The Vietnam Competition Authority under the Ministry of Industry and Trade has given warnings about the explosion in fake and exaggerated TV shopping adverts.
Many customers are tricked into buying low-quality products
Almost every channel have their own section for adverts and shopping that offer a vast number of products and price ranges.
For example, caterpillar fungus was promoted on SCTV5 Channel as a cure to illnesses such as back pain or impotency. However, doctors at HCM City Hospital of Traditional Medicine said caterpillar fungus was only used as a kind of supplementary medicine.
Experts said though the whole product only have some small quality substances, firms will still take advantage of that small percentage to promote for their product.
Many customers have not done research about the product because they are overwhelmed by the magical claims, attractive prices and convenient customer care. As a result, many people have bought overpriced and low-quality products.
Customers have filed complaints about bad service including frauds where companies took the deposits without providing the bought product.
A VND170,000 piece of massage equipment was said to have been worth VND2 million. Some mobile phone companies said they only sell online and refuse to let customers check product beforehand.
After receiving the complaints, the Competition Authority warned customers to be more cautious with TV shopping and carried out several inspections, especially at suspected mobile phone companies.
