Industrial experts, members of the Federation of Industries, and some representatives of international companies in Egypt, have called for confronting unaccredited services centres, warning of their dangerous impact on the Egyptian national economy.
This came during a panel discussion, entitled “Fake services centres and their impact on consumers and the economy”. The event was organized by the Egyptian Businessmen’s Association, in cooperation with the Consumer Protection Agency.
The roundtable was attended by Ayman Hossam, Head of the Consumer Protection Agency; Abdel Raouf El Ahmadi, Head of the Industrial Control Department; Mohamed El Mohandes, Head of the Chamber of Engineering Industries at the Federation of Egyptian Industries, Maissam El Hennawy, CEO of Electrolux Egypt.
Ayman Hossam stated, “The durable goods sector accounted for at least 32% of the complaints received by the agency concerning the fake services centre, which indicates the vital need for an immediate move to solve this problem.”
He added, “We are currently looking forward to establishing a database that includes accredited service centres, which are about 740 centres.”
Maissam El Hennawy commented, “This problem has been spanning for almost 20 years, and Electrolux is the most affected company in the Egyptian market. Meaning, many of the fake centers are taking advantage of our brand name, in the industrial field, to deceive the citizens, hence impeding our efforts in providing the best post-sales services to the Egyptian consumer.”
“The non accredited centres do not offer safety or quality, regarding spare parts, which puts the consumer’s life at risk. So, here comes the importance of the initiative in order to educate and guide the consumer who does not know that they are, indeed, dealing with those fake and untrusted services centres.” added Maissam.
El Hennawy stressed that the company is fully prepared to cooperate with all regulatory and governmental authorities and other private sector partners to eliminate this phenomenon, including reporting the unaccredited centres, which are determined by the help of the consumers’ complaints.
