The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) successfully returned $10.6 million to Queensland consumers in 2021.
Attorney-General and Minister for Justice, Shannon Fentiman said the OFT had received record levels of complaints since the start of the global pandemic in 2020.
“The past two years have been extremely tough for Queenslanders, with many experiencing cancellations to holiday bookings and flights,” Ms Fentiman said.
“COVID-19 also saw Queenslanders spending more time at home, resulting in an increase in people buying new furniture and whitegoods, as well as engaging more tradespeople to undertake renovations,” she said.
Ms Fentiman said as a result, the OFT had received 18,521 consumer complaints in 2021 and 18,698 in 2020, well above the average of around 15,000 per year received in the five years before COVID-19.
The Attorney-General said it was good to see complaints relating to travel, which soared in 2020, had dropped in 2021.
“In 2020, there were more than 1,600 complaints received in relation to travel, however, in 2021 that had more than halved to 747,” she said.
“The topmost complaints continued to be for purchases of products which fall within the ‘personal and household goods’ category and disappointingly there has also been a large increase in the ‘personal and household services’ category.”
Ms Fentiman said complaints in this category, which included repairs to whitegoods, removalist services, cleaning, gardening and landscaping services, had more than doubled from 1,523 in 2020 to 3,268 in 2021.
She said that, in 2021, the OFT assisted thousands of Queenslanders, from obtaining a replacement motorised wheelchair for a Cairns consumer with disability through to assisting a Mackay consumer to get a refund on event tickets they had accidentally ordered due to a lack of computer literacy.
