Participants the Consumers Council of Canada’s Public Interest Network (PIN) indicate they have low confidence in governments’ ability to provide consumer protection and redress in disputes, and prefer independent dispute resolution.

The Council sends questionnaires to its PIN participants. The most recent publication, The Consumer Right to Redress, covers the results of a questionnaire completed earlier this year that focused on the ability to recover costs in disputed or frustrated transactions.

Respondents consistently responded that they preferred independent dispute resolution to resolution from industry groups or the government, and consistently gave a low rating to small claims courts as a source of consumer redress. Redress can be provided by many different sources – vendors, governments, industry arbiters, courts, payment networks, online marketplaces.

Participants were also asked to cite the source of their best redress experience. Other questions focused on consumer experiences with smaller sellers compared to larger sellers, and the effectiveness of online consumer ratings as a form of redress.

The PIN is a national network of thoughtful, knowledgeable Canadian consumers and is free for Canadian residents to join. The Council consults the PIN about important public and consumer policy issues being considered by government, corporations and consumer organizations.

Both the most recent report and earlier reports that summarized other PIN participant questionnaires are available on the Council’s online store.