Consumer Council: Tourist complaints concentrated on jewelry

The Consumer Council announced in a weekend statement that it had handled 5,067 cases in 2017; approximately one-third of which were customer complaints, 23 were suggestions and the remainder were inquiries.

With regard to complaints, the top five areas of dissatisfaction involved public transportation (147 cases), telecommunication services (137 cases), telecommunication equipment (121 cases), food and beverage (103 cases) and personal care products and services (94 cases).

Some 63 of the public transportation cases were related to taxi infractions, while 44 cases involved air passenger services. The main issues were business practices and disputes over prices.

Tourists accounted for about 1,000 cases handled by the Consumer Council last year – about 20 percent of the total – of which 574 were complaints and 421 were inquiries.

The number of jewelry-related cases increased by 57 percent, mostly lodged by tourists regarding the value of “K-gold” and the disputes over some shops’ alleged failure to explain the precious metal’s fineness.

The Council issued the relevant information on the consumer goods sector to mainland shoppers, in order to increase their confidence when shopping in Macau. Shops have been reminded to explain the nature of gold products to consumers and are required by law to state the gold fineness on the invoice or the receipt.

The number of cases related to telecommunication services complaints dropped slightly compared to the previous year, while those concerning telecommunication equipment decreased by 40 percent.