There is always a whiff of Groundhog Day about the annual report from the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC) highlighting the companies most frequently mentioned by callers to its helplines.
This year’s top 10 featured: Ryanair, Rathwood, Currys, Sky, Eir, Harvey Norman, Aer Lingus, Lidl, Virgin Media and Vodafone.
Last year’s top 10 featured: Ticketmaster, Eir, Ryanair, Sky, Harvey Norman, Vodafone, Currys, Aer Lingus, Virgin Media and Lidl.
And in 2024, the companies most complained about were Eir, Ryanair, Currys, Vodafone, Harvey Norman … you get the picture.
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You’d be forgiven for thinking that the usual suspects who feature in the top 10 every single year might be just a little embarrassed and try to improve their customer service.
They never do.
Just as the same nine companies seem to appear on the list every year, there always seems to be one outlier, a business that comes from nowhere to feature at the top or close to the top of the charts before disappearing again.
In 2025, that company was Ticketmaster. It attracted the most complaints because of the whole dynamic ticket pricing business surrounding the Oasis reunion. That debacle left tens of thousands of fans of the band feeling mad as hell after standing ticket prices jumped from a hefty €100 or so to a wildly excessive €450 or so as a result of a pricing model that actively acts against the best interest of fans.
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But with dynamic ticket prices confined to the dustbin of history – at least for now – there was no room for Ticketmaster this year.
Its outlier position was taken by Rathwood, the home and garden retailer based in Carlow.
Despite its relatively small size when compared to the other players on the list, it managed to finish in second place largely as a result of its inability to properly manage the orders of many hundreds of customers, badly let down after buying garden furniture or firewood on its website that either never showed up or only arrived after unacceptably long delays.
The challenge for Rathwood now is to ensure it is more like Ticketmaster and less like Ryanair or Eir, insofar as its appearance on the list is a one-time only thing.
Clearly, Rathwood’s reputation has taken a hit as a result of this week’s news, which comes just days after it reached a legally binding commitment with the CCPC to issue refunds to customers it let down.
It remains to be seen if it is willing or able to do what it takes to ensure it doesn’t appear on next year’s list.
It would be nice to think the nine regulars on the CCPC list might up their game and disappear from the top 10, too. They certainly have the financial means to improve their customer care, but it looks like they simply couldn’t be bothered.
