There are encouraging signs that the Ministry of Commerce and Industry (MCI) is taking on the powerful cartels of “sole” importers, distributors and agencies for foreign companies. It is starting with car agencies. The fight resembles a David and Goliath battle, as those entrenched interests are expected to fight back against a much smaller bureaucracy never known for its consumer protection prowess.

Monopoly and oligopoly have been permanent fixtures of our trading scene for generations. Reliance on those antiquated trade patterns has severely limited competition, raised prices and reduced overall efficiency of the economy. Nothing riles consumers more than car agencies, because for the average consumer a car is his or her second largest investment; the first being home purchase.

Sole agencies sometimes distort the images of the companies they represent, by raising prices beyond manufacturers’ suggestions and projecting an uncaring and thoughtless image. There were frequent nasty fights, sometimes out in the open, between manufacturers and their local agents over standards and especially over territory. An agent jealously guards the geographical territory allotted to him by the manufacturer and fights any attempts to limit it or dilute it by introducing other agents, or other sales channels, into their territory.

It is therefore highly commended that MCI, for the first time in its history, is undertaking this formidable challenge, forcefully and head-on.

On June 23, 2013, MCI posted on its website the results of a survey it had conducted about car agencies. The survey did not mince words or obscure names, a totally unusual move in Saudi Arabia, or for that matter in the GCC region as a whole.

In straight language, the survey asked customers questions about their overall satisfaction with the services they were getting. It then posed several specific questions about customer service, maintenance, prices and spare parts.

The main, and wholly expected, result was overwhelming consumer dissatisfaction with car agencies. Sixty-one percent of survey respondents said that they expressed overall dissatisfaction, while (11) percent were satisfied and (28) percent were somewhat satisfied. There were similar results in answer to all other survey questions.

The survey quizzed consumers about the services of over (25) car agencies throughout Saudi Arabia. Nearly (22,000) individuals took part, including (10,000) in a field survey and (12,000) who responded on the MCI website.

Of the two-dozen agencies under survey, only four had less than (50) percent dissatisfaction response. Even for this minority of four, the actual satisfaction rates were nothing to write home about, because they were quite low. It is also noticeable that three of the four agents were small agencies for some minor brands. Only one was for a major automaker, Ford. Its agent was the exception among all major brands in garnering some degree of customer satisfaction. Its numbers were still modest, but relatively better than other dealers of major carmakers: (16) percent of respondents expressed overall satisfaction with its services, (39) percent were somewhat satisfied and (45) percent were dissatisfied — small comfort, but much better than all other dealers of major carmakers.

The rest on the list, over (20) of them, registered more than (50) percent dissatisfaction rates, in some cases reaching as high as (82) percent!

MCI said that complaints about car dealers represented over (23) percent of all complaints it received about consumer products. They included complaints about breach of contract, failure to honor warranties, manufacturing defects, unavailability of spare parts, high prices, service delays and failure to fix cars recalled by manufacturers.

The ministry announced at the same time it published the survey that it intended to communicate the results to car manufacturers and ask them to maintain presence in Saudi Arabia, to monitor and oversee the performance of their agents and bring about improvement in their service.

Soon after the survey results were made public, a high-level MCI delegation traveled to the United States to discuss those results with US automakers, with plans to extend that outreach to European, Japanese and Korean carmakers.

During discussions in Detroit, the Saudi delegation discussed the results of the survey with the three major automakers, encouraged them to increase the number of their agencies in the Kingdom, and establish their own offices in Saudi Arabia to monitor customer satisfaction and establish centers for receiving consumer complaints.

Ford had already announced, in November 2011, that it was going to establish an office in Saudi Arabia, “to provide better service” to its Saudi agent “by assisting with vehicle ordering as well as marketing and after-sales efforts.” During the Saudi delegation’s visit to Detroit, there were reports that that the office would start functioning in the near future, but it is not clear with such office would be able to carry out the tasks that are required to raise customer satisfaction.

While long overdue, MCI’s new efforts will please consumers, who are rooting for them to succeed against formidable opposition.