What did people have to complain about last year?
How have people coped through the most challenging and volatile year in recent history? According to the latest annual complaints data from Resolver, the answer is: remarkably patiently.
In total, 900,000 people sought help with a complaint last year, about more than 150 different products and services. Many issues won’t come as a surprise to regular readers of my column, but there are also quirks in the statistics.
Shopping woes
Refund and returns issues accounted for almost a fifth of complaints to online shops, but in the main, complaints centred on delivery problems.
Delivery complaints topped 206,000, with online shops accounting for more than half of these, and another 70,000 made directly to delivery firms.
Customer service issues topped the list for high street shops. We also saw thousands of complaints over the last nine months in particular concerning face masks – specifically the lack of enforcement of them and other members of the public not wearing them.
Travel complaints fly high
Travel agents saw a 60% rise in complaints over the year. Across the travel sector, charges, fees and cancellations dominated the complaints consumers made – accounting for more than threequarters within airlines, travel agents, tour operators and hotels.
Consumers faced long delays for refunds for cancelled holidays – many reported feeling pushed into taking vouchers or moving holidays, despite being legally entitled to get their money back.
We also saw cases where flights were not cancelled, despite it being illegal to travel outside of the UK at certain times, pushing consumers into the decision of whether to lose money or risk travelling illegally and invalidating travel insurance.
Public services
Complaints to significant public services were in the thousands over the year, and while those to local council services actually declined, some services saw far more significant rises.
The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) saw 6,000 complaints throughout 2020/21 – more than two-and-a-half times that of the previous year.
As one of the organisations that blocked contact from consumers throughout the early months of lockdown – apart from ‘urgent’ enquiries or those from key workers – it was not surprising to see people complaining en masse.
Subscriptions and memberships
Some of the biggest rises in complaint volumes related to subscription services or memberships.
Online dating services saw more than 5,000 complaints in the year, by far the largest rise. Complaints centred around excessive fees and the inability to contact these services to stop renewals or try and cancel memberships. This was also true of gyms and health clubs, though complaints to these services declined year-on-year.
Banking and finance
Cases to most financial providers fell in the year, including banking, credit cards and loan and credit providers. However, fraud was up more than 10% over the year.
Fraud-related cases were a mixture of requests for assistance to financial providers – having been defrauded by another party, or issues with not having money returned, fraudulently opened accounts not being closed, negative impacts on credit reports and even an inability to get through to emergency fraud helplines.
The future
As we emerge from lockdown, there are huge uncertainties with many of the things we took for granted. Businesses and services will have to work extra hard to help people in the year ahead. Let me know if they’re failing to do so. ■