26.5 million problems suffered by consumers dealing with organisations last year in the UK.
April 16th, 2008 by GilesThe OFT (Office of Fair Trading) has today published a report to measure the overall value of consumer detriment in the UK economy i.e. where a consumer suffers unfair treatment from its dealings with an organization. For every 1000 consumers interviewed, 542 problems were identified, and across the whole of the UK population this equates to an estimated 26.5 million problems over the last year.
The report was compiled using information from 10,000 consumers, and estimates the cost to consumers was around £6.6 billion in the last 12 months. It was commissioned to establish where consumers were suffering the most harm through poor products and services.
The report found that on average, the highest level of financial detriment occurred in the insurance sector, followed by home maintenance and improvements, and personal banking. The report also concluded that the goods or services which consumers reported the highest proportion of problems were telecommunications, domestic fuel, and personal banking.
However, only 64 per cent of respondents complained or took action to rectify their problem, and this was higher for problems occurring in the insurance, personal banking, internet and domestic fuel sectors but lower in the small domestic appliances, medical goods and services and postal services.
One important finding was that there was more detriment to consumers where problems were less numerous and more costly (79% in products or services over £1000), than from more frequent problems that were less costly (0.3% where the product or service was less than £5). The findings of the report will now be analysed and used to help the OFT prioritise future work.
Download a copy of the report from the OFT website - http://www.oft.gov.uk
Consumers wanting to complain about a product or a service should call Consumer Direct for clear, practical consumer advice on 08454 04 05 06 or http://www.consumerdirect.gov.uk.
April 17th, 20081:57 pm at
I am very pleased there is someone out there following up these things. I am finding a huge burden of buying things that dont work and spending ages sorting out phone systems with people who dont really understand their own product. Hurrah!
April 17th, 20085:33 pm at
Sarah
I hope you are one of the people who complain - if there were 26 million complaints I reckon the services would improve
April 18th, 20088:46 am at
Do you then write a letter of complaint and/or take it up with Consumer Direct? Most people don’t have the time or inclination which is part of the problem. If 26 million formal complaints were made I bet the services would improve - unless they crashed under the weight of the complaints…