After getting a court order against him to not further engage in unfair trading practices, a Singaporean boss of three furniture shops, Chiok Wee Juo, defiantly told the media “court order so what?”.
Chiok Wee Juo was complained 44 times over 7 years by his customers who sought redress from the government’s Consumer Association of Singapore (CASE). The businessman would often collect full payment then delay his committed delivery dates. In many cases, he would also deliver the wrong goods to his customers. This has been happening since 2008 despite a total of 44 cases of complaints lodged with CASE.
Logo of CASE
However, the ineffective consumer association failed to get the unscrupulous businessman to comply to any of their demands, like signing a Voluntary Compliance Agreement, or even a single response from their request for a meeting.
CASE only manage to get an injunction from the court under the Consumer Protection Act last month after 7 long years, and today (Sep 17) obtained the court order. Failing the court order would mean contempt of court which would result in fines and jail time for the businessman.
PAP MP Lim Biow Chuan, who is the MP for Mountbatten and President of CASE, did not comment his association’s inefficiency and why did the case took over 7 years. He merely cautioned Singapore consumers to not pay in full in future transactions in his press statement today.