The Oxford Consumers Group was founded in Aylesbury, surprisingly not in Oxford. It was founded in 1961 after an advertisement in the Which? Magazine for local members to meet. This shows that the group doesn't only concern itself with Oxford, but also with the surrounding district. At that time the odds were stacked in favour of large commercial organisations and consumers needed to fight very hard for their rights. Almost immediately, our current Vice President became embroiled in a battle with the British Motor Corporation over a red sports car - of the Friday variety - or a "lemon" as he puts it. The car was to be exported to Canada. Thus after getting nowhere with the company, since the buyer had signed away his rights on the "Order Form". He was able to attract the attention of the press after his intervention at British Motor Corporation's shareholder's meeting. Subsequently, Oxford Consumers Group was able to supply information to Parliament which passed an Act outlawing the signing away of statutory and common law rights.

Surveys which were done during the early days of the group included dry cleaners and garages. After a survey of restaurants, one owner threatened to sue the group. Our Vice President went round to the restaurant in his oldest suit - so that the restaurant owner would think that suing us wouldn't gain him much. He was particularly hurt about our comments on the cleanliness of his restaurant. However, merely running a licked finger along a shelf demonstrated that it was dirty. We heard no more from him.

From its earliest days, the Group got much needed publicity from the Oxford Mail and Times. from the earliest days gave the. Since then they have regularly reported on our surveys and projects. They were also a source of projects themselves - such as our investigations in to transport and planning matters. Our group have always been as much concerned with services - especially those provided by local authorities, the Post Office and British Telecom. But we did not neglect the services of the individual builder, repairer or household fixer. We also continued to analyse a "shopping basket" and do taste tests also.

One famous taste test was that of bottled water. We had about six anonymous bottles and six tasters. We had hoped that nobody would spot the Oxford tap water - carefully put into a bottle. However, most people spotted it straight away and one person even spat it out!. Nowadays, Oxford tap water has definitely improved in taste and there is more variety in bottled water. Also bottled water is becoming environmentally taboo - because of the plastic bottle disposal problem.