Andy Defresne writes

Hey My name is Andy Dufresne and life’s pretty pretty good. You remember my campaign to get some books for the prison library which ended very well!!

Well ive decided to kick start a consumer campaign to persuade big businesses to consider the consumer.

Some questions for you!

Has the pendulum swung too far in favour of the shareholders whilst the consumer is left behind?

What has happened to trading standards?

Why are the phone companies failing us?

Why are the train operators failing us?

Why are the energy companies failing us?

What can we do ?

My Solicitor Michael Coyle heads up Stay Legal (www.staylegal.co.uk) and his beef ( having battled with them for two years) is SSE and OVO and is currently having a trying time with O2. Other nightmare providers seem to be BT, and phone operators generally. By the way he has given up on train operators and their inability to provide WIFI on their trains ( dont get him started on the trains themselves! – have you tried using the loo on the East Coast Line?)

What about you ? Got any horror stories?

Let me know at info@staylegal.co.uk …..The pendulum has swung too far to the side of the shareholders, too much reliance on the DIGITAL ASSISTANT and its time to fight back!!!

Andy d F

Footnotes

Lawdit started out life in 2001 and for a number of years we often dealt with the super people at Trading Standards via the Office of Fair Trade. The OFT was closed down on 31 March 2014 and its responsibilities were transferred to a number of different bodies, including the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) and the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). The Office of Fair Trading (‘OFT’) was responsible for protecting consumer interests throughout the UK. Its responsibilities have been passed to a number of different organisations.

Use services and information now provided by other organisations

Consumer rights

One could:

• find out who to contact about consumer protection and complain about a product or service
• complain to the Advertising Standards Authority if you think advertising rules have been broken
• complain to Monitor about a healthcare provider in England
• contact the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) with enquiries about the regulation of consumer credit

issues with particular market segments and anti-competitive behaviour

You could:

• tell the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) about:
  • practices that hinder competition, such as bid-rigging and price-fixing
  • any issues related to poor competition
• find out how to avoid and report anti-competitive behaviour
• find out how to avoid unfair terms in sales contracts

https://www.tradingstandards.uk/ Remains in existence but as it states on its website its a private limited company and membership fees applies! In my view it should be free for all with government support and backing!