Dubai consumers complaints rise 19% in H1 2019
DUBAI 31 July 2019: Dubai Economy saw a 19 percent increase in consumer complaints during the first six months of 2019, following improved awareness over consumer rights and the ease of access to consumer protection channels.
The nationality-wise breakdown of complaints indicates that:
- Emiratis (25 percent) were the top complainants, followed by
- Indians (16 percent),
- Egyptians (12 percent),
- Saudis (nine percent) and
- Jordanians (five percent).
The Consumer Protection section at the Dubai Economy resolved 17,768 complaints during the first half of 2019, compared to 14,970 complaints during the same period in 2018, said Wam.
Dubai Economy also received 1,661 suggestions and 1,266 enquiries from consumers during H1 of 2019. The rise in complaints and the overall consumer feedback received across diverse channels reflect increasing confidence among shoppers in Dubai and emphasise the importance of service quality in sustainable growth and competitiveness of the emirate’s flagship retail sector, said Mohammed Ali Rashid Lootah, CEO of the Commercial Compliance & Consumer Protection, CCCP, sector at the Dubai Economy.
“While 62 percent of the complaints came through our call centre, the remaining 38 percent were submitted via our smart channels, chiefly our website and the Dubai Consumer app we introduced to integrate Artificial Intelligence into consumer protection,” Lootah added.
Top Complaints
Services still account for a majority of the consumer complaints together with electronics and e-commerce accounted for 58% of total complaints.
- Services (28 percent),
- Electronics (16 percent)
- E-commerce (14 percent)
- Car rental (nine percent)
- Automobiles (eight percent),
- Clothing and accessories (seven percent),
- Shipping (five percent),
- Furniture (four percent),
- Auto repair workshops (three percent)
- Textiles & personal items (three percent),
- Decoration and maintenance of buildings (two percent), and
- Salons (one percent)
Non-compliance with the purchase agreement made up 27.3 percent of consumer complaints in H1 of 2019 and refunds was next, at 19.36 percent. Defective products (18.48 percent), commercial fraud (11.15 percent), after-sales service (5.28 percent), non-compliance with warranty terms (4.28 percent), surcharges (3.77 percent), exchange (2.63 percent), additional charges on services/products (1.99 percent), non-compliance with promotional offer (1.91 percent), incompatibility of shop policy with existing laws (1.27 percent), non-adherence to declared business activity (1.27 percent), non-compliance with price list (0.90 percent), and VAT (0.28 percent) made up the remaining complaints.
Lootah called on all consumers to provide their feedback on the social media handles of the CCCP or to download the Dubai Consumer app.
