Why are US consumers so angry? It's not just high prices

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

American consumers are angry. Nearly 80% of Americans had a service or product problem in 2025, and about two-thirds of those felt "rage" about it, according to the "National Consumer Rage" survey.

Many consumers feel they are constantly fighting against an onslaught of overcharges, customer service hassles, shoddy products and billing mistakes that always seem to go in the company's favor. All of this comes against a background of soaring prices and rising inflation.

There's a stew of factors at work behind the rise in consumer rage: company consolidation, regulatory rollbacks, years of court decisions that limit consumer power, tech-enabled cost cuts, private equity takeovers, Covid-era business model changes, a moribund media and the rise of AI customer service, to name a few. But there is hope, too.

-snip-

The annoyance economy

Lisa, a 60-year-old marketing executive who lives in Washington DC, recently battled three big corporations over just two days. She didn't want to give her last name for fear of retaliation from the companies involved.

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https://www.yahoo.com/news/us/articles/why-us-consumers-angry-not-110005497.html

[Cheezoholic]

1. Flagrant price gouging is a big one. People are starting to understand what its like when so few own so much

Seriously, watch the uber wealthy worldwide start to run to islands and other countries over the next 5 years . The guillotines are being sharpened everywhere. We're always the slow kids in the world class but it's starting even here.

[Jack Valentino]

19. I regularly fantasize about the methods of the French Revolution being applied here in America today--

starting at the top, of course, and working its way through the
selfish members of the billionaire class... particularly those who
use their money to support right-wing politicians, and to suppress the working class!


Yes, that's a slippery slope, and I wouldn't want it to continue "too far"---

but I also fantasize about a mob of people armed with axes, pitchforks, and possibly even firearms,
eventually storming the White House like it was the Bastille, in such strength that
the White House Secret Service detail would be utterly incapable of dealing with it!...

and sometimes wonder why it hasn't happened yet

[Cheezoholic]

25. Lol, yes I use the metaphor loosely. The French Revolution didn't exactly end well for the French people ;) n/t

[Ritabert]

30. Actually it eventually did end well for the French people.

It had to go through tumultuous times but unseating a monarchy that existed for hundreds of years takes some work. To quote the late Rumsfeld trying to justify the unnecessary Iraq war: "Democracy is messy".

[Hey Joe]

31. Recently bought a new t-shirt that has a cartoon

Guillotine saying “ Feed me billionaires “.
I’ll be wearing it regularly.

[BlueTsunami2018]

2. Yeah, that's called capitalism.

Extracting every last penny you can from the working class and placing it all into the pockets of the owning class is called capitalism. Otherwise known as “freedom.”

You notice whenever these thugs and thieves oppose literally anything that will help people, they call it socialism. They never say “I’m against socialism, I’m for capitalism!” They say “I’m against socialism, I’m for FREEDOM!” Which, of course, makes capitalism synonymous with freedom.

Which, of course, it’s not.

So people are mad and rightly so but they’re conditioned not to be mad at thing that’s causing all the problems. Because that would be anger at freedom.

And freedom can’t possibly be the problem.

[Crowman2009]

3. No to mention the incorporation of A.I. into customer service.

Maybe this will be the end of rampant consumerism. I don't give a fuck if a lot of the companies making these shoddy products & services go out of business.

[SergeStorms]

4. When you call customer service....

and you're connected to someone in Bangalore, India, it sorta makes you feel like they don't really give a shit. Surprise! They don't.

[DBoon]

5. I'd rather talk to Bangalore than to an AI bot

[DinahMoeHum]

8. and that's not saying much

[slightlv]

12. Not to mention, both are hard to understand!

[Takket]

27. You mean "Jessica"? Yeah, I've talked to her too

[Midnight Writer]

6. Nothing works the way it is supposed to anymore. Nothing.

Not our government, not our healthcare, not our consumer goods, not our churches.

Everything has been bought up, stripped of useful parts, and sold back to us: inferior products at a much higher price.

Customer service is dead. Responsible corporations are scarcer than hen's teeth. Moral leaders are immoral. Scoundrels are seeking government positions so they can loot and bully instead of serving. Terrible people are getting ahead while good people are getting pissed on. Propaganda and outright lies are the rules rather than the exception. Folks seem to be getting ruder, cruder, and more ignorant. Thousands of people at a time are losing their jobs and their health insurance and finding out about it in an e-mail.

The middle class is being murdered. The American Dream of working hard and achieving financial security is dead. Home ownership, farm ownership, small business ownership is out of range of average folks and getting worse as oligarchs buy all the property and all the laws. Corruption and greed and hate are now being sold to us and labeled as religion. Expertise and education and experience are now considered "bad".

All these things are trending the wrong way, at a faster and faster pace. We will have a bunch or trillionaires within a couple of years. If you think billionaires are eating this country, wait until the Age of the Trillionaires.

I am almost thankful that my time on Earth is about to expire. I don't want to see the rest of this movie.

[slightlv]

13. I could not have written this better myself!

But your eloquence expresses everything I'm feeling and experiencing. Like you, there are days I'm almost thankful I'm not much longer for this earth.

[Initech]

7. Because people keep voting for fascist conservatives who don't give a shit about us?

The republican party has done literally NOTHING to improve our lives or the quality of living in the US. And in fact, they're actually making it worse. Especially with president fuck head in charge. And yet people keep voting for these clowns. It's the classic definition of insanity.

[LisaM]

9. Online shopping has to be a contributor.

I largely avoid it. But it's harder and harder to shop in actual stores, where you can see the quality of what you're buying and also engage with customer service face to face.

[BeneteauBum]

10. It's dealing with insurance that drives me nuts

Peace ☮️

[Raven123]

11. Didn't see a lot of hope in the article.

[Aussie105]

14. Anger over blatant company greed over developing or maintaining a reputation for service is on the rise.

Government agencies and health service insurance providers in the US come to mind.

On a personal level, tradies rorting customers worse than normal here in Australia come to mind.

A plumber who doesn't fix the problem because the real problem is further down the line but still charged $750, the electrician called out to see why an AC unit no longer works and doesn't look at it but recommends a wiring and fuse box overhaul for $6K instead.
(His mate comes out, does the fuse box job a bit cheaper with no effect, AC still not working, replaced that and all good.)

As for bricks and mortar stores - most now also have an online presence, doing drop shipping from China.
With a markup of course.

[johnnyfins]

15. Seriously? America is a GIANT ripoff now.

It used to be a smaller ripoff, but now EVERYTHING is a ripoff.

[mgardener]

16. I purchased a Hart product

A garden sprayer. Battery powered
Worked fine for 2 years.
Did not work this year.
I called the company.
There is no technical support line.
Nearest repair center not only is 75 + miles away, it is in Montreal, Canada.
I would have to shlep this thing across the border to be fixed.

I get why people are mad.
There is no way for me to have known, before I bought this, that it is essentially not repairable if it breaks.
Even under warranty.

[JoseBalow]

17. I'm sick and tired of getting nickel and dimed

[samplegirl]

18. Prices keep climbing and products

keep getting cheaper and cheaper.
Everything breaks!

[Farmer-Rick]

20. And these foreign corporations buying out our local businesses

We use to buy our propane from a local company. It sold to a larger company, that sold it to a foreign company that ended up in Switzerland.

So one day my spouse and I smelled a gas leak. We pay rent on our buried 330 gallon propane tank and they are supposed to keep it maintained.

So we call the local store and they say they don't handle our business anymore. And we had to call the fire department. We called the fire department and they said they had no equipment to locate a gas leak and to call the corporation.

So we searched for hours and found the corporation in Switzerland that owned and filled our tank. We called the CEO's office....it was dark and after 5 pm here, I think it was in the afternoon there in Switzerland.

After talking to several people, we finally found someone who spoke decent English and told them our problem. They said there was nothing they could do.

We said fine but if our house blows up we would hold them accountable and bring a law suit against the corporation.

Don't you know, 30 minutes later there was a man claiming to work for the propane corporation knocking at our door. He had equipment to hunt down a gas leak. (Turns out it wasn't a propane leak but a septic system problem.)

But if we had not been so determined, it could have led to some serious issues. The fact that a foreign company did not provide emergency services here where their customers are and just expected the customer to pay but not get support from them is typically the result of mergers, sell offs and foreign "investment".

[johnnyfins]

21. The United States of RIPOFFFFFFFFFFFF

[moondust]

22. Is QA still a thing?

[F-18_AMO]

24. Former QA Officer

I would say no, not in the Demming or Drucker sense. It’s as if companies are following the pharmaceutical company methodology. Put out a drug, make money even if the side effects cause harm and later settle for a fraction of the profits that were made. It seems that most people just don’t care. IMHO.

[F-18_AMO]

23. EV Purchase (short version of a long story)

We bought an EV (not Tesla) in September of last year with that seating and features we wanted.

Within two weeks we were having issues with the driver’s seat. It would reset, the switches didn’t work and it couldn't be adjusted. We took it in and the local dealer service said it was fixed. It wasn’t so we took it back. The seat had the wrong harness installed. I went out one morning and the car was unlocked with the passenger seat in the full recline relax position. I contacted corporate and they told me to drop it off at the dealership. We don’t trust this car. That was Nov 13.

The corporate inspector did not look at it until Jan 27th. We opted for a replacement vehicle. Corporate said three months to locate a vehicle from a dealer willing to transfer VINs. I provided them with 4 vehicles within 150 miles that matched ours. We were told that the vehicle was secured and to wait for the call for the swap. This morning I received an email saying the car had been sold and corporate would keep me updated.

It is June 4th. Rules are written by corporations. A “lemon law” attorney said there was not much he can do unless corporate refuses to help. They are pretending to help. By the time we get this resolved, the ‘27 models will be out. Frustrated.

[OC375]

26. Easy times make soft men.

Soft men make hard times.
Hard times make tough men.
Tough men make easy times.
Easy times make…

The cycle continues…

[Freddie]

28. Shrinkflation and enshittification

The store brand orange juice I always buy is now 46 oz not 52 (same price of course). So much this. And the product you always loved and trusted is somehow different. Cheaper ingredients. Infuriating if you like to cook or bake and find that one of your ingredients no longer works because some bean-counter changed it to save fractions of a penny.

[Raftergirl]

29. When I call customer service and get the run around, I ask to speak to the supervisor. When, on occasion, that

supervisor gives me the run around, I ask to speak to their supervisor. I don’t stop asking to speak to the supervisors, supervisors, supervisor, etc., until I get the result I want. I tell them I will hold on as I have all the time in the world to wait to speak to the next person up the chain. When they tell me they don’t have a supervisor, I call bullshit, as everyone has a supervisor. A few times I have gotten all the way to the CEO’s office (Verison and United Airlines are two I remember well.) I always end up getting the remedy I want.

I have been doing this for decades.

[Initech]

32. Isn't living in a deregulated capitalist society so great?

Deregulated capitalism: Because fuck you, our quarterly profits and shareholder value are more important than your well being!