A beauty company from Hong Kong has closed down recently, which is affecting a Macau beauty company with the same name, and 448 consumers have filed complaints, or enquired about the case, to the Macau Consumer Council (CC), a CC statement said on Friday.
The council said that it would pay close attention to the case and would use legal ways to assist consumers in solving their problems. The statement also said that the council has tried to contact the company’s owner through various channels, in order to provide support to the affected consumers. The statement pointed out that if the case breached any local laws, it would be immediately transferred to the judicial authorities for follow-up.
The council strongly urged the affected consumers to either go to the council in person or file their complaints via Consumidor Online.The council also reminded residents that as prepaid methods entail a higher risk, they should evaluate their needs before engaging in such agreements.
According to a recent TDM report, the customers of the Macau beauty company were notified that it was experiencing a power outage as it was unable to pay their electricity bill.
The report quoted a customer, surnamed Wong, as saying that staff members of the company told her that they didn’t know anything about the case. Wong also told TDM that she joined a group chat involving 400 customers, adding she estimated that the clients had paid the company over 20 million patacas in total, with one of the customers saying she had paid 460,000 patacas. However, Wong pointed out that due to the government’s COVID-19 prevention and control measures all beauty parlours have been closed. They are only allowed to reopen at 0:00 tomorrow.
The report said that most of the customers from the group chat had already complained to the Consumer Council, adding that Wong and other customers “did not think it would be effective” so they were considering filing a lawsuit if need be. The report also said that Wong urged the local beauty industry to help them solve their problem.
According to the report, another anonymous customer said that an employee from the beauty company told her that the Macau beauty company was a subsidiary under the Hong Kong beauty company’s umbrella, noting that the company in Macau has over 10,000 members. However, the report quoted the customer as saying that when she looked up the information online, she discovered that the Macau company has not been affiliated with the Hong Kong company for six years already.
Neither the Consumer Council nor TDM revealed the name of the two companies.
This undated photo released by TDM last week shows a number of receipts from some of the customers of a local beauty company that apparently has been affected by the closure of a company in Hong Kong with the same name.
