March 1, 2015
– Consumers who face problems with errant traders after the implementation of the goods and services tax (GST) on April 1 may channel their complaints through a smartphone app.
Domestic Trade, Cooperatives and Consumerism Minister Datuk Hasan Malek said through the application “EZ Complaint”, consumers would be able to channel complaints in photograph form as evidence, direct to the E-Complaint system.
“EZ Complaint” was developed in collaboration with the Malaysian Administrative Modernisation and Management Planning Unit under the “1Gov App Store” programme, he said.
“This application has several features to facilitate consumers complaints, among them geotagging, whereby consumers need not submit the premises address and fill in the complaint number for status update.
“Consumers’ profile, e-mail notification and other information related will only be required when downloading the application for the first time,” he said when launching the nationwide 2015 Price Reduction Campaign at The Store supermarket, Kuantan Parade, in Kuantan, Pahang, today.
Hasan also said the ministry’s Consumer Complaints Management Centre received a total of 14,089 complaints relating to consumer issues in 2014, which was a 19 percent increase from the previous year’s 11,851.
“Of the total complaints received last year, 95.87% or 13,507 complaints were resolved compared to 10,864 or 91.7% in 2013,” he said.
Hasan added that the increase in the number of complaints was due to the successful campaigns and education programmes held in raising consumer awareness of their rights.
(The Malaysian Insider)