Home Improvement No. 1 Complaint
San Antonio
Associated Press
Web Posted : 11/26/2002 12:00 AM
WASHINGTON - Roofs that leak, poor driveway paving jobs and other home
improvement headaches were the No. 1 and fastest-growing type of consumer
complaint last year.
These complaints surpassed car sales and household goods for the top
spot.
The National Association of Consumer Agency Administrators and the
Consumer Federation of America said Monday that they compiled the annual
survey from complaints reported to state and local consumer protection
agencies.
"With housing being so tight, people are looking to stay in their
existing homes and make changes," said Nancy Sabella, director of the
association of consumer administrators. "There are an awful lot of scam
artists out there. It's very easy for someone to put out a shingle and then
the next day they're gone."
Home improvement is the industry in which a company is most likely to
go out of business and reopen under another name, the survey found.
Problems with household goods such as appliances and auto sales ranked
second and third, respectively, on the list of consumer complaints. Those
two had tied for first place in 2000.
Christopher Hedges, West Virginia's assistant attorney general, said
door-to-door paving scams were a major problem in his state last year. Con
artists typically targeted elderly homeowners, did shoddy work and then
intimidated the customer into paying an inflated amount for repairs.
Other scams reported by local agencies involved landscapers and other
contractors accepting payment but failing to complete the work.
The Federal Trade Commission recommends that homeowners get references
before hiring contractors and be wary of those who sell door-to-door, accept
only cash, have no listed phone number or request full payment up front.
Complaints about household goods - appliances, furniture, electronics
and other retail items - involved defective merchandise, deceptive
advertising and failure to honor warranties or provide refunds.
Many complaints with auto sales involved financing deals. Some
consumers complained that they would take home a car with a good financing
rate only to later get a call from the dealer, saying they had to return the
car because they didn't qualify for the rate.
The other industries prompting the most complaints included credit and
lending, telecommunications, and recreation and vacation services.
Chïp
"San Antonio" <ralp...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:BfQE9.57301$Gc.13...@twister.austin.rr.com...
: By David Ho
:
:
Chïp
"San Antonio" <ralp...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:BfQE9.57301$Gc.13...@twister.austin.rr.com...
: Associated Press
:
: Web Posted : 11/26/2002 12:00 AM
:
: WASHINGTON - Roofs that leak, poor driveway paving jobs and other
home
: improvement headaches were the No. 1 and fastest-growing type of consumer
: complaint last year.
: These complaints surpassed car sales and household goods for the top
: spot.
well no shit...with all the big companies that moved manufacturing out of
the country, or stole everyones money and went belly up...everybody and
their brother has gone into landscaping/painting/home improvements just to
feed their families...i bet our government will do a study that costs about
2 trillion to find out why there is so many scams, of course the money will
be paid to executives of the defunct Enron and the likes who opened the
studies...
Max Coynes
Rhetoric that makes no sense. Max.
nJb
>
> well no shit...with all the big companies that moved manufacturing out of
> the country, or stole everyones money and went belly up...everybody and
> their brother has gone into landscaping/painting/home improvements just to
> feed their families...i bet our government will do a study that costs about
> 2 trillion to find out why there is so many scams, of course the money will
> be paid to executives of the defunct Enron and the likes who opened the
> studies...
I would agree there but with the passing of the homeland security
razmataz bush now has jobs for all the enron execs.
--
Jack
I'm just glad I don't pay for all the arty I get.
artemus jameson
.
>
> I would agree there but with the passing of the homeland security
> razmataz bush now has jobs for all the enron execs.
> --
> Jack
>
Shut up and pay your taxes.
Tony Hwang
Intelligence gathering and sharing got more complicated now.
And what is cost of running the deparment? Is Bush paying for it?
Maybe with the money his dad got from Saudis way back when?
Was it BL's dad?