Test results for Trading Standards - complain about a dodgy item from a shop
Here is the table of test results for this task. The score on each row is out of a possible total of 20, and the importance column is a rating of 1-5 according to how important testers considered being able to complete this task was.
Filter within results: or click headings to sort.
Council | Navigation | A-Z | Site search | Score | Tests | Importance | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Argyll and Bute Council | Untested | Very easy | Very easy | Very easy | 5 | 3 | |
Birmingham City Council | Very easy | Very easy | Very easy | Easy | 18 | 5 | |
Birmingham City Council | Gave up | Very easy | Very easy | Very easy | -3 | 3 | |
Blackpool Council | Easy | Very easy | Very easy | Very easy | 13 | 3 | |
Bournemouth Borough Council | Gave up | Difficult | Very easy | Very easy | -2 | 3 | |
Bracknell Forest Council | Difficult | Difficult | Difficult | Difficult | 4 | 3 | |
Brent Council | Easy | Gave up | Very easy | Difficult | 1 | 3 | |
Cheshire East Council | Very easy | Very easy | Very easy | Very easy | 20 | 3 | |
Clackmannanshire Council | Very easy | Very easy | Very easy | Very easy | 10 | 3 | |
Copeland Borough Council | Gave up | Very easy | Very easy | Gave up | -1 | 5 | |
Coventry City Council | Easy | Difficult | Difficult | Difficult | 6 | 3 | |
Coventry City Council | Gave up | Gave up | Gave up | Gave up | -12 | 3 | |
Coventry City Council | Easy | Very easy | Very easy | Easy | 11 | 1 | |
Doncaster Council | Untested | ||||||
Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council | Gave up | Very easy | Difficult | Gave up | -5 | 3 | |
Great Yarmouth Borough Council | Gave up | Gave up | Very easy | Gave up | -4 | 3 | |
Great Yarmouth Borough Council | Very easy | Very easy | Very easy | Very easy | 15 | 3 | |
Leeds City Council | Gave up | Gave up | Difficult | Gave up | -8 | 5 | |
Leicester City Council | Gave up | Easy | Very easy | Easy | 3 | 3 | |
Leicestershire County Council | Easy | Very easy | Very easy | Easy | 16 | 3 | |
Liverpool City Council | Very easy | Very easy | Very easy | Very easy | 20 | 3 | |
Liverpool City Council | Very easy | Very easy | Very easy | Very easy | 20 | 3 | |
London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham | Very easy | Very easy | Very easy | Very easy | 5 | 3 | |
London Borough of Lewisham | Very easy | Very easy | Easy | Easy | 16 | 5 | |
London Borough of Sutton | Difficult | Easy | Very easy | Very easy | 14 | 3 | |
Manchester City Council | Difficult | Very easy | Easy | Very easy | 9 | 3 | |
Newcastle City Council | Gave up | Gave up | Gave up | Gave up | -12 | 3 | |
Plymouth City Council | Difficult | Very easy | Very easy | Easy | 9 | 3 | |
South Tyneside Council | Very easy | Very easy | Very easy | Easy | 13 | 1 | |
Wandsworth Council | Difficult | Easy | Very easy | Very easy | 4 | 3 | |
Wokingham Borough Council | Difficult | Very easy | Very easy | Gave up | -2 | 3 |
Specific comments made about this task
Birmingham City Council - 2013-12-18
Should it be more explicit on the page that the Citizens' Advice Bureau is the first point of contact for trading standards complaints?
Birmingham City Council - 2016-07-18
One page seemed to be telling me to phone up Citizens' Advice, and another page was a long list of FAQs in a random order
Blackpool Council - 2014-02-17
The navigation task (http://www.blackpool.gov.uk/Home.aspx- menu: our services- residents- advice and support- consumer advice) went to a different page from finding myself here: http://www.blackpool.gov.uk/Business/Business-support-and-advice/Trading-standards.aspx
That TS page did not link to a customer form but only a business form- but both would be relevant
http://www.blackpool.gov.uk/Residents/Advice-and-support/Forms/Consumer-advice-request-form.aspx
Bournemouth Borough Council - 2014-04-22
This doesn't seem to be something I could do online (which would be useful)
Results for 'T' in the A-Z list are split over lots of pages which takes more time to scan through to find the one you need
Bracknell Forest Council - 2014-03-20
Page refers you to the citizens advice website.
There is an online form for consumer complaints, but its not very well sign-posted.
Brent Council - 2014-07-09
Directed to another website
Clackmannanshire Council - 2016-10-05
Linked to external page (Stirling Council)
Copeland Borough Council - 2014-02-12
Only found the signpost to Cumbria County Council via external Google search
Coventry City Council - 2014-02-05
This task was so difficult that i ended up giving up trying to find it. There should be another option in the 'Comments, Compliments and Complaints' section about the person entering their own complaint in. Each way I tried to search, I gave up as I couldn't find anything to do with this. :(
Doncaster Council - 2014-06-18
links straight to advice.org.uk home page, not a link to their email/contacts page so had to navigate through their pages to find contacts.
Great Yarmouth Borough Council - 2014-09-04
no information regarding trading standards perhaps we need a link to ncc site who deal with trading standards complaints google search very good.
Leeds City Council - 2013-12-13
As a resident, if I want to make a complaint about a trader I think I should be able to find the place to do it under Residents rather than under Business. But I couldn't find it under Business anyway.
External search takes me to a third party website which I'm unsure of how much confidence I have.
As a general point, internal search loses one's search query on the results page, making it difficult for users to modify their query in order to fine tune results.
Leicester City Council - 2014-02-04
You prob helped too much here - I might not have thought of looking for trading standards for this task if you hadn't told me - so not really a realistic test
Manchester City Council - 2014-02-13
I knew to navigate via Business and investment anyway, but arriving on the Business and investment main page made it look very much like a section for businesses rather than for consumers; clicking further through the navigation did seem to involve more clicks than it should have done. Google search was potentially compromised by the potential confusion with the tradingstandards.gov.uk site appearing at the top.
South Tyneside Council - 2014-07-31
Going straight to the trading standards page you can find the complaint form very easily. You can't seem to hit the form straight from Google and the internal search delivers a bit of a misleading 'make complaint' top result that's actually for a nuisance complaint.
Wandsworth Council - 2014-04-25
Went to business, "Citizens Advice Bureau" which took me to CAB Trading standards page. Should link to the "Reporting a problem to Trading Standards" page, rather than the landing page above it.
http://www.adviceguide.org.uk/england/consumer_e/consumer_protection_for_the_consumer_e/protection_trading_standards_e/reporting_a_problem_to_trading_standards.htm
I am wondering if I can report stuff to the Trading standards office in the Council.
Not sure where it should sit in the navigation. None of them fit well. Rather than Business, should it be Community, as it is for the consumer not the business. We can add a related link back...
In the A-Z, there is a form to "Report trading standards problems" - think it goes to CAB.. not sure. Form needs to say what it does and where it goes and how it gets actioned.
Found a link to a relevant page from here. Link text should change to be more action focused. There are different links to different (external) forms on this page.
Wokingham Borough Council - 2014-10-28
I found information via the trading standards link regarding Buying Advice, Request an anti doorstep seller sticker, Advice for businesses and useful websites but not how to make a complaint about a faulty item