All posts tagged: Consumer

BT Digital Voice switched off our vital phone line | Consumer affairs

BT Digital Voice switched off our vital phone line | Consumer affairs

Published by Sam Flores

My elderly aunt, who lives alone, has been unable to receive incoming calls for more than two months after BT switched her analogue service to Digital Voice. Her care is overseen by a rota of relatives who check on her and arrange medical appointments and in-home help. We are trying to keep her living independently, and it’s essential she can be reached by phone. She has missed her regular social meet-ups because no one could get through and, as a result, has not seen her friends for weeks. We have called BT more than 20 times, but it seems unable to resolve this. GG, London The saga began when it was noticed that your aunt was paying £97.50 a month for her phone line. When her nephew asked for her to be moved to a cheaper tariff, BT insisted she be switched to the Digital Voice internet-based service and turned up unannounced to install it. It then repeatedly warned that her new line was about to be cut off. BT managed to dispatch a technician …

I surrendered my driving licence after a spinal injury but the DVLA revoked it | Consumer affairs

I surrendered my driving licence after a spinal injury but the DVLA revoked it | Consumer affairs

Published by Sam Flores

I suffered a spinal cord injury in August 2024. I voluntarily surrendered my driving licence to the DVLA, only for it to revoke it instead. This makes it much, much harder to get it back later on. I’ve since been told that I need to take a medical driving assessment to get the licence back, but I am unable to take one because I do not have a licence. I am now on my third application, with evidence from my spinal consultant and an off-road driving assessment confirming that I can drive with hand controls. This was submitted two months ago, and the DVLA still can’t update me. CT, Colchester Long are the backlogs of reviews of medically revoked licences if my inbox is anything to go by. The DVLA blames “exceptionally high demand” from drivers with medical conditions that has affected processing times, and it says it is introducing a new system to address delays. After my contact, the DVLA belatedly sent you an application for a provisional disability assessment licence, which it should …

Why Is Consumer Sentiment At Record Lows?

Why Is Consumer Sentiment At Record Lows?

Published by Jenni Sidey

Authored by Charles Hugh Smith via substack, Consumer sentiment is at record lows because there is zero visibility on any real-world trends that would be positive for the bottom 90%. Vague promises of super-abundance are not visibility. Why is consumer sentiment at record lows while the stock market is at record highs? The media / social media are ablaze with coverage and commentary on this K-shaped economy, for example: The Stock Market Has Never Been So Good When People Have Felt So Bad: Stocks are partying like it’s 1999. Americans haven’t been this gloomy in 70 years. (wsj.com) While much commentary focuses on the rising cost of living (i.e. inflation) and the potential disruption of jobs by AI, these miss the larger dynamic of visibility, i.e. what is visible looking forward. If the horizon is clouded by uncertainty and unaffordability, then the core investments in the future–a family home and a family–are no longer in reach except for the lucky few inheriting wealth while they’re young. A high-paying job that isn’t secure is not a foundation, it’s a temporary raft in …

Americans can’t spot a deepfake, and that’s a business crisis, not just a consumer problem

Americans can’t spot a deepfake, and that’s a business crisis, not just a consumer problem

Published by skeptic

Presented by Veriff Americans can’t reliably distinguish real from AI-generated content, and that’s not just a media literacy problem; it’s a direct threat to how businesses verify identity online. New research finds that while many people are aware of deepfakes, their ability to distinguish them from reality is barely better than a coin flip. A 2026 survey conducted by Veriff and Kantar among 3,000 respondents in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Brazil shows Americans scoring just 0.07 on a scale where 0 represents random guessing. If people can’t distinguish authentic visual content, they can’t reliably distinguish authentic identities. In practice, that means the same users interacting with digital services are often unable to tell whether the person on the other side of a screen is real. That ineffectiveness has direct consequences for every digital business that relies on image- and video-based identity verification to confirm who is on the other side of a screen. That includes everything from customer bank onboarding and account recovery to marketplace seller verification, high-value ecommerce transactions, social platform …

Everlane, Shein, and the Limits of the Ethical Consumer

Everlane, Shein, and the Limits of the Ethical Consumer

Published by Daniella Wilson

A decade or so ago, pairing Everlane kick-crop jeans with the brand’s almond-toe Modern Loafer and a crewneck sweater was a quintessential Millennial city-girl uniform: minimalist, boring, and, most important, vaguely ethical. The San Francisco–based fashion start-up was founded in the early 2010s on the premise of “radical transparency.” It told consumers about the factory where their shirt was made and the cost to produce it, down to the labor and markup, which it said was a fraction of the markup of other retailers. It was a brand built on the belief that globalization could work for everyone, and that anybody could shop with their values. But now Everlane is in bad shape. It’s $90 million in debt, behind on rent, and facing eviction at its headquarters. This week, Puck reported that the company has found a buyer that seems antithetical to the values it once said it held: Shein, the online fast-fashion behemoth synonymous with overconsumption and workplace abuses such as child labor. Shein, in response to allegations of poor conditions over the years, …

Trump-Xi Summit Key for Both Geopolitics, Consumer Pricing | U.S. News Decision Points

Trump-Xi Summit Key for Both Geopolitics, Consumer Pricing | U.S. News Decision Points

Published by Sam Flores

President Donald Trump will sit down this week in Beijing with Chinese leader Xi Jinping for a summit overshadowed by the Iran war. Geopolitics aside, the meeting could have major ramifications for everyone from American farmers to shoppers for cars and phones. Trump, who postponed his trip from late March to reckon with the new Middle East conflict, predicted in mid-April that Xi would give him “a big, fat hug when I get there in a few weeks,” adding: “We are working together smartly, and very well!” There almost certainly will not be a literal hug. But Xi is expected to roll out all of the pomp and pageantry he can muster for what will be the first state visit by a U.S. president since Trump went to Beijing in November 2017 amid tensions over the two superpowers’ economic ties. Those tensions still define what is often called the most important bilateral relationship in the world. With U.S. midterm elections barely six months away, Trump will be under pressure to deliver cost-of-living wins. And Xi …

The FCC’s proposed plan to fight spam calls puts consumer privacy in jeopardy

The FCC’s proposed plan to fight spam calls puts consumer privacy in jeopardy

Published by skeptic

Sick and tired of having your day disrupted by robocalls? You’re not alone, and the FCC is taking notice. In press releases from the past month, the FCC said that preventing illegal spam calls has become its “top consumer protection priority,” while FCC chairman Brendan Carr vowed to “bring meaningful robocall relief to consumers.”  Unfortunately, their approach might be so broad, so badly focused, that it will create new privacy concerns, destroy so-called “burner” phones, and place an extra burden on consumers. Or in the words of Gizmodo’s Mike Pearl, “the FCC’s cure might be worse than the disease.” SEE ALSO: Braze Xbox test message spams phones: What we know One proposed change, known as the “Know Your Customer” rules, would require businesses to collect a government ID, a physical address, and the customer’s full legal name, instead of just their phone number, to initiate phone contact. This proposed change might serve to stop robocalls, but it would also effectively end the concept of consumer privacy. In the words of civil liberties advocates Reclaim the …

Mother Ventures is looking at moms as the ‘economic engine’

Mother Ventures is looking at moms as the ‘economic engine’

Published by skeptic

As families across the U.S. prepare to celebrate Mother’s Day this Sunday, Allison Stern is looking beyond the single day of appreciation. Stern just closed $10 million in commitments for her debut early-stage fund, Mother Ventures, which focuses exclusively on the mother as a consumer. “In the U.S., moms are responsible for 85% of household purchases and have $2.4 trillion in spending power,” Stern (pictured below) told TechCrunch. “The numbers say that moms are the buyers, and they really are a very unique economic engine.” Stern, a mother of two, is tapping into that spending clout by backing startups that reflect the needs of modern mothers. Since launching Mother Ventures two years ago, she has already deployed $4 million into 13 startups. Her portfolio includes Coral Care, which allows instant booking of pediatric specialists for children with developmental delays, and Tin Can, a popular Wi-Fi-enabled “landline” designed as a retro-style phone for kids. Before launching her own fund, she co-founded Tubular Labs, a social video analytics startup she helped grow to $25 million in annual recurring revenue …

Shake Shack Shares Crash Most On Record; McDonald’s CEO Warns Of Faltering Consumer

Shake Shack Shares Crash Most On Record; McDonald’s CEO Warns Of Faltering Consumer

Published by Jenni Sidey

Shake Shack shares crashed the most on record after the burger chain reported weaker-than-expected first-quarter revenue and adjusted EBITDA, with management blaming the miss on “significant weather impacts.” But the weather excuse may be masking a much larger problem: a weakening consumer increasingly pushing back against premium fast-casual pricing, with the average Shake Shack meal costing around $23. SHAK reported first-quarter results that missed Bloomberg Consensus estimates, with revenue and adjusted EBITDA coming in light as the burger chain faced margin pressure despite positive comparable sales. Here’s a snapshot of first-quarter results, courtesy of Bloomberg: Revenue: $366.7 million, estimate $372.5 million (Bloomberg Consensus) Shack sales: $354.0 million, estimate $358.7 million Licensing revenue: $12.7 million Adjusted EBITDA: $37.0 million, estimate $45.5 million Comparable sales: +4.6%, estimate +4.65% Traffic growth: 1.4% Restaurant-level operating margin: 21.2%, estimate 21.9% CEO Rob Lynch noted that soaring beef costs rose by a low-teens percentage, while unfavorable weather eroded profit. Underlying sales and traffic momentum remained solid in the quarter. Wall Street analysts were not thrilled with the earnings report. Shares crashed …

‘There is real danger’: landline phone users voice fears over digital switchover | Consumer affairs

‘There is real danger’: landline phone users voice fears over digital switchover | Consumer affairs

Published by Sam Flores

“Every time there is a power failure I lose all means of communication with the outside world,” says Robert Dewar of life in a remote village in the Scottish Highlands since the landlines were transferred from the old copper cable network to broadband connections. Blackouts also knock out the village’s mobile phone signal. “Our most recent power cut lasted for 42 hours,” Dewar says. The interruption outlasted his five-hour emergency backup battery. “If I had had a heart attack there is damn all I could have done about it, except compose myself, say my prayers, and await the outcome.” Dewar was among the more than 100 readers who contacted us with their experiences as the old infrastructure – the public switched telephone network (PSTN) – used to make calls is replaced with digital lines. It is one of the biggest tech upgrades since the analogue television signal was switched off more than a decade ago, a change that forced Britons to convert their TVs or buy a new digital set. This time copper phone cables …