Americans are reporting growing frustration with airlines, telecommunications companies, retailers and other large businesses as industry consolidation limits alternatives and weakens the consequences for poor customer service.
The Guardian examined complaints from customers who encountered high change fees, long waits, repeated transfers and difficulty canceling services. In one case, an economic historian changed her travel plans and took a nighttime cross-border bus rather than pay an airline $1,200 to alter a ticket. Delta said its dynamic fares follow objective pricing rules.
Complaints about goods and services rose 16% in the first quarter of 2026, according to the American Customer Satisfaction Index. Its founder, Claes Fornell, has noted that customer retention can rise even as satisfaction falls because people believe competitors will treat them no better or because no practical alternative is available.
At the same time, after-tax U.S. corporate profits reached a seasonally adjusted annual rate of about $3.9 trillion in the first quarter of 2026, the Guardian reported. Corporate profits hit 15.8% of gross domestic product in the fourth quarter of 2025, while employee compensation accounted for less than 10%.
Economists say consolidation once helped lower the relative price of many manufactured goods by creating efficiencies and national distribution networks. Those gains slowed as dominant companies gained control of infrastructure that new competitors need. Four airlines now control nearly 70% of the domestic market, and food and telecommunications markets also have become concentrated.
Consumer advocates are pursuing local broadband systems, stronger rules on junk fees, limits on surveillance pricing and renewed antitrust enforcement. Forty bills in 24 states addressed surveillance pricing during 2026, according to the report. The policy question is whether competition and disclosure rules can restore enough choice for dissatisfied customers to leave.
Sources: The Guardian, the American Customer Satisfaction Index and federal economic data. Published June 24, 2026.
