Consumers Get R11.9m Back

Disputes Over Purchases: Ombud Settles 62% of Complaints Received Within 60 Days

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The Consumer Goods and Services Ombud (CGSO) managed to get R11.9 million back into consumers' pockets after resolving their complaints during the past financial year. Most of the complaints received were about online shopping, followed by complaints about electrical appliances.

According to the annual report that was released last Thursday, the CGSO responded to 41,855 e-mail, telephone and WhatsApp queries, an average of 158 per day compared to 36,964 in the previous year and received 12,207 complaints.

The CGSO's office closed 12,430 complaints, referred 1,918 out-of-jurisdiction complaints to other regulators and CGSO offices and settled 62% of complaints received within 60 days, getting back money or facilitating exchanges to the value of R11.9 million.

In addition, the CGSO's office formalized relationships with seven universities to promote consumer rights and the alternative dispute process and opened on-campus satellite offices at Fort Hare and Venda University to provide better access to dispute resolution services for vulnerable consumers in the Eastern Cape and Limpopo.

According to the report, 8,740 (72%) of the 12,207 consumer complaints the CGSO's office received in the previous financial year were about goods, agreements, services and deliveries.