THE CONSUMER Affairs Commission (CAC) has reported that between April and July this year, 804 consumer complaints were resolved, resulting in a refund of approximately $2.17 million to consumers by the business community.
Research and Community Officer at the CAC, Racquel Chambers made the disclosure in an interview with JIS News recently.
"The cash refund of over $2 million," she said, "was as a result of the resolution of 804 cases out of a total of 955 complaints." These comprise 723 new cases and 232 which were carried forward. Miss Chambers, also informed that a large portion on the remaining 151 complaints had been settled and would be reflected in the August figures.
She explained that cases considered resolved, were those in which a settlement had been made to the customer's satisfaction or whereby the customer no longer wished to pursue the matter. Customers get redress in different forms, such as exchange of the product purchased, repair and rebate.
The cases settled for the four-month period, represented 84.2 per cent of the total number of complaints. Miss Chambers also pointed out that most of the cases were cleared within 10 days of receiving the complaint. "We receive complaints every day and are able to resolve them quickly, most of them within the 10-day period, which we have set ourselves," she said.
Miss Chambers said the CAC expects to resolve some 2,500 cases this fiscal year, with most of them done within the 10-day period.
Last fiscal year, the CAC reported that approximately $6.7 million was refunded, resulting from the resolution of 2,347 cases.
