[2022 National Audit] "Gongyoung Home Shopping Shows No Willingness to Improve Customer Complaints"

Yang Eui-won-young, a member of the National Assembly's Industry, Trade, Small and Medium Enterprises, and Venture Businesses Committee, from the Democratic Party of Korea [Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Donghyun Choi] Public Home Shopping, established to expand sales channels for small and venture business products as well as agricultural, livestock, and fishery products, has been criticized for failing to properly address customer complaints.

On the 13th, Yang Iwon-young, a member of the National Assembly's Industry, Trade, and Small and Medium Venture Business Committee from the Democratic Party of Korea, revealed this at the Ministry of SMEs and Startups affiliated agency audit. Rep. Yang pointed out, "Public Home Shopping, which is supposed to expand sales channels for small business products, seems more like a home shopping channel that reduces sales channels due to the continuous customer complaints."

Public Home Shopping is a home shopping channel that exclusively handles 100% small, venture, and micro-enterprise products. Up to the first half of this year, it introduced 148 small, venture, and micro-enterprise products through 224 broadcasts. Since 2019, a total of 345,741 consumer complaints have been filed against Public Home Shopping, which aims to expand sales channels for domestic small and venture businesses. Last year, Public Home Shopping received a failing grade of "inadequate" in a public institution customer satisfaction survey.

According to data submitted by Public Home Shopping to Rep. Yang, the company conducts 160 hours of mandatory training for new employees upon joining and about 70 hours of customer service (CS) training annually during employment. Additionally, Public Home Shopping has been confirmed to investigate overall customer perceptions and complaints about the company through its own research reports. However, Rep. Yang's office claims that there is no concrete evidence of specific problems, and thus no apparent willingness to derive improvement measures.

Rep. Yang criticized, "Due to the continuous consumer complaints about Public Home Shopping, there is concern that customers may view all small business products with suspicion," adding, "Public Home Shopping should take responsibility for its important role in expanding sales channels for small business products and strive to improve consumer complaints."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.