The research from the Groundwork Collaborative think tank focuses on what it calls “a torrent of small abuses heaped on consumers by bad actors and indifferent corporations.” According to the study, a major function of the annoyance economy is to make it harder for consumers to do anything that’s against a company’s financial interest. Chad Maisel, study co-author, explains, “It’s all the ways that people experience friction in their everyday life.”
The study points out that as a rule, companies make it very easy to give them your money, but getting it back can be a challenge. We’re losing more of our time now, too. It turns out, over the last two decades, the amount of time people spend on the phone with customer service agents has gone up 60%.
It all adds up and the research shows the annoyance economy costs American consumers $166-billion a year in lost time and money. That breaks down to:
- Junk fees - $90 billion a year
- Phone scams - $25.4 billion a year
- Calls with health insurance administrators - $21.6 billion a year
- Waiting for medical services - $19.4 billion a year
- Robocalls - $8 billion a year
- Waiting for government services - $1.6 billion a year
Source: USA Today
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