Home Safety and Regulations

ConsumerAffairs, the reviews platform whose content and tools give consumers an advantage when making difficult purchases, has named 12 more companies winners of its quarterly Buyer's Choice Awards, based on AI-assisted decoding of consumer reviews in the previous 12 months.

Awards this quarter went to companies serving three high-stakes aspects of homeownership—home safety, pest control, and flooring—and also companies that sell hearing aids, a category that’s grown harder for consumers to navigate due to new OTC offerings. 

"Buying decisions that consumers make during significant life events are what ConsumerAffairs covers, our sole beat," said Zac Carman, CEO of ConsumerAffairs. "Our Buyer's Choice Awards signify the companies that are really good at helping consumers make that one-time investment in something they’ve not had to understand until now."

Each Buyer’s Choice Award is created after rigorous analysis of reviews reveals what aspects of that particular industry’s buying journey are most important to buyers. “The Buyer’s Choice Awards winners are proven by reviews and ratings to fulfill their customers' handful of super-high-priority needs,” Carman said.

These five winners swept their industry’s awards by receiving each award given in their category:

Empire Today won all the flooring awards: Best Customer Service, Best Experience with Staff, Best for Installation, Best Speed of Service and Best Value for Price.  

Orkin Pest Control took home each of the pest control awards: Best Customer Service, Best Experience with Staff, Best Speed of Service and Best Value for Price.

Vivint won each award given in home alarms: Best Customer Service, Best Equipment, Best for Installation and Best Monitoring.

Finally, Hear.com and Starkey Hearing Aids won all of their category awards: Best Customer Service, Best Experience with Staff and Best Value for Price.

Criteria

How did ConsumerAffairs calculate the Buyer's Choice Award winners?

In an era of rampant faked or unhelpful consumer reviews, reviews on ConsumerAffairs must be submitted by a verified reviewer and vetted by a human moderator for authenticity, minimum length and depth of insight. 

The Buyer’s Choice Awards methodology then uses sentence-by-sentence analysis of reviews published in the previous year to calculate satisfaction levels for each aspect. Experienced auditors confirmed the accuracy of the AI-assisted sentiment analysis. 

Each quarter in 2024, ConsumerAffairs will announce Buyer's Choice Awards in new categories and use its website to flag the winning companies with a signature badge designed to guide consumers in need to trusted companies. Winners of each Buyer's Choice Award are limited to three or fewer by the rigorous statistical bar for positive sentiment set by ConsumerAffairs.

Multiple winners

Who are the other multiple winners of 2024 Buyer's Choice Awards?

Flooring: National Floors Direct (four wins: Best Experience with Staff, Best for Installation, Best Speed of Service and Best Value for Price) and LL Flooring (four wins: Best Customer Service, Best Experience with Staff, Best for Installation, and Best Value for Price).

Pest Control: Bulwark Exterminating (three awards: Best Customer Service, Best Experience with Staff and Best Speed of Service) and Hawx Pest Control (one award: Best Value for Price).

Home alarm: ADT (three awards: Best Customer Service, Best Equipment and Best Monitoring) and Vector Security (three awards: Best Customer Service, Best for Installation and Best Monitoring)

Hearing aids: Audicus (two wins: Best Customer Service and Best Experience with Staff)

For more information about the Buyer's Choice Awards and the recognized companies, please visit the awards page. One to three winners for each category will be recognized per industry, with new awards rolling out quarterly throughout 2024.

Think it’s safe to stay inside? Think again. In addition to the Top 10 most dangerous things in your house, new research has surfaced during Consumer Protection Week that may make you want to strap yourself onto your sofa and not move an inch.

A new analysis by the U.S. PIRG Education fund – Safe At Home in 2024 – shows the agency responsible for product recalls, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), enhanced its enforcement in 2023.

The agency was dogged about product recalls, issuing three times more public warnings when companies decided they wouldn't cooperate with a recall than in the year before. 

U.S. product recalls in 2023 were the highest in seven years, with 323 announcements about defective appliances, furniture, bike helmets, toys and other everyday products. The two largest civil penalties charged to companies who failed to report known hazards were Peloton Interactive Inc. and HSN Inc., formerly Home Shopping Network.

What’s worse were the injuries

The products involved in those recalls were tied to more than 550 injuries, 15 deaths, and more than 500 fires – before the recalls. Actually, the fatality count would be higher if it included the two re-announcements for infant rocker sleepers, which have been linked to about 115 deaths. 

“It’s clear that dangerous products truly threaten all of us, our children and our homes,” said Teresa Murray, U.S. PIRG Education Fund’s consumer watchdog director and author of the report.

“The injuries and deaths that occur are tragic and difficult to read about. We’re often not safe at home, and we don’t even know it.”

When you buy something, some simple steps can protect you from being a statistic

There are more recalls than you can imagine. In ConsumerAffairs daily digest of recalls, there are vehicles, toys, tech gear, appliances, etc. Subscribing to that list is a good start.

But, US PIRG suggests that you periodically take a look around your house – in the kitchen, laundry room, bedroom, and the medicine cabinet – and search for those at saferproducts.gov, recalls.gov, or cpsc.gov/recalls.

“Fill out online or mail-in registrations that come with products, especially anything that plugs in, has a battery or is used by children,” Murray said.

“If you’re concerned they’ll share your information, then at least provide a secondary email address. That way, companies can contact you in case of safety warnings.”

But, be careful with resale and foreign websites

Resale websites like eBay and Facebook Marketplace are great places to find used articles at great prices, but even though it’s illegal for a business to sell recalled products, most, if not all of those sites lack the time or personnel to go through every single listing to find out if it’s been recalled or not. Therefore, you could be buying a pig in a poke.

“Use even more caution when buying products being shipped from overseas or from websites that seem unprofessional,” Murray said.

“International sellers may not comply with U.S. safety standards, and unethical sellers may peddle all sorts of previously recalled or unsafe merchandise.”

Safe At Home offers more tips for consumers to protect themselves from dangerous products before they shop and if something they own gets recalled.

What’ll it be for you this Halloween? Trick or treat – or trip and sue? If you don’t want the latter, then you may want to make home safety a priority for Halloween.

Claims data from Travelers Insurance show that on Halloween, the insurance company experiences 15% more theft claims on-premises and 72% more vandalism and malicious mischief claims compared to every other day of the year. 

And it’s not just one or two things that can go wrong, either. On the theft side of the ledger of potential problems, a lot of consumers get lazy in two areas when they go trick-or-treating.

For one thing, Travelers researchers found that only 52% of respondents lock their doors when they go trick-or-treating. And another 35% of homeowners turn all their lights out in the house when they go out to trick-or-treat, giving the impression the house is empty to any thieves.

Another potential hazard waiting to ruin the celebration is live fire. Like all the candles we love to burn – 52% of survey respondents said they burn real candles inside their home and another 39% said they do the same outside. 

Sure, you may say “That’ll never happen to me” and you might – or might not – be right. But stuff happens.

According to the National Fire Protection Association, there are about 800 home structure fires every Halloween, reeking $13 million in property damage. Some 45% of these fires occurred because the decorations were too close to a heat source, such as a candle or hot equipment.

Then, there are a bunch of folks who like to have the neighbors over and build a bonfire in the backyard to keep everyone warm – another certain potential fire hazard if the fire’s not completely put out. And worse, yet, if the embers of the bonfire land on your neighbor’s property.

If you want to play it safe

Jennifer Wilbert, assistant vice president, Personal Insurance Property at Travelers told ConsumerAffairs that it’s actually pretty easy to play it safe at Halloween without losing your spooky mojo. Her advice goes like this:

• Do not put candles in places where they might be easily knocked over, and never leave a lit candle unattended. 

• Clear your yard and sidewalk of potential hazards that could trip up trick-or-treaters, and make sure the path to your door is well-lit. 

• If you’re heading out to enjoy Halloween festivities yourself, take steps to make your home appear occupied as a deterrent to thieves and vandals. Ask a neighbor to keep an eye on your property, and/or leave security systems, motion-triggered lights and other theft deterrents activated to make your home a less attractive target. You can even leave a light or TV on in the house to make it seem like you’re home. 

• If possible, park your car off the street — and ideally, in a garage. If you have to leave your car outside, make sure your valuables are removed or hidden from view, and that your car is locked. 

Wilbert says we should pay particular attention to our Halloween decorations. If you haven’t bought yours yet, she suggests avoiding dried flowers, cornstalks and crêpe paper because they are highly combustible.

“Keep these and other decorations away from open flames and heat sources, including light bulbs and heaters,” she cautions.

As for electrical decorations, she recommends making sure that whatever you buy has been tested for safety. “Look for a certification mark from UL, CSA, ETL or another nationally-recognized laboratory,” Wilbert recommends, adding three other precautions for electrical safety:

• When plugging in decorations, avoid daisy-chaining extension cords, which may cause overheating.

• Never staple, nail through or fasten electrical wires or extension cords in any way that might damage the wire or insulation. This could cause electrical shock or fire.

• Plug all outdoor lights and decorations into ground-fault circuit interrupters (GFCIs) to help reduce the risk of electric shock. Portable GFCIs for outdoor use can be purchased where electrical supplies are sold.

And don’t forget your car

Another forget-me-not is that vehicle thefts and break-ins spike during Halloween. Wilbert says that you should always make sure your car is locked and stored in a garage if possible. Plus, avoid leaving valuables inside your vehicle overnight like wallets, electronics, etc.