Grievances raised by residential tenants was at the top of the complaints list as 10 percent of total complaints lodged in the 2021-2022 financial year pertained to landlord and tenancy issues.
Consumer Council of Fiji CEO, Seema Shandil says tenants across Fiji faced issues such as landlords refusing to refund bond, illegal disconnection of utilities, illegal eviction notices, increasing rent despite the rent freeze in place, not issuing tenancy agreements and even failing to issue receipts for rent paid.
The second most common type of complaints pertained to food and drinks which made up 9.5 percent of total complaints.
Shandil says certain traders continued to sell poor quality or expired food products, food establishments were found to be in unhygienic conditions, there was presence of pest or foreign materials in food, traders were not providing correct labelling of food products and there was sale of banned meat products.
Complaints regarding electronic goods ranked third.
Issues relating to public transport accounted for 5.6 percent of total complaints where consumers showed their frustration over issues such as buses not following designated routes and allocated times, incorrect fares being charged by PSV drivers, poor customer service, refusal of short taxi-runs, unhygienic condition of public transport and careless driving.
Shandil says given the increased use of e-commerce platforms, many consumers were also duped out of their hard-earned cash by certain unscrupulous operators.
4.4 percent of the complaints registered were relating to online shopping.
Other categories of complaints were regarding mobile products, hardware, advertisements and promotions and customer service.
