Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-m6dg7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-08T08:25:11.970Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Consumer Response to Unsatisfactory Purchases: A Survey of Perceiving Defects, Voicing Complaints, and Obtaining Redress

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 July 2024

Arthur Best  and
Alan R. Andreasen
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

A survey of consumer reactions to common purchases was conducted in 1975. Consumers perceive problems with many products and services, and voice complaints concerning about one-third of those problems. Third-party complaint processors play a very small role in buyer-seller disputes. Household status and type of problem influence perception of problems and choice of action or inaction. Satisfactory resolutions occur in somewhat more than half of voiced complaint cases. To increase voicing and fair handling of complaints, procedural changes at the buyer-seller level are suggested; to improve treatment of complaints that are not resolved at the buyer-seller level, improvements in community small claims courts are suggested.

Type
Research Article
Information
Law & Society Review , Volume 11 , Issue 4 , Spring 1977 , pp. 701 - 742
Copyright
Copyright © 1977 The Law and Society Association

Footnotes

© Center for Study of Responsive Law, 1976.

The original version of this paper was distributed by the Center for Study of Responsive Law in 1976 under the title, “Talking Back to Business: Voiced and Unvoiced Consumer Complaints.” A shortened version has recently been published: Alan R. Andreasen and Arthur Best, “Consumers Complain—Does Business Respond?” 55(4) Harvard Business Review 93 (July-August 1977). We are grateful to David Caplovitz and Seymour Sudman for providing generous help in all aspects of this research, and particularly in the design of the sample and the questionnaire. Special recognition should be given to the staff members of the Call For Action groups that participated in the study. Their thousands of hours of work in conducting interviews made this study possible. Ellen S. Straus, Chairperson of Call For Action at the time the study was begun, provided imaginative and practical counsel. We would like to acknowledge the helpful comments of Richard Abel, Daniel Clearfield, William L. F. Felstiner, Marc Galanter, Albert Hirschman, Laura Nader, and Ralph Nader on earlier drafts. The University of Illinois College of Commerce and Business Administration generously permitted use of its computer facility. The Center for Study of Responsive Law's work on this research was supported by a grant from the Carnegie Corporation of New York. The statements made are solely the responsibility of the authors.

References

AMERICAN BAR ASSOCIATION COMMISSION TO STUDY THE FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION (1969) Report of the ABA Commission to Study the Federal Trade Commission. Washington, D.C.: Bureau of National Affairs.Google Scholar
BEST, Arthur and BROWN, Bernard L. (1977) “Governmental Facilitation of Consumerism: A Proposal for Consumer Action Groups,” 50 Temple Law Quarterly 253.Google Scholar
CAHN, Edgar S. and CAHN, Jean Camper (1968) “The New Sovereign Immunity,” 81 Harvard Law Review 929.Google Scholar
CONSUMER LAW TRAINING CENTER (1975) The Consumer Law Training Center. New York: Consumer Law Training Center (mimeo).Google Scholar
DANZIG, Richard and LOWY, Michael J. (1975) “Everyday Disputes and Mediation in the United States: A Reply to Professor Felstiner,” 9 Law & Society Review 675.Google Scholar
DAY, Ralph L. (1975) “Consumer Satisfactions/Dissatisfactions with Services and Intangible Products.” Paper presented at the Marketing Research Seminar, Institut d'Administration des Entreprises, Universite d'Aix, Marseille, France.Google Scholar
DIENER, Betty J., (1975) “Information and Redress: Consumer Needs and Company Responses.” Marketing Science Institute working paper.Google Scholar
FELSTINER, William L. F. (1974) “Influences of Social Organization on Dispute Processing,” 9 Law & Society Review 63.Google Scholar
FLEMING, Macklin (1970) “Court Survival in the Litigation Explosion,” 54 Judicature 109.Google Scholar
FRYE, Robert E. (1975) “NEISS: Medical Records as an Important Contribution to Consumer Product Safety,” (April) Medical Record News 23.Google Scholar
GALANTER, Marc (1974) “Why the ‘Haves’ Come Out Ahead: Speculations on the Limits of Legal Change,” 9 Law & Society Review 95.Google Scholar
HANDY, Charles R. and PFAFF, Martin (1975) Consumer Satisfaction with Food Products and Marketing Services. Washington, D.C.: United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.Google Scholar
HERSBERGEN, Ronald L. (1974) “Picketing by Aggrieved Consumers—A Case Law Analysis,” 59 Iowa Law Review 1097.Google Scholar
HIRSCHMAN, Albert (1970) Exit, Voice and Loyalty: Responses to Decline in Firms, Organizations and States. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
JONES, Mary Gardiner and BOYER, Barry B. (1975) “Improving the Quality of Justice in the Marketplace: The Need for Better Consumer Remedies,” 40 George Washington Law Review 357.Google Scholar
KENDALL, CL and RUSS, Frederick A. (1975) “Warranty and Complaint Policies: An Opportunity for Marketing Management,” 39(2) Journal of Marketing 36.Google Scholar
KING, Donald W. and McEVOY, Kathleen A. (1976) “A National Survey of the Complaint Handling Procedures Used by Consumers.” Conducted for the Office of Consumer Affairs, United States Department of Health, Education and Welfare.Google Scholar
LANDON, E. Laird Jr., and EMERY, Donald R. Jr. (n.d.) “Causal Attribution of Consumer Dissatisfaction as a Predictor of Consumer Complaint Action.” University of Colorado working paper.Google Scholar
LEFLAR, Robert B. and ROGOL, Martin (1976) “Consumer Participation in the Regulation of Public Utilities: A Model Act,” 13 Harvard Journal on Legislation 235.Google Scholar
LIEFELD, J.P., EDGECOMB, F.H.C. and WOLFE, Linda (1975) “Demographic Characteristics of Canadian Consumer Complainers,” 9 Journal of Consumer Affairs 73.Google Scholar
LURIE, Howard R. (1972) “Consumer Complaints: A Proposed Federal Trade Regulation Rule,” 5 University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform 426.Google Scholar
MACAULAY, Stewart (1963) “Non-Contractual Relations in Business: A Preliminary Study,” 28 American Sociological Review 55.Google Scholar
McNEAL, James U. (1969) “Consumer Satisfaction: The Measure of Marketing Effectiveness,” (Summer) 17 MSU Business Topics 31.Google Scholar
NATIONAL ADVISORY COMMISSION ON CIVIL DISORDERS (1968) Reports of the National Advisory Commission of Civil Disorders. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office.Google Scholar
NATIONAL OPINION RESEARCH CENTER (1972) National Data Program for the Social Sciences Codebook for the Spring 1972 General Social Survey. Chicago: National Opinion Research Center.Google Scholar
ROSENBERG, Maurice (1971) “Devising Procedures that are Civil to Promote Justice that is Civilized,” 69 Michigan Law Review 797.Google Scholar
ROSS, H. Laurence (1975) “Insurance Claims Complaints: A Private Appeals Procedure,” 9 Law & Society Review 275.Google Scholar
STEELE, Eric H. (1975) “Fraud, Dispute, and the Consumer: Responding to Consumer Complaints,” 123 University of Pennsylvania Law Review 1107.Google Scholar
WARLAND, Rex H., HERRMANN, Robert O. and WILLITS, Jane (1975) “Dissatisfied Consumers: Who Gets Upset and Who Takes Action?” 9 Journal of Consumer Affairs 148.Google Scholar
YNGVESSON, Barbara and HENNESSEY, Patricia (1975) “Small Claims, Complex Disputes: A Review of the Small Claims Literature,” 9 Law & Society Review 219.Google Scholar