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Consumer complaints surge in Q1

Writer: Zhang Yang  | Editor: Lily A  | From:  | Updated: 2018-04-20

THE Shenzhen Consumer Council received 32,776 complaints from consumers in the first quarter, a year-on-year growth of 52.83 percent, the Shenzhen Evening News reported Thursday.

Among the complaints, 26 percent were for poor after-sales services, while 22.49 percent involved contract disputes and 15.22 percent concerned qua-lity issues.

Internet and telecom services received the most complaints as they had 11,178 relevant complaints in the first quarter, accounting for 34.1 percent of the total complaints.

The number of complaints against public facilities and services soared by a factor of 10 in the first quarter compared with the same period last year. Most of the complaints targeted bike-sharing companies after users failed to get refunds for their deposits on the apps of the shared bike operators.

According to the report, the council received 722 complaints against hairdressing and beauty salons in the first quarter, representing a year-on-year growth of 187.65 percent. Half of the complaints involved the nonrefundable money on pre-paid cards, and some involved problems with the quality of the products being used in the salons.

The council received 1,549 complaints against training centers in the first quarter, up by 39.77 percent compared with the same period last year. Most of the complaints concerned false advertising, insufficient supply of supporting facilities, high teacher turnover, inappropriate class schedules and poor customer service.

According to the council, there were 245 complaints against a Shenzhen-based Internet company in the first quarter. The customers complained about the company for failing to deliver the products that they had bought on its shopping website, www.xiu.com, on time.

Although the company agreed to offer refunds, the money was transferred to the customers’ accounts on the website and couldn’t be transferred to their bank accounts.