Consumer complaints hit 3,078 in nine months, topping last year's total
The Consumer Council received 3,078 customer-service complaints in the first nine months of 2026, a 60 per cent jump year on year and exceeding the full-year total for 2025. AI-related complaints accounted for only 158 cases, with the council urging merchants to improve human service quality.
The Consumer Council received 3,078 customer-service complaints in the first nine months of this year, up more than 60 per cent year on year and exceeding the total recorded for the whole of last year.
Council figures show such complaints rose from 2,086 in 2023 to 2,173 in 2024 and 2,715 in 2025, reflecting a gap between the service quality provided by merchants and consumers' expectations. Common complaints include merchants failing to respond, being unreachable or impolite, and slow follow-up.
In one case, a customer paid about HK$5,500 for a laptop from an online shop but received only the free gifts, including a laptop bag, a mouse and a headset. The merchant called the complainant the next day, saying the laptop had been damaged in delivery and that a replacement would be sent. After several follow-up attempts went unanswered, the complainant sought help from the Consumer Council. Direct communication facilitated by the council's Complaint Handling ePlatform resolved the issue, and the complainant received the laptop.
Asked whether the increase was driven by the growing use of AI customer service agents, Consumer Council chief executive Alaina Shum Jiu-fai said AI-related complaints accounted for 158 cases, a relatively small share of the total. She stressed that the main issue remains the quality of human customer service.
Vice-chairman Tony Pang Chor-fu said that as commercial use of AI customer service is a broad trend, it would be impractical to impose a rigid, mandatory framework requiring AI customer service to transfer users immediately to a human agent after a failed response. Instead, he said, merchants should actively gather consumer feedback and continuously improve their technology.
Meanwhile, the council's Complaint Handling ePlatform, launched as a trial last November, had handled more than 30,000 complaints through its dedicated chat rooms by late August. Overall, the platform has cut average processing times by about 9.3 per cent, while cases using its Online Dispute Resolution service have seen turnaround times shortened by around 30 per cent.