Shine reveals Brisbane's top 10 consumer complaints for 2007

Brisbane residents are standing up for their consumer rights and making it known if they are unhappy, lodging 5,052 complaints with the Office of Fair Trading during 2007.

Attorney-General and Minister for Justice, Kerry Shine, said Brisbane consumers had been hit hard by water tank issues, making it the number one complaint category in the metropolitan area.

Mr Shine said other top ten complaints included motor vehicle dealers (nine per cent), household electrical goods (nine per cent), household trade services (seven per cent), real estate property management (seven per cent), real estate sales (six per cent), personal services (five per cent) and holiday, entertainment and travel services (five per cent).

"The Office of Fair Trading continues to monitor real estate agents and motor dealers and will crack down on any traders doing the wrong thing," he said.

"Last year, the Office of Fair Trading investigated 390 motor dealers state-wide, resulting in a total of $41,400 in fines and $101,775 in infringement notices. One dealer was permanently disqualified from holding a licence.

"Across the state, consumers lodged 12,561 complaints with the Office of Fair Trading during 2007, an increase of 14 per cent on 2006."

He said during the year the Office of Fair Trading negotiated $3 million of redress for Queensland consumers, including repairs, refunds and compensation by traders.

"Younger people complained about computers and related hardware, as well as personal services such as gyms, hairdressers, photography, beauty clinics and modelling agencies," Mr Shine said.

"Older age groups had more complaints about holiday, entertainment and travel."

Mr Shine said the Office of Fair Trading received an average of more than 40,000 calls a month from people seeking advice and information about consumer and business issues, with a similar number visiting the website each month.

The top ten complaint categories in Brisbane were:

Media contact: Troy Davies / Jamie Byron (Office of the Attorney-General) 3239 3478 / 0488 799 273

Media Contact: Tim Goodwin / Jamie Byron (Office of the Attorney-General) 3239 3478