Complain about a product or service

Consumer News & Alerts

April 16, 2001

MASSACHUSETTS GETS ONE-STOP TELECOM SERVICE
Verizon is about to be cleared to sell long-distance service to its customers in Massachusetts, as it has been doing in New York for several months. Nearly all so-called consumer groups oppose this, despite consumers' clear desire to buy their local and long-distance service from one company. If one looks closely, one might find that many of these consumerists, as we call them, receive generous "grants" from the long-distance companies, who for years have lobbied for a subsidized entry into local markets. Subsidized by whom? Who else?

THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS
It's always been a truism that nothing's worse than getting into a dispute with the telephone company. With so many telephone companies, it's even worse. Of course, economic theory tells us it should be better and we hear lots of "consumerists" babbling about all the consumer choices now available from the customer-centered telecommunications vendors. Try telling that to Christine, whose 80-year-old father was mugged by AT&T.

LARGE VANS PRONE TO ROLLOVER
In a rare consumer warning, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is warning that the 15-passenger vans widely used by schools and churches are prone to deadly rollovers when carrying ten or more passengers. There've been a number of accidents involving college sports teams in recent months. The federal agency said that only trained, experienced drivers should operate the vans.

EXPENSIVE, INFERNAL, ETERNAL
Sometimes we feel bad because one of our 1989 Peugeots has gotten to be fairly noisy. But then we remember that it was paid for a decade ago. Others aren't so lucky. Take Howard in Dedham. He'll be paying for his Ford Explorer for another five years, while being serenaded daily by an annoying cacophony of grunts, wheezes and odd whistles.

Speaking of these big jalopies ... Ford delayed introducing its new 2002 Explorer for two months, trying to get everything right. Changes included a lower center of gravity, to help reduce the truck's tendency to tip. But the company's hopes of a flawless debut have been shattered by a defective rear window. Ford says the window can fall out when the tailgate is closed. It has recalled 56,000 Explorers and Mercury Mountaineers.

PLANET RX DISINTEGRATES
Another high-orbiting planet from the virtual universe slammed into the bricks and mortar this week. PlanetRx pulled down its window shades and turned off the lights. Most remaining online pharmacies are either virtual manifestations of such chains as CVS and Rite Aid or fly-by-night pill pushers selling Viagra and other mass-appeal potions.

LEARNING A HARD LESSON ...
BUT NOT MUCH ELSE
Like horses nearing the barn, students are starting to smell summer and its blissful absence of classes. For many, it's also time to be picking a school for next fall. Those who want to learn a trade rather than pursue a degree are often tempted by privately-owned "schools" -- computer training institutes and so forth. This can be a big mistake that causes unbelievable suffering for years to come. Look what's happened to Cynthia since she enrolled at a Philadelphia computer school years ago.

WORK AT HOME & STARVE
Unless you have a bookie operation in your basement, it's pretty hard to make big bucks sitting around home in your pajamas. Yet one work-at-home scam artist after another continues to separate the hopeful from their money. The Federal Trade Commission has just completed a crackdown that ensnared 35 companies. It's a safe bet others have already leaped in to replace those temporarily sidelined.

GONE FOR GOOD
We get a depressing daily dose of indignant complaints from scammed consumers wanting to know how to get their money back. The answer, quite frankly, is that most money given to fraudulent telemarketers, bogus Web sites and other scam artists is gone for good. It will never be recovered. Pay first, investigate later is a strategy that doesn't work. The National Fraud Information Center has published tips to help older persons detect scams but we can think of quite a few younger persons who need to read them too.

CREDIT AT ANY PRICE
A sinking economy really gets the juices flowing among the credit sharks who are increasingly difficult to distinguish from the Fortune 500. Sears, for example, is so eager to get its incisors into fresh meat that it is sending credit cards to people who've already said they don't want them, as Darren recently discovered. Unfortunately, as jobs are lost and wages drop for those just hanging on, consumers look to credit cards, home equity loans and debt consolidation loans to keep the wolf from the door. Trouble is, those kindly old credit cards are the wolf in disguise.

READY FOR RENEWAL?
But enough of gloom and doom. Hope springs eternal. For as long as the earth continues to wobble along on its axis, this is a season of renewal and rebirth, a good time to revisit the Good Guys section ...

THE MOUSE UNITS THAT ROARED
A few weeks ago, we expressed dismay at the thousands of consumers who pay good money for el cheapo computers that fail almost immediately. We mentioned a few vendors we've found reliable but failed to mention the most obvious choice for consumers to whom a computer is basically an appliance whose inner workings are beyond their interest and understanding -- to wit, an Apple. We immediately heard from the ever-vigilant legions of Apple fans who are constantly standing by to protect and defend their orchard. Honest, we don't mean to be Apple knockers. Like Amazon, Apple is a great brand, even if it's not an astonishingly successful business at the moment.

EVEN THE LEAST OF THEM
Gee, as spring reminds us, the world really is multicolored. Businesses are like that too -- good in some ways, bad in others. Even Direct Merchants Bank has a fan.

GROCERS IN WHITE HATS
Some companies that seem to do no wrong. One such is Ukrops, a supermarket chain in the Richmond, Va., area.

BARRELS OF SATISFACTION
Furniture delivery nightmares are plentiful. That's why Laura's experience with Crate & Barrel is so refreshing.

Back to the top | Newsletters