With the latest report from NSW Fair Trading released, we’ve now got a good idea of what customers in the state were most unhappy about, and consumer tech dominates the charts.
Online retailer Kogan had a very shaky start to the year with 70 and 72 complaints in January and February respectively, and while that number steadily decreased over the course of 2019, it still topped the list with the most complaints overall.
An overwhelming majority of these complaints were due to the quality of the purchased goods, and the categories they fell in were dominated by electronics, smartphones, laptops and other similar products.
Second and third place were taken by tech giants Apple and Samsung, respectively, with most months seeing 20-30 complaints, a majority of which were directed at the brand’s smartphones, laptops and other electrical appliances, in the latter’s case.
While JB Hi Fi was the fourth-most complained-about company in December, it did considerably well over the course of the year and averaged less than 10 complaints a month.
Outside of airlines such as Jetstar and Qantas, most of the main offenders were either consumer tech brands or retail stores such as Harvey Norman that predominantly sold tech items.
It’s worth noting that the register only lists companies that have received at least 10 complaints in any one month, so a retailer or brand that consistently scores below that won’t get counted.
This means that a company registering 9 complaints each and every month could end up with a considerably larger total over the year than another that only has one month of 10 or more complaints, and yet it won’t show up on Fair Trading’s report.
