State of UK Complaints
Cross-industry findings from the census: 729,822 public Trustpilot reviews analysed across 3,252 companies.
Across 215,171 negative reviews that record both dates, the median gap between the experience and the review being published is 2.0 days — how long people typically wait, or keep trying, before complaining publicly.
What goes wrong most, everywhere
| Issue | Complaints classified |
|---|---|
| Support unhelpful | 36,338 |
| Support unreachable | 20,826 |
| Other | 16,438 |
| Faulty product | 13,284 |
| Account/app problems | 12,933 |
| Delivery failed | 11,056 |
| Misleading pricing | 10,417 |
| Delivery late | 10,360 |
| Not as described | 10,282 |
| Overcharging | 10,082 |
Complaint rate by sector (UK)
UK companies only — the US report is here.
| Sector | Complaint rate (recent windows) | Companies ranked |
|---|---|---|
| Telecoms & IT | 21% | 49 |
| Other sectors | 14% | 186 |
| Retail | 13% | 124 |
| Travel | 10% | 83 |
| Banking & Money | 7% | 110 |
| Energy & Utilities | 7% | 64 |
| Insurance | 6% | 69 |
Reply theater: who answers complaints with templates
Companies whose replies to negative reviews our automated reader most often classified as canned (generic template) rather than substantive. Minimum 20 classified replies.
| Company | Replies analysed | Canned | Substantive |
|---|---|---|---|
| Check Into Cash | 24 | 100% | 0% |
| American Express Global Business Travel | 52 | 100% | 0% |
| PaysafeCard | 241 | 99% | 0% |
| Strong Home Mortgage, LLC | 158 | 99% | 1% |
| Oakbrook Loans | 56 | 98% | 2% |
| Jet2holidays | 1268 | 98% | 2% |
| SATURN | 50 | 98% | 2% |
| Tesco Mobile UK | 1107 | 97% | 1% |
| US Birth Certificates & Vital Records | 429 | 97% | 1% |
| Expedia | 539 | 96% | 4% |
| Acceptance Insurance | 21 | 95% | 5% |
| ACE Money Transfer | 802 | 95% | 3% |
| Vital Forms Direct | Vital Records Services | 688 | 93% | 2% |
| Pol-Plan Ubezpieczenia | 41 | 93% | 7% |
| MedicareAdvantage.com | 78 | 92% | 5% |
Among all companies with at least 20 classified replies — the same population this table draws its top 15 from — those Trustpilot marks as using AI-assisted replies average a 50.5% canned-reply share (n=269); those it doesn’t average 37.1% (n=412). This is a correlation, not proof that AI replying causes more canned answers — companies already prone to templated replies may also be the ones adopting AI-assisted tools. Replying with AI assistance is not wrongdoing on its own.
Do company promises get kept?
We track 56,647 specific promises made in company replies, but only 180 of those reviewers have edited their rating since 2026-08-23 (when we began recording original ratings, so earlier edits can't be measured) — too few to report a follow-through rate. This fills in as the census re-harvests companies over time.
Dated snapshots: 2026-W39 · 2026-W38 · 2026-W37 · 2026-W36 · 2026-W35
All figures are computed from census-classified public reviews; they are not official complaint statistics. Complaint rates use unbiased recent review windows only.