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Previously Owned

There may be some great deals on new cars these days – especially Toyotas – but the price of a late model used car is going up while some new car prices are coming down, according to the folks at Edmunds.com, who track such things. Not counting the hit taken by used Toyotas, prices of other brands are up more than six percent in some cases. Despite new-car incentives like zero percent financing, a lot of consumers apparently prefer paying less for a previously owned vehicle, passing up the added cost of that new car smell. Read more

Sirius Radio – Steve of Clarksville, Ark. “I purchased 2 Sirius radio packages as gifts for my daughter & Mother last Christmas. The basic radio package included 3 months subscription. They asked me to do an auto draft for subscription extension, I said NO. If the people I gave the radios to wanted to continue, they could on their own account. The customer service must have been in India, because I could hardly understand them. I just got an "Unauthorized $80 withdrawal" form my debit card. I emailed Sirius "Help" link. They said I should have read the fine print in "Terms & Conditions.” Read more TLG Great Fun – Patricia of Bristol, N.H. “I've had a recurring charge of $11.99 per month on my Chase card to TLG*GREATFN since 9/08. Shame on me for not looking into this/noticing this sooner. I contacted Chase and they could only provide records back to December '09. I searched my records and saw the charges went way beyond that. Chase advised me to contact TLG, which I did, and to get back to them if I needed to dispute the charge. TLG informed me that I "signed up for a discount service" when I used Priceline and accepted a 15% rebate. I have used Priceline in the past but will hesitate to do so in the future. I have no recollection of agreeing to such a thing. Plus, how did they, TLG, get my credit card information? What a scam.” Read more

Feds Dream of Universal Broadband

Forget universal healthcare for a moment. Focus instead on the glue that holds our civilization and economy together. Yes, friends, we're talking about the Internet, the essential infrastructure of the 21st Century. Although still the world leader in software, entertainment and technical wizardry, the United States seriously lags other industrialized nations in deploying broadband to every nook and cranny. That may all change this week, as the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) unveils a surprisingly bold plan to speed up the wired and wireless Internet and broaden its reach. Read why this would be a very good thing indeed.

Pain At The Pump

Kids On Wheels

Safety advocates have long warned of the dangers posed by all-terrain vehicles. Increasingly, doctors are joining the choras. "I practice in Idaho, ATV ridership is very common," said Dr. Kevin G. Shea, an orthopedic surgeon specializing in pediatrics. "These vehicles can produce significant injuries in young riders, and we care for many in our community. Nationwide, there is even a rise in amputations and death from the use of these powerful vehicles." Read more

Too Much Information

Classmates.com has been the source of its fair share of complaints over the years, mostly for its business practices. Now its privacy policy is at issue. Two Classmates.com members have sued the site, accusing it of exposing members' personal information to “unknown” parties without giving a proper warning. The suit concerns an e-mail announcing that the site was “coming up with ways to let more people use Classmates from around the Internet without having to visit Classmates.com.” Read more

Jury Rules Against Hartz Mountain

When 72-year-old Frank Bowers' bulldog Diesel died after being sprinkled with Hartz flea and tick drops, it made Frank mad. He called Hartz and got blown off. He wrote Hartz a letter and heard nothing. He tried to hire a lawyer to sue Hartz but no one would take the case. So Frank took matters into his own hands. He filed suit -- a right guaranteed to every American by the Constitution. In the Lone Star State, a man can get a jury trial in Small Claims Court and that's exactly what Frank got. He argued his case against Hartz' attorneys. And won. The dollar amount might be small -- just $4,400 -- but as far as anyone knows, it's the first time a pet owner has sued and won over the death of a pet from flea and tick powder. But feelings run high in these cases, and Frank's case may not be the last.

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California Lament

Mary Feller and Randy Freed both received letters from Anthem telling them that their health insurance policies with the California provider were no longer being offered to new customers in the state and that, as a result, their premiums would significantly increase. As it turned out, all the alternatives offered by the company were also more expensive. Consumer Watchdog, a Santa Monica-based nonprofit, filed a class action in Ventura County Superior Court this week challenging the increases. Read more

Crammer Smackdown

An Internet services company that crammed unauthorized charges onto the telephone bills of thousands of consumers and small businesses for services they never agreed to buy has been shut down. It’s the latest effort by federal and state governments to rein in the practice of companies putting small – or not so small - charges on your phone bill or credit card without your knowledge, a practice that has been going on for years. Read more

Home Sales Plunge, Recovery Hopes Fade

We were reading a newsletter from a California realtor a few days ago, in which she expressed the belief that those who didn't take advantage of battered home prices and low interest rates were "stupid." Not the best sales pitch, perhaps, and maybe not true either. Each new release of sales data paints an even dimmer picture of the real estate market -- and anyone who lived through the extended downturns of, say, the 1970s will tell you it's no fun sitting on a piece of real estate whose value and market appeal decline daily. Read more

Making It Worse

When you repair something you’re supposed to make it work better, but that’s rarely the case if you hire a firm to “repair” your credit. And with consumers still dealing with the economic downturn, there are plenty of “credit repair” services advertising in the media. In Colorado, Attorney General John Suthers has sued a “credit repair” company for charging upfront fees and failing to disclose the total cost of its services, thereby violating federal and state law. Read more

Mobile Bugs

Smart phones are, for all practical purposes, a pocket computer. So it shouldn’t be much of a surprise that the nasty virus that attacks your computer at home can also wreck havoc with your smart phone. These assaults, experts warn, could potentially cause a phone to eavesdrop on a meeting, track an owner's travels, or rapidly drain its battery to render the phone useless. Computer scientists from Rutgers recently demonstrated these problems and say they could occur without the owner even being aware of what happened. Read more

Sorry, So, So Sorry

Toyota President Akio Toyoda spent a very uncomfortable day before U.S. lawmakers Wednesday, apologizing for the recall problems affecting millions of his company's vehicles, but adding he is "absolutely confident" there is no design flaw in the company's electronic throttle control system. Meanwhile, New York Attorney General Andrew has worked out a deal with Toyota to provide special accommodations for New York Toyota owners who have been affected by the company's recent recalls, including at-home pickup. Read more

Hot Dog!

What could be more American than the hot dog? This staple of baseball games and outdoor cookouts has developed many detractors over the years, however, because of its high fat and sodium content. Now a group of doctors is sounding a different sort of alarm, calling for a basic hot dog redesign, to prevent young children from choking. At a bare minimum, they say packages should carry warnings to parents about choking hazards. Read more

Paper Trail

Congressional investigators looking through thousands of subpoenaed Toyota documents found an intriguing presentation. In 2007 Toyota executives pointed out, in a confidential, internal memo, they had saved the company $100 million by convincing US safety officials that the sudden acceleration problems consumers were reporting in their Camey and Lexus vehicles could be resolved by removing the floor mats. As we now know, it was a bit more complicated than that. Read more

New Credit Card Rules

It's been a long time coming but as of today, Feb. 22, new credit card rules take effect. Legislation passed by Congress last year will protect consumers from some of the more odious practices we've come to know and hate -- but unless consumers are vigilant, they may fall victim to a whole host of new odious practices. The solution: know your rights and pay attention! Read more

Wrong Kind of Buzz

Google Buzz, the search giant’s new social networking feature, has generated lots of “buzz” since its debut a week ago, much of it focusing on its novel features, with some going so far as to dub it the “Facebook killer.” But not everyone is impressed. Buzz has privacy groups up in arms, and a Harvard Law student has filed a class action alleging that the service publicizes users’ confidential information without first obtaining their permission. Read more

Maalox Moment

The makers of Maalox have agreed to change the name of Maalox Total Relief. Why? Because the FDA is concerned that too many consumers will mistake it for regular Maalox products. That could be a problem, the FDA says, because Maalox Total Relief does one thing and Maalox products do another. Mixing them up, the agency says, could lead to serious side effects.

Novartis Consumer Health will make the name change later this year. Read more

Yuch!

Salads are good for you, as long as they aren’t laced with bacteria. Consumer Reports Magazine recently examined pre-packaged salads that you can often find in your supermarket’s produce section and found evidence of poor sanitation. Consumers Union, publisher of the magazine, is urging the Food and Drug Administration to set safety standards for greens. FDA food safety legislation pending in the Senate would require the FDA to create just such safety standards. Read more

Investor Beware

There is no shortage of investment advice on television, from stock picking shows on business news cable channel CNBC to financial gurus interviewed on daytime talk shows. But markets are fickle are no one has a crystal ball. Before investing your hard-earned money, you should perhaps do plenty of homework. When a South Carolina couple relied on the advice of Dr. Phil’s resident money expert, their disappointment over resulting financial losses led them to a courtroom. Read more

Toyota In The Crosshairs

Between the end of September and the end of January, Toyota issued three recalls related to sudden acceleration problems in some of its vehicles. Federal safety regulators now want to know if the carmaker acted as quickly as it should have. Read more...

No Excuses

It has been said that nothing is certain in life except death and taxes. Still, that doesn’t stop some enterprising souls from arguing with the IRS that the wording of a particular law or regulation doesn’t require them to file a return or pay a tax. Each year the IRS warns that this is not a game you’re going to win. Don't believe anyone who tells you otherwise. Read more

Big Banks Still In The Doghouse

Consumers, it seems, now hold some financial services firms in higher regard, most notably their insurance company, credit union and small local bank. Not much has changed -- at least not for the better -- when it comes to big national banks. Read more...

Toyota Plans Its Comeback

Toyota may look like it's down for the count but the company is planning a comeback strategy that includes longer warranties, bigger incentives and a marketing and p.r. blitz, but first it has to get through the usual Congressional show trials, to be followed by a lengthy slog through courtrooms across the land. As our Truman Lewis notes, the latest series of recalls aren't anything new for Toyota, which has an extensive record of safety problems. Read more

The Real Biggest Losers?

More than one individual has attempted to transform their exposure on television into a business success. But when one reality TV personality came up with a line of diet pills, some consumers have been less than impressed. In fact, some have charged fraud, and are suing. Read more...

College Aid Plan

These days almost anyone attending college needs some kind of financial help to meet the rising costs of higher education. One insider says where there’s a will there’s a way, but it requires some planning. Read more

Graphics by Marisa Lisante. Photos, unless otherwise noted, by iStock.

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