Office of Fair Trading
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OFT research reveals £6.6bn consumer detriment figure
The OFT will tomorrow publish a report to measure the overall value of consumer detriment in the UK economy, which estimates that the cost to UK consumers over the last 12 months was around £6.6bn. Download a copy of the report from the OFT website - http://www.oft.gov.uk. 'Consumer detriment' refers to any instance where a customer suffers as a result of their dealings with an organisation, partly or wholly as a result of the organisation accidentally or deliberately treating the customer unfairly.
The report, which was compiled using information from 10,000 consumers, was commissioned to establish where consumers were suffering the most harm through poor products and services. 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 found that on average, the highest level of financial detriment occurred in the insurance sector, followed 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.
John Fingleton, OFT Chief Executive said:
'Only five per cent of people in the UK report their complaint through channels such as Trading Standards and Consumer Direct. This research is crucial in improving our understanding of problems we do not always see or hear about. Consumer confidence in markets is important to making markets work well and maintaining a strong and growing economy. Understanding where consumers are experiencing the most problems and incurring the greatest losses will help us to set priorities efficiently and focus the work of the OFT on markets that are not working well.'
NOTES
1. 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.
PUBLIC enquiries: 0845 7224499 enquiries@oft.gov.uk
OFT
reports and consumer information leaflets are available free
from:
OFT, PO Box 366, Hayes UB3 1XB 0800 389 3158 oft@ecgroup.uk.com
