£1.6 billion in missing compensation (29/08/2014)

Resolver estimates that £1.6 billion could be in the hands of consumers if they were to complain. 59% of consumers don’t make a complaint because it is too hard, too much hassle or they don’t expect the company to address their problem.

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YouGov published a survey on behalf of resolver.co.uk, the online complaints tool, which shows that there are four key barriers stopping people complaining about poor customer service. resolver.co.uk, based on its experience, estimates this is costing consumers £1.6 billion in lost compensation.

The survey of 2341 GB Adults published today showed that:

25% of people are prevented from complaining because of the time and effort necessary to get a resolution.
23% have no faith that the company will fix things and resolve the problem to their satisfaction.
18% were put off from complaining because there was no obvious way of complaining – for example there was no obvious email address or phone number to contact.
16% said ‘what’s the point?’, as they don’t expect to get the financial redress or the proper compensation they would want

Founder of resolver.co.uk James Walker added: “I am delighted to see that the resolver.co.uk service overcomes these top 4 barriers to complaining. It’s quick and easy to use Resolver; we aim to get resolution to your issue or you can automatically escalate the complaint to the Ombudsman on your behalf; we know who to complain to – we already have access to over 1,500 companies across 59 services; we know your consumer rights; and we are focused on ensuring you will get a positive outcome and with appropriate redress.

In all four cases it would be beneficial to use our service. Our message is clear – if you feel you have not got what you paid for you should complain. Use our service to learn about your rights and expect appropriate compensation.”

The Consumer Action Monitor reported published by Ombudsman Services in January this year that an estimated there were 118 million complaints made last year. Resolver thus estimates that by removing the barriers as further 67 million complaints would be made – based on our experience the average complaint amounts to a compensation of £25 – the true value of complaints stopped equates to over £1.6 billion.

The survey also showed that 77% of respondents are either very interested or interested in recording telephone conversations when they are making a complaint – which could demonstrate a level of mistrust in how companies handle complaints. The Resolver system allows complainers to call their key utilities for the cost of a national rate phone call and record the phone call and store it as a personal ‘e-complaint file’, providing an accurate and verifiable record of what was or wasn’t said!