Consumer Council receives $3M worth of complaints

Consumer Council of Fiji's Chief Executive Officer Premila Kumar says these complaints were received through the National Consumer Helpline.

Kumar says the Council managed to give back $1.6 million to consumers by resolving over 1,000 complaints.

She says they receive an average of 195 complaints per month.

Kumar highlights they receive complaints in relation to electronic goods, mobile products, landlord-tenancy, food and drinks, hardware, Sky Pacific, Water Authority of Fiji, Fiji Electricity Authority, online shopping and VAT.

She says they received 158 complaints related to electronic goods, 121 complaints related to landlord tenancy issues, 112 complaints about the mobile products, 78 food and drinks complaints, 60 complaints regarding Sky Pacific, 54 online shopping complaints, 47 complaints against Water Authority of Fiji, 44 hardware complaints, 41 complaints relating to VAT where VAT had not been passed on while 40 complaints against the Fiji Electricity Authority.

Meanwhile, a total of 1,699 calls have been received by the National Consumer Helpline after it was launched on the 14th of August this year.

Kumar says out of 1,699 calls, 656 were genuine calls as 60 percent of the calls were prank calls, blank calls or incomplete calls.