The number of complaints contrary to the electrical and electronic industry rose by 45 per cent in the first six months of this year compared to the exact same period last year.
About 40 per cent of the complaints were about faulty or non-conforming items, while 30 % were about firms failing to honor their contractual contracts.
The spike in complaints has been attributed to disputes against a direct seller associated with alkaline water techniques, Triple Lifestyle Marketing . CASE said this received 162 issues with the company in the initial half of this year.
“Consumers had complained that the company had been either unresponsive in order to requests for services appointments or failed to show up for scheduled appointments despite the company’s representations during the product sales process that they would certainly repair the water dispensers or water filtration systems if defects occurred, ” said the consumer watchdog.
Mr Yong said that underneath the Consumer Protection (Fair Trading) Act, in case a defect is found inside six months of delivery, it is assumed the problem existed at the time of delivery. Consumers are entitled to exchange the defective item even after the stated exchange period from the retailer, he added.
CASE also received 717 issues against the beauty industry in the first 6 months of this year, a 14 per cent increase from last year.
About a quarter of the complaints against spas and beauty salons related to pressure product sales tactics and misleading claims. Consumers reported that they were pressured to buy high cost massage or beauty treatment packages, or were misled in regards to the efficacy of services or products.
A total of 1, 107 complaints were lodged in the 1st half of this year concerning online purchases, an increase from the 986 issues in the same time period last year. The enhance can be attributed to a greater number of complaints against online marketplaces and food delivery systems.
The most common types of e-commerce complaints consist of defective or non-conforming goods, failure from the seller to deliver the food item or item, and disputes over refunds, said SITUATION.
Consumers reported S$289, 842 in prepayment losses within the first half of this year. The beauty as well as well as medical consumables industries saw the greatest amount of prepayment losses in this period.
Mister Yong said: “Over the past two years, rate of interest cap in the beauty plus medical aesthetics industries have been adversely influenced by deteriorating economic problems and declining customer spend, and had been forced to close.
“As a result, consumers with prepaid packages lost some or all of their prepayments. CASE is concerned about this problem, as it can be difficult regarding consumers to recover their particular monies once a company goes insolvent.
“To better protect consumers against prepayment losses, CASE has called on the Authorities to mandate prepayment protection in industrial sectors where consumers make large sums associated with payment upfront. ”