HONG KONG: A special customs unit will be sent in to handle visitors’ complaints over dishonest sales tactics by pharmacies during the traditional Labour Day holiday shopping season, which starts on Saturday.
From Thursday until Monday, a 50-member quick response team will be sent out to pharmacy and Chinese medicine hubs, including the hot spots of Tsim Sha Tsui and Causeway Bay, to handle complaints from tourists.
“Not all visitors know to call customs when they feel they have been deceived. We will go to the scene immediately when police transfer calls to us,” said Deputy Commissioner of Customs Hermes Tang Yi-hoi. “We will then collect statements and evidence at the scene.”
Seven Hong Kong pharmacies named and shamed by consumer watchdog for overcharging mainland Chinese tourists
The Customs and Excise Department received 81 complaints about sales practices by medicine shops in the first three months of this year. There have been 1,431 related complaints since the Trade Descriptions Ordinance came into force in July 2013.
Not all visitors know to call customs when they feel they have been deceived. We will go to the scene immediately when police transfer related calls to us.
o far the department has conducted only 44 successful prosecutions, accounting for 3 per cent of the complaints.
Tang explained that visitors often forgot case details or were unwilling to return to testify, which led to a low prosecution rate.
“Some mainland Chinese tourists called off the complaints because they were from provinces far away. Or the shops reconciled with the customers among themselves,” Tang said.
Customs officers will also patrol medicine shops to look out for dubious sales tactics by unscrupulous shops and promote awareness to traders and tourists.
Tang said common con tricks included fooling customers over the price of medicines by covering the price tags or turning them the other way. “In the end, the staff charged more based on another weight measure,” he said.
There’s little we can do to punish rip-off Hong Kong pharmacies, trade association says
The con men ground the herbs into powder before presenting the bill, forcing the victims to pay.
Six people from medicine stores were arrested during the first stage of an operation early last month. Five victims were cheated out of around HK$180,000.
In the most serious case, a customer agreed to pay HK$680 for a catty (600 grams) of maca – a plant used in a health supplement to enhance men’s sexual performance.
But shop staff told the victim the price was HK$680 a mace (3.77 grams) after grinding down the herbs. The victim handed over HK$108,800 – 160 times what he thought he would have to pay. A similar case was detected last September.
Under the Trade Descriptions Ordinance, it is an offence for a trader to provide customers with information in a manner that is unclear or ambiguous. The maximum penalty is a fine of HK$500,000 and five years in jail.
Meanwhile, the Immigration Department estimated some 3.6 million people will pass through the city’s sea, land and air control points during the Labour Day holiday, a 2 per cent jump from last year.
The number of outbound people using land control points will reach its peak on Saturday.
Lo Wu will be the busiest control point, with about 1.02 million people expected to go through.
