Liberal Democrat MP for Lewes, Norman Baker has backed the Liberal Democrat proposals which were approved at the recent party conference; he says they will help to give power back to the consumers.
The plans include a 'universal service code' for organisations which provide a service to the public.
This will commit them to, among other things, making one of the first options in a telephone response system to speak to a human being.
It will also require firms to make their customer service phone number free to call from both mobiles and landlines, train staff to deal quickly and effectively with customer enquiries and make and keep appointments for visits, installations and phone calls within a one-hour timeframe.
Other proposals include the immediate clearing of bank payments and fees, a duty on energy companies to publish information on all available tariffs on their bills, measures to prevent supermarkets building up local monopolies and a beefed-up consumer watchdog to name and shame companies involved in bad practice.
Norman Baker said, "I am pleased to back these proposals, which stand to help many of my constituents.
"In the past, I have received many complaints from people who feel that their relationships with companies and public bodies are skewed against them.
"When they have a problem or an enquiry about a service they have paid for, people deserve to be treated fairly, and it is reasonable that they should be able to talk to a person and not a machine.
"Customers must have the power to make fair and informed choices without the fear of being taken for a ride and bewildered by mindless bureaucracy."
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