KOTA KINABALU: Consumers can now file their claims via short messaging service (SMS) to 15888.
They need only key in TPPN Aduan, name, identification card number and the nature of their claims, and sms to 15888, according to the Chairman of the Tribunal for Consumer Claims Malaysia, Pretam Singh S.D Darshan Singh,.
A local office of the Consumer Claims Tribunal will contact the claimants within three days to follow up on their claims, he said.
Pretam said this service is perhaps the first in the world, and the Tribunal also plans to be accessible via Facebook and Twitter.
In addition, the Tribunal is currently planning to set up a special tribunal for tourists where cases would be heard within 24 hours, he said.
“We are currently meeting with the Ministry of Tourism to finalize… we want to give tourists the confidence,” he said during a meeting with Sabah Law Association (SLA) members at their office here yesterday.
He said another new development is the Tribunal will take action over unfair contract terms to give better protection to consumers in situation where unequal bargaining powers between consumers and suppliers exist, which leaves consumers with no option except to abide by the unfair terms.
Meanwhile, Pretam revealed that there were 59,471 claims filed from 2000 to May 31 this year. As of May 31 this year, a total of 4,531 claims were filed at the Tribunal, followed by 5,873 last year, 6,491 in 2009, 7,440 in 2008 and 8,102 in 2007.
“We hope to have 9,000 to 10,000 claims filed this year,” he said.
Statistics show that mobile phone cases made up the majority of the claims with 245 cases, followed by cars (190), furniture (158), scratch and win (152), electrical appliances (133) and vehicle spare parts (89).
Under the services category, travel agencies accounted for the majority of claims with 202 cases, beauty treatments (192), Umrah packages (191), car workshops (161), maid agencies (129) and house renovation (101).
There are currently 42 Tribunal centres in Malaysia and 10 more are expected to be set up this year.
There are four TTPN in Sabah and they are located in Kota Kinabalu, Tawau, Keningau and Sandakan.
Also present at the meeting were SLA president Gaanesh Nandy and SLA immediate past president Datuk John Sikayun.