CITY OF SAN FERNANDO -- The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) Consumer Protection Division has recorded an increase in the number of consumer complaints this third quarter of the year.
Based on the data provided by the agency, a total of 224 complaints were submitted to the seven provincial offices in Central Luzon from June to September of 2019, which is higher by 20 percent from the 188 cases recorded in the same period last year.
Household appliances are now the main subjects of consumer complaints all over the region, DTI Central Luzon said.
The DTI-Pampanga Provincial Office received the most number of complaints with 50, while 48 complaints were received by the Bataan Provincial Office.
The agency’s office in Bulacan had 44 complaints while Zambales had 32, Tarlac had 24, and Nueva Ecija had 18 consumer complaints.
The DTI Regional Office, meanwhile, received only eight consumer complaints for the said quarter, while there was no complaint filed at the Aurora Provincial Office.
It was also noted in the report that consumer issues on refrigerators have overtaken defective cellphones as the primary subject of complaints.
For the third quarter of 2019, there were 22 complaints about defective refrigerators while there were 21 complaints about television and 16 complaints about cellphones.
This is significantly lower than the same period in 2018 where cellphone-related complaints reached 27 while TV-related complaints reached 24 while there were only three complaints about defective refrigerators.
DTI Central Luzon continues to remind consumers to verify the quality and safety of household appliances and electronic gadgets by looking if they have Philippine Standards marks with the appropriate alphanumeric codes.
For imported products, they have to bear the Import Commodity Clearance hologram stickers with an eight-character alphanumeric code at the bottom portion. Certified products are also listed at the website of the DTI Bureau of Philippine Standards at www.bps.dti.gov.ph.