Maybe we need a website like this to air our grievances in Spain

www.rip-off.co.uk

Not for me.

If I have a complaint I try to make it to the relevant authority. That way it might be rectified.

If I post it on a web site or write about in a newspaper, all I do is discourage people from coming to Spain and in the long term, that might mean I have discouraged the person who might buy my apartment, if I ever wanted to sell up.

(Not that I ever will)

That´s not a bad idea, if we had something like that there may have been a warning about bogus gas men for example for people to read about.

Strange as some in the UK think the opposite
http://www.bikersoracle.com/vfr/foru...d.php?t=106176

Yes ,but the UK site may encourage brits to come here

I think it's a great idea ! There's a lot of thing's in Spain that are overpriced, car part's for example.

Nothing wrong with a more savvy consumer, it might encourage a bit more competition in the market place, leading to better deals.

The British tradesmen are the most overpriced here!

Jo xxx

Quite often its the Brits ripping off the Brits

The idea is OK but who will read it? Those who can or would change the problem complained of ? I think not.

Rather like writing to the English press in Spain to complain, or complaining here. The only ones who will read it are other English speakers not the people who could change things.

Example, Someone complains about the town hall in the English press. The town hall don't read it, so all that has happened is that other 'ordinary' people have read that complaint and may have a worse, maybe an unfounded, idea about Spain

Alternatively, an official complaint to the town hall may reach someone with the power or incentive to correct the problem.

I have made only a couple of complaints on the `hojas de reclamación ' both were resolved very quickly. Had I written to papers or here nothing could have happened.

(I hope I have not infringed any rules by saying this)

Utter tosh!
Alternative example: You have a problem in your area, you complain to your town hall and they tell you there´s nothing you can do about it. Now you read in a newspaper or on a website (Britishexpats for example) about someone else having eactly the same problem. Now you find you are not the unique person with this problem and you are not alone. Now you make contact with the paper/website and find that so have 50 other people. You are no longer alone, you are now a group, you now have 50 people who start to write about this and domeone who reads it just happens to have a solution about it.
Isn´t this exactly the sort of reason why websites like Britishexpats excist?

OK I accept your opinion.

MY Spainish CV:
I have lived in Spain over 20 years, have pretty good Spanish, have been a volunteer with the police (National and Guardia) for 15 years and assisted a couple of town halls at their Admin level and their foreign residents depts.

In my experience, writing to the foreign language media does not seem to have any effect.

On the couple of occasions I have made out, or even asked for, the complaints form, the problem has been resolved. Maybe I was just lucky.

But, as I said, its only my experience. I am not being antagonistic or sarcastic.

There are plenty of examples of rip off Spain in all the forums. Spanish don't read them (well, not many) best to see if there is a spanish equivalent.

I agree with joncar61 and jacktoo on this one

Anything written in English and in the English media will be ignored.

In any system you can only change it from within and this means understanding how it works, speaking Spanish and using the same connections a Spanish person would to make a complaint.

Spanish people dont care too much want is written about them in English, just like English people wouldnt care what is written about them in Spanish.

There are a few websites here that deal with ripoffs. I think they are useful as those with similar problems can get together and maybe organise a joint-action.
I know of several that target rogue 'Independent Financial Advisers', and others that deal with dodgy property agents and so on.
Others, still, form associations against - for example - 'illegal homes' marketed and sold across Spain to credulous foreigners. - The AUN (Abusos Urbanisticos - ¡No!) is the largest.
I write on my own website about the Euro Weekly News and my problems with them, and have found many other people with different griefs with that newspaper.
The Internet gives us certain new opportunities to write up both good and bad experiences.

Your making the assumption that the website will only be in English, and run by, for the benefit of exclusively British Expats.
As we live or plan on living in Spain, why can't it be a joint bilingual effort ?

There must be Spaniards who feel the same. As for saying who will read it, how many people of a population of 61million in the UK read the RipoffBritain site ?