Have you been ripped off, treated poorly or received bad service? Now there’s a hotline just for you.

Earlier this year we reported that the The Governor of Muğla had a survey carried out by a private research company which concluded that 70% of tourists visiting Mugla felt they had been conned during their stay.

The Governor said that the region would never grow its tourist numbers until sharp practice had been outlawed and said he would open up a complaints phone line so that tourists could make their complaints.

True to his word the new hotline has now opened.

The service allows tourists and residents to make complaints about a wide range of subjects and all complaints are followed up and feedback provided to the complainant.

The phone lines are open 24 hours 7 days a week and a range of languages including English are spoken.

There are two ways to contact the multi lingual service:

1. Dial 179 and speak directly to a person; or,
2. Email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Fethiye Times contacted the Alo 179 service by phone earlier this week and were impressed by the quality of the English spoken and the efficiency of the service.

We asked if people who lived in the area but who were not strictly tourists could also use the line for complaints.

We were pleasantly surprised when we were told that it was.

The operator explained that the new service was a communication channel for us all to use.

So if you live or are visiting the Muğla area of Turkey and have been ripped off, hoodwinked, bamboozled or mistreated just call 179 with the details.

The service is open all year but during the winter months will only be open during office hours.

We’d be interested in hearing your first hand experiences of using the new service. Was it a good service? Were you satisfied with the conclusions? Let us know by emailing This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it