubai tourists to report any violations they face to authorities to protect their consumer rights