Dubai Economy resolves 17,768 complaints in H1

DUBAI / WAM

Dubai Economy saw a 19 percent increase in consumer complaints during the first six months of 2019, following improved awareness over consumer rights and the ease of access to consumer protection channels. The nationality-wise breakdown of complaints indicates that Emiratis (25 percent) were the top complainants, followed by Indians (16 percent), Egyptians (12 percent), Saudis (nine percent) and Jordanians (five percent).
The Consumer Protection section at the Dubai Economy resolved 17,768 complaints during the first half of 2019, compared to 14,970 complaints during the same period in 2018.
Dubai Economy also received 1,661 suggestions and 1,266 enquiries from consumers during H1 of 2019. The rise in complaints and the overall consumer feedback received across diverse channels reflect increasing confidence among shoppers in Dubai and emphasise the importance of service quality in sustainable growth and competiti- veness of the emirate’s flagship retail sector, said Mohammed Ali Rashid Lootah, CEO of the Commercial Compliance & Consumer Protection, CCCP, sector at the Dubai Economy.
“While 62 percent of the complaints came through our call centre, the remaining 38 percent were submitted via our smart channels, chiefly our website and the Dubai Consumer app we introduced to integrate Artificial Intelligence into consumer protection,” Lootah added.
Services still account for a majority of the consumer complaints but fast-growing sectors such as e-commerce are close behind. Together, services (28 percent), electronics (16 percent) and e-commerce (14 percent) were responsible for 58 percent of the complaints received. Car rental (nine percent), automobiles (eight percent), clothing and accessories (seven percent), shipping (five percent), furniture (four percent), auto repair workshops (three percent), textiles & personal items (three percent), decoration and maintenance of buildings (two percent), and salons (one percent) came next.