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A clear case of this new behaviour is seen in the flood of complaints that Vodafone Spain received when its mobile phone system crashed and services were interrupted. Immediately, thousands of customers filed complaints to demand compensation.

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Problems encountered by co-operatives buying homes also came to the attention of many Spaniards, thanks to consumer rights groups. The most important and efficient in processing complaints include the Confederation of Consumers and Users, which last year fielded 224,791 queries. The largest single group had to do with real estate - 17.6 percent - followed by banking and telephone companies.

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In the housing sector many of the complaints have to do with defective construction: errors in plumbing and electrical installation, poor quality paint, doors or windows with defects, poorly installed floors or pavement and emergence of cracks or moisture.

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Banking complaints centre on abusive charges, commissions, errors in billing and unwanted advertising by financial institutions, among other problems.

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With regard to telephone companies - the Vodaphone crisis aside - Spaniards get very upset by charges that do not correspond to their bill, problems logging on to the Internet, dismal functioning of customer service lines, which users see as a mere commercial extension of the company. Last year the Confederation received 15,004 complaints from users unhappy with their telephone company, a rise of 2% over 2001. Others sources of gripes are billing errors, a lack of accuracy in promotional campaigns, which sometimes turn out to be misleading.

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In other sectors the Confederation said there are many queries and complaints about private education academies such as language schools-33,721 calls when in the past the number was much lower. Other areas with lots of unhappy customers are travel agencies. Public transport, electrical appliances, dry cleaner's, rental properties, hotels and restaurants.

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At the beginning of the year, Spain's main consumer organisations agreed to join forces and lash out against increases in basic services that took effect on Jan 1. These groups feel that the government has asked businesses to show moderation in its prices and salaries, while users have a harder time making ends meet, in large part because of rises in sectors where the government still has a say over prices, such as electricity, telephones and transport.

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