Consumer complaints down amid shopping festival

The Shanghai Consumer Council received over 13,000 complaints in May, a drop of 12.8 percent from the same period last year, with education and training, transport and fitness the top fields regarding service complaints, it announced on Tuesday.

The Double Five Shopping Festival has significantly spurred the recovery of consumption, and thanks to the good organization of the festival, consumption complaints have dropped, the council said.

In total, it received 13,883 complaints in May, among which 8,762 regarded service, accounting for 63.1 percent of the total, the council said.

Among complaints regarding commodities, clothing and shoes, home furnishings and automobiles drew the largest number of complaints, according to the council.

The booming livestreaming industry and various promotional activities such as the distribution of coupons have stimulated consumer shopping, and 2,617 complaints in May concerned online shopping, the council said.

Exaggerated product claims and properties, and unexpected cancellation of orders using coupons drew particular ire, the council said.

The council received 2,636 complaints over education and training, fitness, culture and entertainment consumption in May, a rise of 26.9 percent from the same period last year.

Education quality falling short of expectation, problems with class reservations, fake qualification of teachers and refund problems drew gripes from consumers, the council said.

In terms of fitness service, reservation problems, disappointing service quality, high commission charges and refund delays left consumers unsatisfied, the council said.

For Internet games, most complaints were about blocked accounts, stolen equipment and refund failure, according to the council.

With the resumption of work, there were 1,265 complaints over transport last month, a surge of 36.6 percent from the same period last year, the council said.

Shared bikes and car rentals were a hotbed of complaints in terms of transport, the council said.

Operation failure, failure in unlocking bikes, abnormal charges, poor customer service and fare cheating were some of the major problems, it said.