Strife at low-cost airlines, terrible car hire firms, holiday accommodation scams and a UK train network in meltdown. From a consumer perspective, 2018 was very much the year to stay at home. The last 12 months saw no let-up in reader complaints, and our Consumer Champions receive about 600 emails a month, and more in the post. So which companies made headlines for the wrong reasons, and what, if anything, did we learn in 2018?

Airlines
EasyJet was our most complained-about airline last year – but only just. It was mostly called out by readers for failing to cough up EU delay compensation payments, even after being ordered to by the independent arbitrator. Ryanair’s previously good record on reliability took a big hit, due to its two strikes and other delays. But it was complaints about Norwegian that was the big difference in 2018. It may be cheap, but it reliability figures are terrible, particularly on its long-haul routes.

Car hire
Is the car industry careering out of control? We received so many complaints about it this year we could have easily filled the column every week with car hire problems alone. Two firms still stand out – Goldcar in Europe, and Green Motion in the UK. Green Motion’s behaviour this year led to it being banned by the biggest web agent, Car Trawler, which operates rentals for Holiday Autos and Ryanair. Although Green Motion has since been restored to its listings, and the management has pledged it is changing, complaints still come in.

Those hiring cars should examine the vehicle in detail, and get the form signed, before they leave the airport. Assume the hire firm will try to rip you off, and then be pleasantly surprised if it doesn’t happen.

Cars
Sticking with motoring, there has been a noticeable increase in complaints from car buyers this year – and one firm in particular, Volkswagen. Most letters have come from owners of three- and four-year old cars that have suffered a timing pulley/belt failure, a wrecked TSI petrol engine, and a bill for £5,000+ to fix it. The problem affects Skoda and Audi cars in the VW group. It is happening so often – just outside the three-year warranty – that there is a clear design fault. VW appears to be in denial, even where the car has a full service history. The Consumer Rights Act gives buyers rights against the supplying dealer for up to six years, but dealers palm it off to VW, which makes paltry offers.

This week we were contacted by a reader who was told the failed clutch on her 34,000-mile 2016 Passat would cost more than £2,000 to repair. An independent mechanic has told her the likely cause was a leak from the slave cylinder, which should clearly last more than two years at such a low milage, but VW refuses to intervene, bar a £105 payment from the dealer.

Insurance

Two bad cases of insurers trying to wriggle out of subsidence claims emerged this year – and if you are claiming because of this summer’s dry weather, get some professional help from the start because insurers are paying hardball.

We also saw more poor practice from the companies selling “peace of mind” products. British Gas was caught hincreasing the price of central heating HomeCare policies to the point that several readers have been asked to pay £850 or even £1,000 a year – crazily, far more than the cost of a new boiler. The AA, it emerged this year, similarly ups it prices for those who blindly renew each year – up to 124% in the second year. So check your renewal closely, and call up for last year’s price.

The AA and RAC were also attacked for terrible service following breakdowns. A policy of making recovery drivers take recovered vehicles only a limited distance then passing to another operator is leading to 14-hour trips on several tow trucks. Other readers complained of nine-hour waits for recovery trucks to arrive.

Parking
Given the travails of the high street, it is bizarre that so many retailers appear to be waging war on people who are prepared to get in their cars and visit them in person.

Aldi customers continue to complain of being hit by demands by its parking enforcer Parking Eye. One elderly couple who had spent £95 in the store but overstayed the arbitrary time limit by a few minutes found themselves hit with a £70 demand. Others taking items back found that the automated system had calculated that they had been on site the whole time – and issued a ticket accordingly. Co-op stores had a similar problems in its eastern England region.

Perhaps the most ridiculous parking story of the year came from a couple who parked in a retail park near Stansted airport, that was managed by MET Parking. They parked outside the Starbucks on the Southgate Park site and walked the 30 metres to the McDonald’s, and were sent a £60 demand for allegedly leaving the site. MET had “divided” the single carpark in two, and tracked their every move on CCTV to capture their transgression.

If you get a ticket, the advice is to take it up with the store that has hired the parking firm. Many of these tickets are unenforceable anyway – and there is a host of advice on the web on how to fight them.

The silliest company of the year?
It has to be Milk & More, the doorstep milk delivery firm which appears to have spent 2018 giving its customers a host of reasons to cancel their expensive milkman. We received a baffling number of complaints about its service.

The security firm ADT ran it pretty close, after it emerged it was charging customers exorbitant fees to change the batteries on its alarms. Readers vied to produce the most ludicrous ADT bill. In the end LN from Colchester’s £4,749 bill to replace three batteries took top spot.

Uber keeps sending readers mysterious £60 cleaning bills, and the advice is to snap the car’s interior every time you exit an Uber to show it wasn’t you that threw up – nice.

Travel
Airbnb featured fairly regularly in our letters – mostly following a fraudulent booking. Never make a bank transfer for an Airbnb booking, and, if you are asked to do so, you are being scammed.

Booking.com, which dominates the hotel bookings world, was repeatedly singled out for failing to honour its cancellation policy, although some of this will be down to its confusing website.

Make a screen grab if you’re making a cancellable reservation, or book with the hotel direct.

The dire performance of UK trains this year could make an article all its own, but GWR and Virgin deserve special mention as the companies that upset our readers most.

Phone and broadband
Complaints from this sector were slightly down on previous years, with BT and TalkTalk well represented. However, Virgin Media was our most complained-about firm, and customer service standards at this firm appear to have worsened significantly, judging by our readers’ experiences.

And finally, sorry if you wrote to us during the year and we were not able to take up your compliant. We do read all the letters we receive, but can only take on a fraction. Happy New Year!