Cheated Vietnamese consumers never complain: survey
The most typical reaction of Vietnamese consumers when their rights are violated is to keep silent, a Ministry of Industry and Trade-backed survey has found.
The survey, conducted by the Vietnam Competition Authority and the Trade Research Institute, both under the trade ministry, polled 3,000 people in 12 cities and provinces on their consumer experiences between 2011 and 2015.
It found that even though 70% of respondents knew of the law on consumer protection, nearly half of them would do nothing if their basic rights and benefits were infringed.
The violations would include being cheated on product quality, weight, origin, measurement and expiration date; annoying marketing or telesales campaigns; and issues related to receipts and warranty policies.
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| People shop for goods at a supermarket in Ho Chi Minh City. |
56% of respondents said they had experienced these issues at least once during the survey period, but 44% of them chose to “keep silent and let it go,” according to the survey findings.
Only 20% of them would “call for support from a consumer rights protection agency,” whereas 36% would “lodge a complaint to the individuals or organizations that sold the goods or offer the services.”
Nearly 40% of those who chose to do nothing to protect their rights did so because “the value of the goods was not worth the complaint,” while 22% were discouraged by the paperwork.
At the same time, 15.2% said they did not want to file a complaint because they did not believe the traders or service providers would “handle the issues.” Ten percent of the respondents said they did not know the legal framework to file a complaint.
The survey also revealed that 27% of consumers were dissatisfied with the way relevant agencies handle their complaints, which was “not good, complicated and bureaucratic.”
The kinds of goods that received the most complaints from consumers were food and beverage, representing 19.69%, followed by electronics and home appliances, 12.88%, and mobile phones, 9.17%.
The survey was supported by Deutsche Gesellschaft for International Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), a German company that specializes in international development.
