Complaints against shops and services pour in as consumer awareness on the rise in Qatar

With increasing trust among customers in the Consumer Protection Department (CPD), complaints about consumer rights have increased significantly, said Director of Consumer Protection and Combating Commercial Fraud Department, Youssef Saad Al Suwaidi.
“The Department received 12,674 complaints from consumers against commercial shops and service providers in 2016 compared to 9,075 grievances in 2015,” Al Suwaidi said in a Qatar TV talk show.
Saud Sultan Al Asiri, Head of Anti-Trade Monopolies and Market Competition Protection, also attended the programme. “This year we have received about 4,600 calls so far related to the issues of consumer rights. The figures of complaints show that the trust level of consumers in the actions taken by CPD against erring outlets has gone up. The crackdown built trusts of consumers for CPD,” Suwaidi said.
“The growing number of complaints does not mean that the level of fraudulent practices has increased in the local markets because all grievances are not related to cheating. But many people complained for not receiving services up to the standards. In some cases, the consumers thought they were right in making complaints but in the investigations we found nothing against the outlet to take action.”
“Most of the complaints were related to not providing the required services, delay in delivering projects. For example, signing a contract with a construction company to build a project and deliver on a stipulated date but the company fail to hand over the project on time," said Al Suwaidi.
Most of the complaints were related to services, not about the goods. We expected complaints about fraudulent and cheating, said Al Asiri.
The public awareness about the consumer rights has increased. Honestly, I would like to say that now consumers have become third eye of CPD.
To ensure the rights of consumers, the Minister of Economy and Commerce H E Sheikh Ahmed bin Jassim Al Thani personally follows up the actions of both departments through Whatsapp and holds meetings with its directors and team members regularly, said CPD officials. The CPD falls under the Ministry of Economy and Commerce.
Regarding the poor response of CPD to complaints from consumers, Al Suwaidi said: “CPD is very strict about protecting the rights of customers. We took strong action against outlets flouting rules. For example, we shut down nine car dealers for selling damaged cars as brand new after repairing and painting."
Now car dealers are forced to sign a commitment letter with buyers that the vehicle is free from any defect. It did not undergo denting and painting due to any damage. All car dealers are fully complying with the CPD rules.
Recently, a young person went to a car dealer to buy a car. The salesman told him clearly about a car available in the showroom that car had defect so it was repaired.
CPD has chalked out a programme to conduct surprise raids at commercial activities related to the upcoming holy month of Ramadan, about two months ahead of month's arrival.