Complaint boxes platform to get closer to consumers

KUCHING: The Ministry of Domestic Trade, Cooperatives and Consumerism has handed over complaint boxes to representatives of Resident and District offices in Kuching and Samarahan divisions.

Its state director Dato Stanley Tan said the pilot project had been carried out since Jan  26 to expand the ministry’s platform in getting closer to consumers.

“Our complaint boxes have been placed at a few locations such as in supermarkets and public markets, excluding those that have our complaint statistic counters. To make this project more effective, it is expanded with the cooperation of (community leaders)  penghulus who help to receive complaints from the people and channel them to us for further action.

“The objective of this complaint box is to overcome consumers’ issues especially on the Goods and Services Tax (GST) where most of the complaints come from smartphone platforms such as email, Facebook and Twitter that are rarely utilised by villagers,” Tan said at the handing over ceremony at Borneo Convention Centre Kuching (BCCK) Friday evening.

He added that these complaint boxes would hopefully encourage consumers to cultivate a consumer protection attitude as well as encourage more consumers, especially those in rural areas who do not have access to the Internet, to make complaints regarding consumer rights.

“The ministry also wants to use this project to see how far people in the rural areas understand and benefit from their rights as consumers. Consumers only need to fill in the complaint forms and put them into the locked complaint box. The price monitoring officers will then collect these forms and send them to the state consumerism section who will then file it into the e-complaints system,” Tan added.

Tan handed over 16 complaint boxes that evening which was also attended by his deputy Abdul Hafidz Rahim.  Tan, other officers and other guests later joined Muslims to break the fast after the handing over ceremony.