Again: HOT heads the Consumer Council's parade of complaints

HOT heads the Consumer Council's parade of complaints. This is according to a report she publishes in honor of International Consumer Day, which falls tomorrow, March 15. This is despite the fact that the Corona crisis did not disable HOT activities as happened to other companies in the field of culture, tourism and fitness clubs - all areas that starred in consumer complaints lists last year.
According to the report, the rate of complaints against HOT in 2020 was about 8.6% of all complaints and reflects an increase of 187% compared to last year. The council does not publish which company received the most complaints regarding its number of customers, but only the companies about them The number of complaints was the largest, which means that although the number of complaints about HOT has increased compared to 2019, there may be companies whose number of complaints is higher by weighting the total number of customers in the company.
It has been a bad year for consumers in terms of customer service. Following the Corona crisis, companies have collapsed from excess demand or a shortage of workers or due to the fact that the industry in which they operate has frozen activity. As a result, there has been a 70% increase in the number of complaints. The council received 40,110 inquiries from consumers on various issues through the referral system, a total of 113,643 inquiries were submitted to the council in 2020 in all channels (forum, telephone, and social networks). Some, by the way, were not addressed due to a shortage of manpower and the CEO.
Inevitably, the number of complaints jumped in the areas of culture and leisure (264%), tourism and aviation (255%) and gyms (140%). Banquet halls also saw a 59% increase in complaints compared to 2019. Following the cancellation of telephone customer service and a steep increase in the number of shoppers on the websites of many chains, there were tens of percent increases in complaints in the areas of clothing and footwear, food and pharma and communications.
Many complaints have also reached the Consumer Council about Ace Buy and Build (ACE) whose consumers have also complained about delays in orders. The stores were considered vital and its website worked well during the crisis. Of the number of complaints against Ace, it was about 6.6% of all the complaints received by the council and they reflect an increase of 198% from the previous year.
In its report, the council also mentions Ace Smart Communications (ICE) - an Internet company that consumers claim makes it difficult for them to disconnect from its services and representatives who do not ostensibly tell customers that the antivirus they receive is a service they can not disconnect from. .
We also complained about Partner - the rate of complaints against her was about 5.4% of all complaints and reflects an increase of 44% from last year; El Al: The rate of complaints against it was about 4.4% of the complaints received by the council, an increase of almost six times compared to 2019, following the corona crisis that paralyzed the aviation industry.
Next on the list of the number of complaints are Home Center, Shufersal, Electricity Warehouses, Israir and Ista. They are all particularly large companies. On Israir and Issta, the number of complaints increased due to the aviation crisis, failure to provide an immediate refund and a lack of response in customer service.
In light of the significant increase in the volume of complaints, and the lack of response from dealers, the Consumer Council has set up a new section on its website and published guidelines on consumer rights on issues that troubled the public during the Corona period, along with download warnings and lawsuits in appropriate cases. Despite the fact that most of the companies ceased operations and / or closed their customer service center, and many complaints remained unanswered, during the year the council returned a total of NIS 9,053,518 to consumers.
40% of the complaints concerned transactions through a website and this is an increase of 198% compared to the previous year, where only 23% of the complaints concerned transactions made through online commerce. About 40% of the collateral was due to defects, lack or delay in delivery, non-compliance of the product with what was ordered, recurring faults.
Refusal to cancel a transaction: 24% of referrals, financial matters - 17% of referrals (charge for services / products not ordered, incorrect charge, excessive price, lack of account transparency, unjustified fines). Quality of service accounted for 10% of referrals and deception: 8%. In addition, 1% of referrals were for non-delivery of a review agreement or certificate of liability, lack of proper disclosure, pressure to execute a transaction, exploitation of distress.