Hong Kong’s e-voucher spending spree accompanied by complaints, Consumer Council says
- From trouble processing payments to difficulty downloading discounts, more than 40 residents have logged gripes with the watchdog
- Some local firms have also played fast and loose with the rules, body says, with at least one health care provider setting a spending minimum on the handouts
Hong Kong’s consumer watchdog has received 42 complaints so far about the city’s newly launched HK$5,000 (US$643) consumption voucher scheme, and warned of unscrupulous tactics hidden in the myriad discounts being provided by merchants hoping to cash in.
Some merchants, meanwhile, were said to have raised product prices to take advantage of the spending or charged incorrect amounts.
The council said 37 of the complaints were related to the e-voucher payment platforms while the rest were connected to merchants.
Council CEO Gilly Wong Fung-han said one health care service provider had required its customers to spend at least HK$3,000 before they would accept the vouchers.
“This doesn’t make sense. Because the whole scheme requires merchants to accept … the vouchers even if [the purchase] is only HK$1,” she said.
Some shops, including two pharmacies, a bakery and a chain convenience store, charged customers a 2 per cent fee for the privilege of using the vouchers, Wong added.
“Merchants should not transfer the expenses to the consumers. It may violate the contracts signed with the payment providers,” she said.
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Seventy-five per cent of the eligible population, or about 5.5 million people, had received the first HK$2,000 instalment of the HK$5,000 in e-vouchers as of Sunday, triggering a spending spree across the city.
The government is shelling out HK$36 billion on the initiative, with an eye towards stimulating spending in local retail businesses, eateries and public transport, and boosting the city’s coronavirus-hammered economy by 0.7 per cent.
Average single expenditures on WeChat Pay HK and AlipayHK, two of the four designated payment service providers, surged 170 and 60 per cent, respectively, compared with the past seven months.
Hong Kong residents living outside the city can also use Alipay – via a new partnership with e-commerce platform Shopify – to use their vouchers on local businesses.
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Octopus and Tap & Go, the other two providers, have yet to release any figures for the scheme. AlipayHK is affiliated with Alibaba, which owns the Post.
In its July 15 to August 3 investigation, the Consumer Council also shed light on complicated and confusing discounts schemes employed by various stores and shopping centres.
One mall, it found, was using two different discount schemes to entice consumers with voucher money to spend. But a council examination of the offer showed those who spent more actually saved far less.
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“If you spend less [at that mall] you can actually enjoy 14 per cent off, but under the other [scheme with higher minimum spending] it’s only 7 per cent off,” Wong said.
Wong urged consumers to pay attention to the details of discount packages, noting that one shopping centre touting cash vouchers worth HK$100 and HK$25 gave out just 75 and 30 of each, respectively.
“The customers may not be aware of the quotas and only realise it after spending the HK$600 required to redeem the cash vouchers,” she said.
The council suggested consumers plan ahead if they hoped to get the most from the discounts.
“Think about how you want to spend it. List down on a piece of paper how much you want to spend,” Wong added.
