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The Commercial Compliance & Consumer Protection sector in the Department of Economic Development (DED), Dubai, received 32,650 complaints from consumers and 1,657 from businesses in 2018 as DED continued to enhance communication with different customer groups and encourage them to use its diverse complaint resolution channels.
On average, DED received 2,720 complaints a month in 2018, and 96% of them were resolved to the satisfaction of the complainants within four working days, a substantial achievement given the efforts of Dubai government entities to improve service quality to the levels attained by the most developed economies.
The increase in complaints reaffirm the role of CCCP in protecting the rights of consumers as well as businesses, and also reflects the success achieved by the sector in reinforcing Dubai’s competitiveness as a shopping destination by improving awareness among businesses and the public regarding the rules governing the buying and selling processes.
Consumer complaints relating to the services sector accounted for 24.2% of total in 2018, followed by the electronics sector (17.2%), e-commerce (13.7%), automobiles (8.2%), car rentals (6.5%), garments & accessories (4.3%), furniture (3.3%), textiles & personal accessories (3.2%), car repair workshops (2.8%), decoration & maintenance of buildings (1.2%), and salons (0.7%) while 11.4% were from other different sectors.
Majority of the consumer complaints (29.5%) were related to non-compliance with the purchase agreement, while 18% involved refunds.
Defective products caused 14.9% of the complaints while commercial fraud (7.7%), VAT (4.4%), warranty (4.2%), replacement (3%), after-sale service (2.9%), surcharges (2.3%) non-compliance with promotional offers (1.43%), price list mismatch (1.27%), additional charge on service/product (1.11%), failure to comply with laws (0.7%), refusal to repair (0.7%), non-adherence to declared business activity (0. 6%), bad stitching (0.3%), cheating in gold & jewellery sales (0.1%), and non-compliance with standards (0.01%) where the other issues involved. Various other issues contributed to 7.2% of the complaints.
As a sector, services accounted for majority (37.1%) of the business complaints also while electronics (8.9%), foodstuffs (8%), shipping (5.9%), building materials (5.7%), construction, decoration & maintenance of buildings (5.4%), cars (2.3%), furniture (1%), accessories (0.9%), labour supply (0.8%), and car rental, transport and communications (0.7%) were the other sectors involved.
Non-compliance with the terms of agreement was behind 79% of the business complaints while the others related to commercial fraud (5.1%), after sales service (2.1%), non-compliance with specifications and standards (1.5%), non-compliance with security requirements (1.5%), additional charges on service/product (1%), non-compliance with declared business activity (0.9%), non-compliance with shop policy (0.36), non-compliance with price list (0.18%), replacement (0.06%), faulty product (0.18) and various other issues (8.2%).
Mohammed Ali Rashid Lootah, CEO of CCCP, said the overall statistics from 2018 underline a successful year for CCCP in enhancing awareness among consumers and traders in Dubai.
“Our Consumer Protection team put special efforts into diversifying channels of communication with the consumer. The Smart Protection app that we recently launched accounted for 20% of the consumer complaints and 12% of the complaints from commercial establishments and it shows our customers are updated on the initiatives launched by the Commercial Compliance & Consumer Protection sector,” Lootah said.
Lootah added that CCCP’s role was not only to receive complaints but also to ensure fast and efficient response and improve overall customer happiness.
“Last year, the sector received 3,753 comments and 2286 inquiries from consumers and our team recorded and evaluated them, and then transferred them to our Development & Follow-up team. Our goal is to strengthen the relationship between the consumer and the trader, create an exemplary business environment and promote a culture of awareness and impartiality in buying and selling in Dubai, particularly within the emirate’s vital retail sector.”
The services sector leading in the number of consumer as well as business complaints show that consumers are conscious more than ever regarding the quality of what they receive, while businesses are also determined to recover their rights, a challenge that occupied the bulk of their work earlier, said Lootah.
Nationality-wise, UAE citizens had a majority among the consumer complaints (30.7%) and business complaints (36.5%) raised in 2018 while Indians stood next in both categories at 15.4% and 17.2% respectively. Egyptians stood third (10.9%) in the share of consumer complaints and fourth (5.7%) in business complaints, while Saudis came third (6.3%) in business complaints and fourth (7.49%) in consumer complaints.
Lootah called on all consumers and business owners to contact CCCP through its social media handles, Call Center number 600 54 5555 or by downloading Smart Protection, an artificial-intelligence-based app designed to protect the rights of consumers as well as businesses.
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