Mauritius Did you complain to the Consumer Protection Unit?

I watched the press conference of the National Communication Committee on COVID-19 last evening. A journalist asked Dr. Joomye a question pertaining to supermarkets that have doubled prices on certain products.

Dr. Joomye answered that only 38 complaints were received and that many people are complaining on social media rather doing it through the right channel. Despite this 180 commercial outlets were visited by the inspectors of the Ministry of Commerce on 7 April and several of them were booked for various contraventions.

I also see a lot of people complaining on social media. Officers of the Consumer Protection Unit do not spend their time reading comments on Facebook. If we want to fix unreasonable high prices in supermarkets then we should all use the proper channels to complain.

A few days ago I saw a post shared by a friend on Facebook. See the receipt from a supermarket in Mahebourg.

As per the client, he purchased a packet of cigarettes which is Rs 150 usually but the supermarket charged him Rs 175 during this coronavirus confinement period. It is only afterward that he realized that the supermarket charged him the additional Rs 25 as miscellaneous. If this avers true then the person should have complained about it to the Consumer Protection Unit rather than posting on Facebook to draw likes & comments.

I cannot verify the authenticity of the supermarket receipt and whether the person having posted it is sharing the complete story, but I am only using it as an example.

How to report?

If you notice that shopkeepers and supermarket owners are abusing on the prices, please inform the Consumer Protection Unit through their hotline 185, call on 206 8070 or email consumerpu@govmu.org.

Update

I was suprised to learn today that the hotline 185 is not a freephone number but actually costs the caller a higher than average caller fee. 😑