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Secondhand car dealers have provoked the greatest number of complaints to the government-funded advice service Consumer Direct for the third year running, it emerged today.
More than 47,000 unhappy motorists contacted the organisation in 2008 to complain about a secondhand car purchase from an independent dealer – up 12% from 2007. A further 15,230 customers complained about used cars bought from franchised dealers.
Complaints about mobile phone service agreements came second in Consumer Direct's top 10 for the year, with 31,267 cases dealt with – down 10% from 2007 – while 20,313 people phoned Consumer Direct because they were dissatisfied with their television purchases.
Women's clothing registered the biggest year-on-year increase in complaints, with a 23% rise in consumers contacting the advisory service in 2008.
In total, Consumer Direct handled 7% more complaints last year than in 2007, with 874,171 logged in total and almost 1.6m calls received.
More than half of all complaints received were for purchases made in stores or at traders' premises, while 11% were related to online purchases and 10% to telephone transactions.
Michele Shambrook, operations manager for Consumer Direct, said the current economic climate was focussing consumers' attention on getting value for money, and could be making them more likely to complain.
She added: "The recent rise in complaints to Consumer Direct about women's clothing remains a bit of a mystery. Our data doesn't offer any conclusive reason for this, but it could be an indicator that people are more willing to complain about lower value goods than before."
A report published by the Office of Fair Trading in April last year revealed that shoppers in the UK faced more than 26m consumer problems with products and services a year, losing £6.6bn in the process.
The OFT is now offering a free education package called Skilled to Go to colleges across the UK to help adults learn their consumer rights. Research published 10 days ago showed that 64% of those who have taken the course now feel "very" or "quite" confident in knowing their consumer rights, compared to 20% at the beginning of the course.
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