(image: Yonhap)
SEOUL, March 30 (Korea Bizwire) — As people are staying longer hours indoors following the COVID-19 pandemic, dwindling purchases of clothes has also cut the number of disputes over fabric materials and cleaning services, a consumer advocacy group said Tuesday.
The Korea Consumer Agency reported an 11.5 percent decrease in the number of complaints (3,071 cases) about fabric products last year, compared to the previous year.
Sorted by type, there were 1,841 complaints about quality, which was 10.5 percent less than the previous year. There were 1,230 complaints about cleaning, which was 12.8 percent less than the previous year.
Manufacturers and sellers had responsibility for 43 percent of the cases, followed by the cleaning businesses (11.6 percent) and consumers (9.5 percent).
Businesses bore responsibility for a fewer number of cases last year, going from 60.9 percent in 2020 to 54.6 percent in 2021. In contrast, consumer fault rose from 7.2 percent to 9.5 percent over the same period.
The drop in the number of disputes over cleaning was largely attributed to the diversification of home appliances and their features, which have led more consumers to take care of fabric materials themselves, the agency said.
Data showed that 80.1 percent of consumer faults involved acts that deviated from instructions on storage, management, and cleaning of fabric materials.
Slightly more than one-third of cases in which the manufacturers and sellers were responsible involved defects in manufacturing, followed by poor durability (33.5 percent), while 57.3 percent of cases in which the cleaning businesses were responsible involved incorrect cleaning methods.
H. M. Kang (hmkang@koreabizwire.com)
