Can someone please explain the purpose of this organisation and whether it has ever accomplished anything for the benefit of HK consumers?? I've now had two occasions to deal with the Consumer Council. The first time I had complained about a printer who refused to replace a set of business cards after misspelling my email address (he was asked to replicate an existing card that I supplied). After a month, I received a letter from a complaints officer informing that the printer had declined to replace the cards but was willing to offer a 20% discount on another order. How does that really rectify the situation for me?

More recently, I submitted a complaint about a merchant not honoring a promotional offer. After two months, I have received a reply asking for additonal details so that they can communicate with the merchant. Why does it take them two months to generate such a basic reply? I suppose it is not worth further effort, since I'm likely to get another useless result.

A few weeks ago, I saw a report that the Consumer Council had conducted a study finding that the average price of a basket of groceries at three major chains had gone up x% in the past year. There was no mention whether the price rise outpaced inflation, or whether one chain had increased prices more than others. So just some average findings to tell us all what we already know.

I can only advise anyone with a consumer grievance not to waste their time with this inefficient and toothless organisation, unless they want some more grief.