However, there were no serious accidents or large-scale collective complaints, bureau officials said yesterday.

Bureau statistics show that gripes about food hygiene, mobile phone quality, and accommodation and entertainment services in the tourism sector topped the blacklist, with 27, 27 and 24 complaints respectively.

Officials said both criticism of cell phone products and grievances about accommodation and entertainment service grew two or three times, compared with last year's National Day holiday. But complaints about food dipped 44 percent year-on-year.

"Apart from the common complaints, protests over Internet services saw a rise this year," said Zhou Shuguang, a bureau officer, adding that "consumers mainly complained about Internet connection failure or poor service quality of online games."

Just on the first three days of the holiday, the bureau received six such complaints. For instance, a Hongkou District resident, identified as Zhao, reported that he installed an Asymmetrical Digital Subscriber Loop in September. But the Internet connection always failed at the weekends.

In another complaint, a student surnamed Ma of Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, who paid to play at a Shanghai-based company's online-game Website, claimed his password was stolen because of a fault in the Website's system and the company refused to give him any compensation.

Complaints about telecommunications and decoration materials fell.

(eastday.com October 8, 2002)