Filing and Disposition of Consumer Complaints: Some Empirical Evidence*

Who complains and why? What are the dimensions of consumer complaints? How are complaints handled by various recipients? In this article, empirical evidence is offered to shed some light on these questions. Based on a direct inquiry addressed to state consumer protection offices and voluntary consumer associations, this study shows that the number of complaints filed by consumers is rapidly accelerating and that the “grey” areas of marketing are increasingly the target of customer frustrations. The study also points to a consumer-corporate communications vacuum and to various complaint dispositions by the recipients.