Canadians are among the industrialized world's worst complainers about inferior customer service, a new survey suggests.

According to polling firm Ipsos Reid, almost 38 per cent of people surveyed in 23 countries have complained about a product or service in the past year.

The figure jumps to 44 per cent for residents of Canada and the United States — behind only Britain, Spain and the Czech Republic in the industrialized world — the poll of 23,000 international respondents found.

"Canadians won't tolerate bad products and service anymore," said Jane Steele Moore, a spokeswoman for Complaints Are Us Inc., a complaints concierge company that sponsored the survey. "Yes, we're known for being polite, but we've learned that we can get results if we complain."

Both countries placed in the top 10 overall based on likelihood of consumer complaints. The people most likely to have made a complaint in the past year were from Brazil, at 65 per cent, and those least likely to have lodged a grievance were in Japan, where 17 per cent had done so.

Regionally, Latin American consumers were the most likely to have sounded off about service, with 57 per cent of respondents reporting they had filed an official objection in the past year.

Asian consumers were the least likely to gripe, with 30 per cent of respondents reporting doing so.

The poll was taken between April 14 and May 7, 2009.

It consisted of an online questionnaire and is considered accurate within 3.1 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.