The President of the Defensoría del Consumidor, Ricardo Salazar, highlighted the recovery of US$73,194,403.07 in favor of 399,067 consumers who filed claims before the institution.

He informed that 70.32% of the total amount recovered, US$51,467,242 corresponds to complaints closed with refunds in collective cases in favor of 364,906 consumers, managed by the Collective Cases unit of the Defensoría del Consumidor.

Of the amounts recovered, 83% were in the following sectors: real estate (US$25.6 million), transportation (US$16.8 million), household appliances and articles (US$10 million) and financial services (US$8.2 million).

In addition, he reported that the institution served a total of 417,822 salvadorans in the last four years. In 86.83% of the cases they received advisory services, while 13.17% filed a complaint for non-compliance or abuse by suppliers.

Of these, 75% corresponded to charges, collection of fees, commissions and undue charges for breach of contract, over-indebtedness, as well as poor quality of products and services, and breach of contract.

This result, it is very important to highlight, is linked to 72 means of attention that we have; 36 of them face-to-face and 36 correspond to virtual, among which the kiosks we have in the United States stand out, with a potential to serve 1.3 million salvadorans.

Currently, 67% of the services are provided through non-face-to-face channels, among which our WhatsApp and online services stand out. Of the 417,000 services, 61,840 are by Whatsapp and 52,058 are online.

Translated by: A.M