In gambling, hairdressers and the lotto we trust

WE have more trust in gambling, hairdressers and the lottery than we do in bankers, pension advisors or estate agents.

The bankers, stockbrokers and lawyers of this country are now classed as being as trustworthy as sellers of second-hand cars, as we instead seek solace in comfort food, hairdressers, alcohol, books, newspapers and the lottery.

The picture is much the same across the EU, according to the first survey of consumers’ expectations and experiences of services and products.

The survey – carried out to see how the EU’s internal market could be improved – looked at goods and services that between them account for more than 60% of a household’s budget.

It ranked them according to consumers’ satisfaction with the service or product itself, if they trusted the provider to respect consumers rights, how easy it was to compare prices, change provider and have a complaint responded to.

The details varied from one country to another but in most the least trustworthy were much the same: bankers, investment advisers, lawyers, estate agents, second-hand car sales people, and internet service providers.

However, the European Commission, who commissioned the survey, pointed out that these tend to account for a low proportion of household budget, and their cross-border dimension is limited.

One of the significant differences in the results for Ireland was that airlines were higher on the hit list than they were in other countries, possibly reflecting the “take it or leave it” attitude of the country’s biggest airline, Ryanair.

There was more dissatisfaction too with current accounts, home and car insurance, new cars, medicine, dental services and sport and leisure services.

It did not query housing, medical or education services.

Despite paying more for electricity, a number of scare stories involving contaminated water supplies, and the poor public transport service, we rate them higher than other nationalities.

We are also happier than most with gas, meat, clothing and footwear, fruit and vegetables and the postal services than others.

Even funeral services were a matter for satisfaction according to the research that only dealt with people who had recent experience of the relevant service.

The survey results suggest that hard times are turning the Irish into complainers.

In fact the Irish are now the seventh best complainers in the EU having registered their dissatisfaction about 65,000 times in the past year which averages out at about one complaint for every 65 inhabitants.