The Vietnamese are not a nation of complainers

Vietnamese consumers prefer not to make complaints according to a new report from the Sothern Standards and Consumers’ Rights Protection Association.

It’s said that Vietnamse people like to avoid confrontation but experts also believe that its down to an ignorance of their own rights. In many cases, Vietnamese consumers do not make claims because they are not sure whether it will be successful and how long it will take.

The Southern Consumers’ Protection Association also said that very few consumers had successfully claimed to their benefit.

Nguyen Quang Le Trinh in Go Vap District used services provided by Nguyen and Associates  during work in the US. However, the consultancy was not clear that Trinh had lost deposit money of $6,000 and money spent on traveling to the US. After the case was brought to the Southern Consumers’ Protection Association, the consultancy firm agreed to pay back $3,250 to Trinh.

Thai Thi Kim Loan spent 15 million dong on nose surgery and only ended up with a swollen face. The hospital which did the surgery, refused to apologize or pay compensation. Only with the intervention of the association, did the patient get back 80 percent of the operation’s cost.

“181 complaints and 207 reports from consumers came to the association in 2009. However, this just represents a small number of the losses consumers have had to incur,” representative from the Southern Standards and Consumer Protection said.

According to the association, the number of cases that made claims in 2009 was higher by 39 in comparison with 2008.In particular, the number of complaints about service quality in 2009 was double 2008. This last year witnessed a ‘boom’ of the complaints about telecommunication services, especially about phone and Internet charges with complaints accounting for 21 percent of total complaints about service quality.

Regarding the complaints on goods quality – electronics and household electric products led products which received 25 percent of a total 143 complaints. Consumers mostly complained about the low quality and the unclear origin of the products.

VietNamNet/VNE

Tags: Vietnam consumers