From banks to football, the consumers' revolt grows

For decades British customers tolerated poor service with a resigned attitude and never dared to complain. No more. From high street banks to football stadia, people are exhibiting a steadfast refusal to put up with high prices or shoddy standards.

Instead, in their millions and harnessing the power of the internet, they are switching supplier, staying away, signing petitions, engaging in local democracy. In short, they are fighting back.

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Yesterday the number of people thought to be taking action against the banks over excessive charges for overdrafts or bounced cheques topped one million. The high street banks are forecast to lose at least £50m from this unprecedented consumer revolt, which is gathering pace by the day.

Which?, formerly the Consumers Association, reported one month's demand for help in tackling the banks had been received in the past week alone.

Meanwhile Centrica, which owns British Gas, revealed yesterday what may have been behind the dramatic reason to slash prices earlier this month - the loss of 1.1 million customers, apparently driven away by big bills and the ease with which customers can switch supplier.

The online consumer rebellion has even reached the world of sport. Football clubs such as Chelsea and Bolton have announced they are freezing or lowering prices next season because so many fans have protested at expensive tickets.

Politically too, people power has made waves with the mass backing for an online petition against road charging - one of the Government's policies to limit climate change. The Prime Minister was forced to send a long, conciliatory reply to all 1.8 million signatories.

Consumer groups said people were now far more likely to take action against companies that infuriated them than in the past.

Privatisation has made shopping around for gas or phone suppliers a real possibility while the internet has made campaigning - and switching - easier, they said. In a study published last year the National Consumer Council (NCC) found there had been a 52 per cent rise in people switching from one business to another for services such as fuel, telephones or current accounts in the five years to 2005.

The rise was most pronounced in mortgages - 158 per cent. While once people kept a mortgage with a bank or building society for life, many now switch every few years to catch a better deal, often saving hundreds if not thousands of pounds.

"We are clearly seeing a much more active, empowered consumer who thinks, 'Right, if you're not going to offer good service, then I'm going somewhere else'," said Philip Cullum, the deputy chief executive of the NCC. "There is a huge degree of frustration and anger at companies, with people being at the end of their tether and being fed up with the corporate spin.

"People read about high profits and they hear about how brilliant companies are through advertising and when they compare that with their own experience of the service they receive there is real anger."

Mr Cullum - who wrote a study published last year called The Stupid Company: How British Businesses Throw Away Money by Alienating Customers - said the internet was arming people with the information they needed to take action.

Switching websites are doing brisk business by moving disgruntled customers from one utility company to another. Alan Tattersall, of uSwitch.com, said that four million customers had switched gas or electricity supplier in 2006. In part he blamed the rise on poor service, most noticeably at call centres, which infuriated customers.

"I think people are getting genuinely fed-up and saying, 'I'm not going to sit around and wait, I'm going to vote with my feet'. There has been a definite rise in consumer action," he said.

But he warned that some groups were missing out on the new dynamic consumer economy, particularly the elderly, who were more cautious and had less knowledge of the internet. "While people are standing up for themselves there are whole chunks of the community who are missing out."

The campaign against bank charges threatens to mar the banks' reporting season, which was kicked off by Barclays on Monday. The number of downloads to the moneysavingexpert.com website passed one million on Wednesday, after The Independent publicised the revolt.

Which? has received 18,500 downloads of its form challenging banks in the past seven days, compared with 200,000 in the preceding 11 months, since it started its Anti-Social Banking Order (ASBO) campaign.

Doug Taylow, Which?'s personal finance campaigner, said: "For consumers to download the information means they are serious about taking some kind of action. These are large numbers."

Martin Lewis, of moneysavingexpert.com, will present a 30-minute special on the mass revolt against bank charges on ITV's Tonight programme tonight. He said competition was forcing the banks to act on charges. "For once consumers have the upper hand against the banks, the market is so competitive banks can't afford to start charging fees to customers to make up the difference, so at the moment they're having to pay out the cash, and are not getting it back," he said.

The campaigners leading the fight

Banks Martin Lewis

Former television journalist Martin Lewis set up the website moneysavingexpert. com, the internet force behind the bank charges revolt. Since November, more than 800,000 people have downloaded model complaints letters.

"I didn't instigate this campaign but I have become its promoter-in-chief. Customers should be celebrating the fact that they are, for once, one salvo ahead in the battle against the banks. One year ago, there were just a handful of people taking the banks on. A trickle of brave people reported they had taken on their bank in court over borrowing charges - and won. Then the trickle became a stream - and now it's a flood. I'm convinced there are far more people who are just beginning the process of complaining than those who have already been through the system."

Utilities Joe Malinowski

Joe Malinowski, 44, is a former stockbroker who founded the energy utility price comparison website theenergyshop.com, which has helped 100,000 people change to a cheaper supplier.

"The basic philosophy is to put as much information into the hands of consumers and to make it as easy to understand as possible, so the customer can make a decision in their own time without any pressure. This is something that the internet allows us to achieve very effectively. For a long time companies resisted this sort of thing because consumer power produces downward pressure in pricing. It suited people like British Gas somewhat less because they have the dominant position in the market so they have the most to lose. But now the companies accept it as the most efficient way to do things."

Road Pricing Peter Roberts

Peter Roberts, 46, is an account manager from Telford whose anti-toll petition on the Downing Street website attracted 1.8m signatories and prompted Tony Blair to defend his plans in a mass email.

"I stumbled across the petition section on the Downing Street website by accident. Basically, I put the petition together and marketed it as best I could. It seems to have caught the public imagination. Enough people saw it to sign it, which was good. It has had the result of bringing this issue into the forefront of public debate. Before that, the Government was quietly getting [road pricing] into place without anyone knowing what it was all about. Now the public understands the issues and the Government has had to come out and defend itself. I had no experience of anything like this before - it has been a complete change in my life."

Supermarkets Vicki Hird

Vicki Hird is a campaigner for Tescopoly, an alliance which aims to show the "real side" of the supermarket giant.

"We put a website together in 2005 and we co-ordinate and help on a local level to fight supermarket applications. The battle needs to be won on a local, regional and national level, and the local level is very important. People power is a fantastic way to ensure we get a sustainable food system. Local people should have a say in how retailing is developed in their area. That is being undermined by the likes of Tesco. Consumers nowadays have quite a lot of power. We started a GM campaign a while ago which had had a big impact on supermarkets and led to change. I'm amazed by the response to the Tescopoly campaign. It's a time of fantastic movements at the moment. People are taking power, and they are asking for the right things."

Air Travel John Valentine

John Valentine, creator of the anti-flying website flightpledge.org.uk is an environmental activist who has converted more than 1,000 people to "slow travel".

"I was just an individual who thought we were frying the planet by flying too much and saw that people had bought houses in other countries on the basis of cheap flights. I got a web designer to create my website and created a rewards system for people who agreed to fly less. I think nowadays there is more of a consumer conscience. There are two ways to look at the environment: one is that the individual can make a difference and the other is that it doesn't matter a scrap what one person is doing. I think we are increasingly thinking the former. You find yourself remembering the Edmund Burke comment that 'evil flourishes when good men do nothing'."

Packaging Katie Fletcher

Katie Fletcher, 42, from Newcastle, is against the use of excessive packaging in shops. She was one of thousands of readers who emailed in support of The Independent's recent anti-waste campaign.

"I would like to think I have contributed to people power regarding packaging. I think the packaging campaign by The Independent has been absolutely brilliant and I think it has struck a chord with people. The public is really starting to take notice of what they are doing. The throwaway culture we have had for so long has always sickened me. Now these issues are more in the foreground and people are sitting up and taking notice. People power is vital. We are starting to dictate to the retailers that we want to see changes that are much more environmentally friendly. And as a result, attitudes out there are changing."

Football Tickets Malcolm Clarke

Malcolm Clarke is chairman of the Football Supporters Federation, which has used the internet to galvanise public support for a reduction in season ticket prices.

"We launched a petition last week appealing for Premiership ticket prices to be reduced to £15 for away games, which now has almost 4,000 signatures. Every time someone signs, every Premier league club receives an email. Match-going supporters have been ripped off as football prices have risen way beyond the rate of inflation. By next year, the FSF - which has 142,000 members - will be a more potent force and our website a major campaigning focus for football fans. In the long term, we want to see all admission prices reduced across football, and see the Premiership's wealth flow down to restore the competitive nature of the football pyramid."

Post Offices Sally Reeves

Sally Reeves is president of the National Federation of Subpostmasters, which collected a petition to save thousands of post offices.

"Last year we collected a petition of four million signatures expressing concern about the future of local post-office services and access to current accounts. The petition was presented to Downing Street and drew huge media attention. Our intention was to alert the Government to how strongly people felt about the issue. The Government's proposals, announced in December, call for the closure of 2,500 loss-making offices and the opening of 500 outreach offices. We broadly agree with these numbers as a way of creating a sustainable network but the petition was vital. It gained an undertaking from the Government to continue accounts for the 4.3 million people who rely on the Post Office to access their money beyond 2010."