Category: Complaints EN

The Consumers Association of Penang (CAP) welcomes the Ministry of Domestic Trade and Cost of Living’s (KPDN) decision to gazette regulations prohibiting non-citizens from purchasing subsidised packet cooking oil effective March 1, as well as the use of MyKad scans to streamline purchases. This is a timely step to ensure that government subsidies reach the intended beneficiaries, particularly...

The Consumers Association of Penang (CAP) has received many calls from the public about green and pink lines appearing on the screen of their smartphone. The Ministry of Domestic Trade and Cost of Living (KPDNKSH) is urged to look into the issue as phone owners claimed that it was a manufacturing defect and they have been asked by the dealer to pay for the repair which is unfair. Based on our...

High Court says the road transport department did not act upon finding out the car could be cloned, allowing it to change hands several times. The High Court delivered a landmark ruling today, finding the road transport department (JPJ) negligent for not maintaining accurate vehicle registration records. The case was brought by a doctor who unwittingly bought a cloned 2013 Toyota Vellfire three...

Consumers Association of Penang received numerous complaints from traders and consumers who have difficulty getting white sugar. At the same time, the Minister of Domestic Trade and Cost of Living (KPDNKSH) Datuk Seri Salahuddin Ayub, in his statement guaranteed the country's sufficient supply of sugar despite the increase in world sugar and natural gas prices. As the sugar crisis gets worse,...

In recent days there has been a lot of talk about Grab price hikes and their price surge system. Many Consumer groups have called for the government to do something to control the exorbitant prices that Grab is charging their customers. The Consumers’ Association of Penang (CAP) echoes this call. For many people without their own transport, e-hailing services are a necessity. Of course there...

We received information from a traveller who recently came to Malaysia for holiday, that he was asked about the value of the food items he was bringing in. He said that it would be about 2000 Turkish liras/ £100 and the customs officer calculated that to be about RM600.00. The traveller was then informed that each adult was only allowed an allowance of RM150.00 worth of food items into the...

  The Consumers’ Association of Penang (CAP) would like to respond to the letter by Y. S. Chan published in the New Straits Times on 4 April 2021, titled “Fine-tune Consumer Protection Act”. There are a few points that we must refute. Firstly he states that it is not fair that tour agencies have to keep their customers happy three years after the tour has happened. He further states...

CASE 2 An elderly person had an insurance policy to cover 36 critical illnesses. He suffered a stroke (an illness covered by his policy) and lost mobility in one arm; thus, he put in a claim. However, the claim was denied by the company, resulting in him making a complaint to CAP. CAP wrote to the company asking for the reason(s) for declining the claim. The reply was shocking to say the least....

The case below illustrates the existence of unethical practices in the insurance trade and the policy of finding or even engineering excuses not to pay up unless consumers fight back and put them in a corner. CASE 1 A young man whose family was living in a rubber estate in Gurun was himself working in a factory some 10-15 km from home and travelling to and fro on a motorcycle. As is the norm...