The Complaining Process in Norway: Five Steps to Justice

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to describe and discuss the complaining process in Norway. If it is necessary, and worth while, complaints can go through a process of five steps, including: dissatisfaction, complain to seller, verbal advice at local consumer offices, and written complaint to the Consumer Council and Consumer Disputes Committee. Both complainers and complaints are followed through this process, and five Norwegian studies are compared with results reported in international studies. The main pattern is very much the same in Norway as in the rest of Western Europe and North America. As we move upwards in the complaining process, expensive goods and services increase their part of complaints, and the social background of complainers is changing, maybe not as much as one could expect. This study shows that the first step is crucial for consumers' participation in the Norwegian complaining process.