Akosha Touches Over 60,000 Consumers

Akosha, an online consumer dispute resolution forum has recently touched over 60,000 registered consumer complaints on its website in the short span of over a year, firmly establishing itself as a committed initiative in the field of consumer welfare

Mumbai (I-Newswire) September 27, 2012 - “Akosha is committed towards ensuring a better brand-consumer ecosystem in the country and enhancing holistic consumer welfare. Furthering this cause, we have collated complaint data across various sectors to come up with a trend analysis which gives a fair idea of the sector wise consumer dynamics in the country,” said Ankur Singla, Founder & CEO, Akosha.

The table below, compiled by Akosha, shows the top sectors in terms of the number of complaints received for each, an average of the amount that is usually disputed in such complaints and the resolution rate based on the operations feedback at Akosha.

Top Sectors / % Breakup Of Complaints In Last One Year /Average Disputed Amount /Resolution Rate

Online E-Commerce 19.20% Rs. 20,000 69%

Telecom 17.93% Rs. 6800 42%

Appliances/White Goods 10.38% Rs. 32000 59%

Mobile Phones 8.72% Rs. 13,500 67%

Banking/Finance 7.98% Rs. 40,000 24%

Automobiles 7.42% Rs. 84,000 28%

Computers/Laptops 3.36% Rs. 30,000 58%

Note that the above analysis is limited to the complaint data available with Akosha based on the number of complaints registered with it in last one year.

This table is an approximate overview of how things play out in consumer dispute scenarios in various sectors. The percentage of complaints originating in any sector is the best criteria to judge that sector’s consumer efficiency. However, holistically, in the current market dynamics, resolution rate is an equally important parameter based on which consumer friendliness of each sector can be judged.

E-commerce evidently tops the problematic sectors but is somewhat redeemed by a relatively high resolution rate. A product wise analysis indicates that “deficiency in delivery” is an issue which is most often a source of complaint for this sector (over 3000 complaints in one year), closely followed by payment issues.

Telecom is predictably a close second with over 17% of the total complaints originating from this sector. Prepaid connection related issues dominate the complaint scene in this particular sector (over 4000 complaints last year). Resolution rate is decent but not enough, given the fact that this is one of those sectors that constitute a necessity for most of the consumers.

As far this data set is concerned, the mobile phone sector is clearly the winner with highest resolution rate and low % of originating complaints, indicating that the mobile manufacturing industry in the country is by far the most receptive one towards consumer concerns. Though even in this sector, servicing issues are an area of concern and lead to the maximum number of complaints.

White Goods and computer appliances are also pretty close, clearly indicating that these sectors are slowly opening up to a more consumer friendly world. Based on this particular data analysis, in appliances sector, household items like air-conditioner and refrigerator are most likely to be cause of consumer complaint (around 1200 complaints in one year).

Banking and finance continues to remain a remarkably closed sector and is a clear point of concern with high average disputed amount and a shockingly low resolution rate. What is significant is the even distribution of most complaints between ATM and credit card transactions, clearly the two most problematic areas in banking sector.

Says Avinash Vankadaru, Operations Manager at Akosha, “The varying resolution rate in various sectors is a reflection of how far each sector has come when it comes to consumer satisfaction, at least in our experience”

This trend report is clearly a small chunk of the larger whole and the data used for this analysis is merely representative of the scale and diversity of consumer issues in the country. However, this trend analysis is sufficient to draw some broad conclusion with respect to the Indian consumers. Apart from the sector specific concerns discussed above, this analysis clearly shows that even though things are looking up at least in certain sectors, there is still a long way to go before we can achieve the aspiration of a truly consumer friendly world.



About Akosha:
Akosha is a New Delhi based consumer help website which helps consumers and brands in resolving consumer complaints quickly. Akosha takes over the hassle of complaints from the customer and helps him get rid of the head ache. Akosha representatives reach out to the company officials and try to get the complaint resolved quickly. You can see its success stories at http://www.akosha.com/latesttestimonials.html.
More details are available at www.akosha.com
For further information please contact:

Tanuja Nigam
Candour Communications
M: + 09324045150