In light of what you are hearing from consumers, how would you describe the current social climate?
Aline Rosenbaum: “I’d like to give you a positive description, but to be honest, the first word that comes to mind is ‘anxiety’. We feel quite a lot of anxiety, stress, impatience, general frustration, and even sometimes aggressiveness. We can feel that behind all this is anguish in relation to everything that is being announced and what is happening at the moment. We try to calm things down a bit and talk to the people who contact us. We’re looking for solutions and try to put things into context.”
Are the ULC services more in demand?
A.R.: “In terms of the number of calls, we can’t say that there is a significant increase compared to previous years. It’s not a big revolution, but the change is rather in the nature of the calls and in the type of discussions that our advisers will have with the callers.”
What are the reasons for the calls?
A.R.: “The discussions are very much about price increases, rent increases, advances for energy bills, bank interest rates going up. But also about professionals who are revising their quotations or even their contracts upwards. This is new compared to recent years. It creates anxiety because it creates unpredictability for people.”
Do you think that more people are struggling today in Luxembourg?
A.R.: “From the fact that it is growing we can deduce that it affects a larger proportion of the population and therefore categories of people who would not have been concerned a few years ago.
In terms of housing, we have always been well aware in Luxembourg that there are major social inequalities. This was seen in cases such as those concerning rental leases. Even if we don’t have statistics, I feel that it is growing. And the STATEC reports confirm it, inequalities are increasing.”
What is the biggest concern of consumers?
A.R.: “The first one is the price of housing and renovation work in the sector in general. This issue represents almost 54% of the cases we deal with at the ULC. That is more than one person in two. Because this is what costs the most. Housing accounts for almost 2,500 of the 4,600 cases we handle each year.
We see those who are worried about acquiring a new home and those who are worried about increasing rents or accessing a rental, or even switching their home in the event of a change in living conditions, a divorce, or a change of job. These are many situations in which people are anxious because they cannot find housing. Or housing that is not suitable because it is almost unhealthy, but they cannot find a solution with the landlord and cannot move because it is too expensive!
There are people who remain in catastrophic situations, because financially they have no alternative. This is not new, but it is becoming more pronounced. What is new, on the other hand, are people who bought a project ... or started to build a new home and who give up their project because the price or loan conditions change along the way.”
What about other concerns?
A.R.: “The other concerns are divided into several different areas, such as cars, which represent 5% of the cases we handle. Throughout Covid, it was delivery times that doubled or tripled. It’s getting better, but it still happens. Then there are the repair times.
Then there are problems related to warranties in general, but also to telecommunication, i.e. everything that concerns telephone, internet, and television subscriptions. These are about 3.5% of the cases. People come because they want to change their operator, but don’t realise that they had a fixed term contract, because the internet speed is not what was advertised or because the TV doesn’t work or the mobile phone reception is not good, very practical things that affect their daily life.
We also get a lot of requests for information on insurance and its scope or compensation amounts.”
What about travel-related disputes?
A.R.: “Before Covid, we used to receive complaints that were often related to the quality of hotel services, but also to flight delays. When Covid arrived, it was a big disaster with all the travel cancellations! And all the problems with refunds. But, we are back to the ‘normal’ situation and we are now back to disputes about the quality of hotel services.”
