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People’s Park Complex phone shops shut without signing CASE pact

SINGAPORE — Two mobile phone retailers at People’s Park Complex have closed down after they were asked by the Consumers Association of Singapore (CASE) to sign an agreement to stop unfair practices.

SINGAPORE — Two mobile phone retailers at People’s Park Complex have closed down after they were asked by the Consumers Association of Singapore (CASE) to sign an agreement to stop unfair practices.

Tele Infinity and Mobile Alliance, which have had complaints lodged against them by customers, were approached by the consumer watchdog to sign a voluntary compliance agreement (VCA) on Nov 14, said CASE yesterday. However, their owners applied to strike off their businesses and their applications were approved by the Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority on Nov 16.

Tele Infinity and Mobile Alliance, which had owned two units each, also gave up their leases at People’s Park Complex. CASE had said earlier that the complex had the highest number of consumer complaints for shopping malls this year — 146 from January to last month.

Sim Lim Square, in the news recently over the unscrupulous sales tactics of errant shop owners at the mall, had 103 complaints.

The VCA would have prevented Tele Infinity and Mobile Alliance from engaging in unfair practices, such as making false claims and taking advantage of consumers by exerting undue pressure on them to enter transactions.

CASE said yesterday: “As both companies have closed down, they will not be signing the VCAs. The owners of the two companies met CASE on Nov 22 and agreed to resolve all outstanding cases filed with CASE and provide a satisfactory settlement for the consumers. We would like to encourage all consumers with unresolved disputes against Mobile Alliance and Tele Infinity to file their complaints with us as soon as possible.”

Twenty-two businesses have been served with VCAs in the past decade, CASE said. Of these, 17 have complied and signed the agreement, but the remaining saw injunctions taken out successfully against them for declining to do so.

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