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Korea National Council of Consumer Organizations
[Korea National Council of Consumer Organizations Analysis of First Half, 2005, Consumer Counseling]
Consumers are alerted to unauthorized use of name for mobile phone service subscription, causing damages
The number of consumer counseling cases received at over 180 consumer organization counseling offices across the country from January to June 2005 decreased by 13.38% to 164,259 from the same period of the preceding year. The largest group of cases received over the period related to mobile handsets, numbering 7,514 cases, while the next most common counseling topics involved health food (7,258) and study texts (6,923).
○ Counseling about the unauthorized use of one’s identity for mobile handset subscription was common; thorough identity authentication is required.
In cases involving counseling on mobile handsets, the majority concerned the unauthorized use of identity, which amounted to 1,277, or 16.99%, of the 7,514 cases. Many consumers received service bills or notices from their phone company or from the Korea Guarantee Insurance Company concerning a mobile phone number which they do not use or received bills indicating fees or charges for mobile Internet or other value-added services to which they did not subscribe. After unauthorized use of identity, the highest number of cases concerned the unkindness of phone company service staff when addressing the repair of malfunctioning handsets (849 cases) and the overcharging of value-added service fees (577 cases).
○ Health supplements are most often purchased from door-to-door salesmen; the most counseled item was ginseng.
2,867 counseling cases, or 39.50% of the 7,258 cases concerning health supplements, concerned goods purchased from door-to-door sales representatives. The number of follow-up counseling cases about health supplements purchased through telemarketing amounted to 919, or 12.66%. When analyzed by ingredient, ginseng (including red ginseng) was the supplement that cropped up most often as an item of counseling, representing 1,559 cases, or 21.47% of the total number of counseling cases relating to health supplements, followed by 972 cases relating to diet health supplements and 382 cases relating to chitosan.
Study materials were most often purchased through door-to-door sales representatives; Counseling cases about qualification certificates, a recent subject of controversy, remain frequent.
Like health supplements, counseling related to the study materials purchased from door-to-door sales representatives represented the highest number of 2,483 cases, or 35.86% of the total, followed by 1,141 cases concerning study materials purchased through telemarketing. When analyzed by product category, the study materials covered under counseling included 3,255 cases of student study materials, representing 47.01%, followed by language study materials (914 cases) and qualification text preparation materials (813 cases).
<Summary>
The number of consumer counseling cases received at over 180 consumer organization counseling offices across the country from January to June 2005 decreased by 13.38% to 164,259 from the same period of the preceding year.
The top ranking counseling items were clothing, mobile handsets, health supplements and study materials, concerns about which were most often raised before consumers requested counseling. Consumer organizations have conducted surveys of the status of all the top ranking items, and relevant projects are being carried out by consumer organizations, such as ‘Ways to Enhance Consumer Education about the Correct Selection of Functional Health Food’ by the Council of Consumer Organizations, and the Phone-ari Handset Test Group operated by Seoul YMCA. They will present ways to improve the problem areas in the latter half of the year.
Though it was anticipated that the majority of items referred to counseling should have decreased since the preceding year, the number of counseling cases for five items (air-conditioners, indoor furnishings, beddings, meat, and maintenance supplies) increased as the total number of counseling cases decreased by 13.38% from the first half of 2004. Among the items for which the number of counseling cases increased, exclusive of air-conditioners, all increased after tests were requested by consumer organizations and recalls were requested in view of the product test results. Thus, it was once again confirmed how important an impact the consumer organization tests and product analyses exercise over consumers.
As such, more businesses and vendors should pay greater attention to the outcome of the numerous surveys, research projects, experiments or product tests conducted by consumer organizations. They should also provide a forum for jointly pursuing solutions, and recognize consumer organizations as their legitimate partners.
For detailed counseling and analysis details, see the attached files in the Consumer Information Library Column.
▶ Contact: Lee Su-jeong, Secretary (02-774-4050) |
