Consumers are mad as hell and aren't gonna take it anymore

**Heather Timmons** (0:01)
NPR.

**Adrian Ma** (0:06)
If you were to pick one word that succinctly captures the zeitgeist of American consumers right now, it might be rage.

**Wailin Wong** (0:14)
Last year, in a survey of American consumers, two thirds of those who experienced a problem with a product or service said they felt rage about it.

**Adrian Ma** (0:23)
Who amongst us, Waylen?

**Forrest Morgerson** (0:24)
Who amongst?

**Adrian Ma** (0:25)
I'm just saying. By the way, that survey was done by a company called Customer Care Measurement and Consulting. Scott Bretzman is the CEO there.

**Scott Bretzman** (0:33)
We're about a quarter century old, and our primary competency is helping companies listen to the voice of the customer and take action on the feedback that they get.

**Adrian Ma** (0:43)
I see. And where would you put yourself on the consumer rage scale?

**Scott Bretzman** (0:54)
I'm laughing because, first of all, I've never been asked that question before in 25 years. If you talk to any of my children or people in my family, I guess they would probably say that I'm embarrassingly a rageful kind of consumer.

**Wailin Wong** (1:10)
Scott says his current beef is with a tuxedo rental company over a mistake in charge.

**Scott Bretzman** (1:15)
That particular dispute has been going on for over a month right now. And each answer I get is more confusing than the last one I got.

**Adrian Ma** (1:26)
It's the kind of situation that makes Scott a normally mild-mannered number nerd want to hulk out.

**Wailin Wong** (1:32)
Yeah, he's ripping off that rental tuxedo like... And maybe a lot of us feel this way. In fact, a new survey out this week from the University of Michigan says consumer complaints have reached record highs.
This is The Indicator from Planet Money, I'm Waylen Wong.

**Adrian Ma** (1:50)
And I'm Adrian Ma.
Today on the show, what's eating the American consumer? And what can we do about it?

**Wailin Wong** (2:03)
Why should we care about consumer rage? Well, besides raising our collective blood pressure, consumer spending is the engine of our economy. It's two thirds of GDP.

**Forrest Morgerson** (2:13)
If consumers get disappointed enough with what they're consuming, they can say, I'm just gonna stop buying.

**Adrian Ma** (2:21)
This is Forrest Morgerson, Research Director Emeritus at the University of Michigan's American Customer Satisfaction Index. It's a survey that's been tracking consumer happiness and disappointment for over three decades.

**Forrest Morgerson** (2:33)
We measure across about 45 different consumer industries the satisfaction of consumers who have actually purchased and consumed goods and services over the last X number of years.

**Wailin Wong** (2:45)
So they'll ask people, how satisfied are you with your streaming service, the car you bought, or the beer you drink? Their most recent report came out this week, and the headline for us says is that customer satisfaction has not only continued a two-year slide, but also customer complaints have reached record highs.

**Forrest Morgerson** (3:04)
These are customers that are actually contacting the companies with which they do business and saying, hey, you know, I've got a problem with the product or service you sold me, and there's some effort involved in that, right? So to see those at record highs is troubling.

**Adrian Ma** (3:18)
Consumer anger is bubbling right now. Is the problem the companies or the customer?

**Forrest Morgerson** (3:24)
And that's a great question, it can be a blend of both.

**Wailin Wong** (3:27)
Forrest says consumers today are definitely better informed than they used to be. For every new product, there are probably 1,000 YouTubers and TikTokers dissecting everything they love or hate about it. And this has probably raised consumer expectations over time.

**Adrian Ma** (3:42)
In the consumer rage study we mentioned earlier, 77% of people said they experienced a problem with a product or service in the past year.

**Wailin Wong** (3:49)
I want to talk to the other 23% and find out where they're shopping.

**Adrian Ma** (3:53)
For the rest of us, 77% is more than double the rate of consumers who reported problems in a similar survey 50 years ago.

**Wailin Wong** (4:01)
Scott Bretzman, the guy behind that study, and remember the guy who's really mad at the tuxedo rental place, says this doesn't necessarily mean consumers are more rage-prone or that products are generally worse than previous generations. Rather, it's a reflection of how our consumption habits have changed. Take technology.

**Scott Bretzman** (4:19)
Technologies, of course, are a big part of consumer problems. Often, not because the technology doesn't work, because people don't know how to use it, and they can't get help using it.

**Adrian Ma** (4:31)
Yeah, unlike in past decades, so many of our products today, from smartphones to cat feeders, they come with microchips and laser sensors and mind-reading capability. And when they break, they often can't be fixed with a wad of duct tape.