A large number of Irish consumers remain indifferent to price, according to the latest consumer survey.

The European Customer Satisfaction Index report from Excellence Ireland found that nearly a third of bank customers would not switch their current account to another bank for any reduction in charges or fees.

The survey, which asked 1,000 adults about their experiences as customers of the main banks, supermarkets and mobile networks, found that 28 per cent of supermarket customers would not move to another retailer to avail of lower prices while 21 per cent of mobile network customers would not change to another network with lower tariffs.

The report also found that only a minority of consumers had problems with their providers last year, ranging from 12 per cent of supermarket customers to 13 per cent of mobile customers and 14 per cent of bank customers.

Of these, the majority complained but most were only modestly satisfied with the outcome. The mobile networks got a satisfaction score of 5.6 out of 10 in terms of their handling of complaints, the banks 5.8 and the supermarkets 6.8 out of 10.

The survey, conducted last November by Amárach Consulting, found that the banks were given the lowest value for money score of the three sectors covered at 6.2 out of 10, unchanged from 2001.

Supermarkets received the highest value-for-money rating at 6.9 out of 10 but this was down on the 2001 level of 7.4.

Customers of the mobile networks increased their value-for-money score from 5.9 in 2001 to 6.4 last year.

Supermarkets again received the highest overall satisfaction score from customers based on a combination of questions asked.

Customers gave them a rating of 76.5 out of 100, up from 75.6 in 2001 and the highest rating achieved since the survey began four years ago.

The mobile networks recorded the biggest improvements in their overall satisfaction score as it rose to 73.6 per cent from 70.3 per cent in 2001 while the banks got a score of 71 per cent, up from 69.1 per cent.

Excellence Ireland is a not-for-profit organisation with more than 700 corporate members. It operates performance improvement programmes such as the Q-mark national quality programme.