From the best and worst companies to Why to get treated fairly - ask our consumer champion anything – live

A report from The Guardian — Business focuses on “From the best and worst companies to Why to get treated fairly - ask our consumer champion anything – live” and sets out the main development contained in the supplied source material.

The available account reports that in her weekly column for the Guardian, Anna Tims solves readers consumer problems – ranging from the devastating to the ridiculous . The report also notes that She’s online now to answer your questions and share her wisdom Sign in or sign up to post your question estparva asks : Has the time come for a radical overhaul of consumer protection law and enforcement that puts the consumer in the driving seat? With easy low cost access to redress. Warning! It might make you redundant. Anna: All these things already exist. The Consumer Rights Act 2015 combined various laws from various eras into a single framework which strengthens consumer protection. Regulators such as Ofgem and the CMA, are supposed to monitor customer service in their sector and enforce the law, council trading standards departments were set up to protect consumers from dodgy operators, ombudsman and dispute resolution schemes can step in when a customer can’t get a complaint resolved and county court offer an inexpensive legal route to redress. The problem is funding and staffing. All these bodies are overstretched and, in some cases, underactive, but that’s not to say that they have contributed to important reforms along the way. Anna: That’s an interesting question. When I started writing consumer columns, I was fighting the good fight over faulty kettles or disappointing holidays. Over the last few years, it’s felt sometimes more like social work. It’s hard to maintain professional detachment when a nonagenarian is suffering in a decaying council flat or an energy company

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