Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.

The purpose of this survey was to yield information on the levels and types of problems experienced within a number of nationalised industries, the procedures respondents adopted for dealing with the problems, and the extent to which they were satisfied with the different forms of help received. Five nationalised industries were included, along with television and oil-fired central heatings in order to provide a benchmark on problems and complaints in a private sector industry.

Main Topics:

The questions were designed to obtain information on how well nationalised industries were meeting the needs of consumers in terms of the mechanisms for dealing with consumer complaints. Topics included electricity, gas, the telephone service, the post office, public transport, television and oil-fired central heating. There were separate sections of the questionnaire for each industry. The questions asked about each were as far as possible the same, so that results could be compared across industries. Questions attempted to ascertain whether respondents had experienced a problem, how they dealt with it and how satisfied they were with the service, advice or help they received about it.

One-stage cluster sample

Face-to-face interview