How to be a Red Tape Raider
Posted: Saturday, January 24 2009 at 05:35 pm CT by Bob Sullivan
Here's a quick primer on how to insert your own success stories in the the Red Tape Raiders group at Newsvine, where you get a chance to be a consumer advocate by sharing your success stories or helping others.
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Obama should restore consumer czar office
Posted: Friday, January 16 2009 at 05:00 am CT by Bob Sullivan
In the 1960s and early 1970s, U.S. consumers who found themselves in a maddening battle with corporate America had a friend in the White House. That friend was Esther Peterson.
As White House special assistant for consumer affairs, Peterson worked under both the Johnson and Carter administrations for consumer protections that still have an impact on every trip consumers make to the grocery store. For example, she was largely responsible for a series of food labeling improvements that led to unit pricing, which allows apples-to-apples comparison shopping. She also worked to establish new requirements for nutritional information that we take for granted today. Peterson lived to be 91, and before her long career was over she was granted the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
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Site 'outs' Do Not Call violators
Posted: Tuesday, November 11 2008 at 05:00 am CT by Bob Sullivan
The Do Not Call list might be the most popular government program in decades. With more than 160 million entries as of Nov. 10, American consumers have clearly voted against dinner-time telephone interruptions. Yet unwanted phone calls still occur -- some annoying-but-harmless marketing pitches, others that are outright scams.
That’s not surprising. After all, you wouldn't expect con artists to honor the Do Not Call list.
Enter CallerComplaints.com, a new Web site where consumers can search for background information on specific phone numbers used by telemarketers and register public complaints. Already some 150,000 people -- most angry and armed with CallerID -- have done so, said site co-founder Brian Monahan.
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Nader: Obama might not protect consumers
Posted: Friday, November 7 2008 at 05:00 am CT by Bob Sullivan
Not since the 1960s, when seat belts became standard equipment in cars, has the atmosphere been so favorable for consumer-friendly reform. After decades of hands-off capitalism and shrinking consumer protection agencies, the Wall Street meltdown has unmistakably changed the nation's attitude toward regulation. And Americans have just elected a president who has promised to reform the credit card industry, bankruptcy law, and toy safety, to name a few.
So you’d think that Ralph Nader, the father of the modern consumer movement in America, would be happy.
You'd be wrong.
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Where the candidates stand on consumer issues
Posted: Tuesday, October 21 2008 at 05:00 am CT by Bob Sullivan
The stock market's spasms and the housing meltdown have dominated the presidential campaign for the past several weeks. The distraction of the "Down Jones" industrial average, however, means we might be forgetting how we got into this mess in the first place: through the abysmal state of consumer protection and the general unfairness of our marketplaces.
Presidential candidates John McCain and Barack Obama have risen to the occasion -- if you want to call it that -- by trading barbs about old scandals and offering up partially baked plans to restore the economy. That's sad, because both have made some serious proposals aimed at restoring fairness and integrity to U.S. markets. One can only assume consumer protection is no longer among their top priorities.
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JetBlue, welcome to the Gotcha Hall of Shame
Posted: Friday, August 8 2008 at 05:00 am CT by Bob Sullivan
Feeling fleeced by hidden fees, surcharges, fine print and other “Gotchas”? That's because you are getting fleeced. Sneaky pricing has become the American way of doing business in the past decade. But don't look now -- things are going to get much worse before they get better. Tough times and shrinking profits will spur on cash grabs the likes of which we've never seen. Like a wounded animal, I expect many a desperate corporate boardroom to authorize unconscionably tricky tactics, aiming to stave off a bad report to shareholders for one more quarter by sucking more quarters out of your wallet.
In this spirit, today we open up a new institution to memorialize all this chicanery: The Gotcha Hall of Shame. The first inductee is so deserving that it actually inspired creation of the award: JetBlue Airlines and its $7 pillow.
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T-Mobile sued over 'mandatory' text fees
Posted: Friday, July 25 2008 at 05:00 am CT by Bob Sullivan
When Marco Zaldivar purchased four T-Mobile cell phones for his family a few years ago, he had no interest in text messages. They came anyway, and by 2007 unwanted texts were adding $20 to $30 to his bill every month, he claims. When he asked T-Mobile to shut off text service, the firm said that was impossible. Instead, he was given a Hobson's choice -- either sign up for a bundled text message plan with a monthly fee, pay $800 in early termination fees to cancel the service or turn the phones off for the remainder of his two-year contract.
Zaldivar decided on a fourth option -- he's suing T-Mobile for violating consumer protection laws. The lawsuit, which seeks class-action status, got a small green light last week from a U.S. District Court in Seattle, which rejected T-Mobile's motion to dismiss the case.
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Time to speak up about new credit card rules
Posted: Tuesday, July 22 2008 at 06:00 am CT by Bob Sullivan
Hate hidden fees and other “gotchas” from credit cards and banks? You have until Aug. 4 to sound off about it.
In May, the Federal Reserve proposed a sweeping set of rule changes that would ban a wide set of consumer-unfriendly bank practices. The rules would prevent credit card issuers from charging retroactive rate increases on outstanding balances, for example, and ensure that bills are mailed at least 21 days before the balance is due. It would also make it harder for banks to change overdraft fees in some cases, and clarify a wide set of bank practices that sometimes seem like booby-traps designed to cost consumers.
The proposed rules are now open to public comment, but only until Aug. 4. Consumers who would like to make their opinions known about the new regulations can simply fill out a form on the Fed's Web site and leave comments there. Here's a link. Scroll about two-thirds of the way down the page and look for the words “submit comment.”
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The end of human help in stores?
Posted: Friday, July 18 2008 at 03:45 am CT by Bob Sullivan
Imagine standing in a retail store desperately looking for help from someone, anyone, and being directed to … a computer screen.
“No one here can help you," a clerk might say. "But someone 1,500 miles away probably can."
This just might be the future of customer service. Two companies, with products named Live Agent and Live Support, hope that consumers who today wander aimlessly through store aisles looking for help would be happy to use videoconference kiosks instead.
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Can't telecommute? Watch this!
Posted: Wednesday, July 2 2008 at 12:23 pm CT by Bob Sullivan
(VIDEO: Click to watch msnbc.com's interview with author Tim Ferriss)
With gas prices soaring and seemingly no end in site, drivers are going to great pains to save at the pump. But it seems something obvious has been overlooked: skipping the commute and working from home. Fewer than 10 percent of Americans work from home even one day per week.
Much of the resistence of telecommuting comes from companies and bosses who don't trust their employees. New York Times best-selling author Tim Ferriss, who wrote The 4 Hour Workweek, has some tips for getting around that obstacle. You can watch the video by clicking here. It was produced by NBC's Andrew Gross and Colleen Sanvido, and edited by David Bentley. The three-dimensional graphics come courtesty of NBC's Patrick Longstreth.
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Can't cancel service? Blame 'perverse incentives'
Posted: Tuesday, May 13 2008 at 05:00 am CT by Bob Sullivan
The next time you find yourself on the phone with a pushy customer service representative trying to sell you something, remember this: There could be serious cash incentives motivating that hard sell you're getting. And I do mean serious.
One consultant I spoke to recently said that some call-center employees for a national internet service provider were making six-figure salaries, thanks to aggressive bonuses. While customers were infuriated after being deceived while trying to cancel their service, the phone reps were raking in the dough, sometimes doubling or tripling their salaries with incentives.
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How to win your case for telecommuting
Posted: Friday, April 4 2008 at 04:16 pm CT by Bob Sullivan
With gas prices soaring toward $4 a gallon, a solution seems obvious: skip the commute. U.S. drivers travel an average of about 15 miles, one way, to work. Working from home a few days each week would be the quickest route to relief at the pump. It would ease pressure on clogged roadways, too.
But telecommuting appears to be stalled in the driveway.
Once considered the rightful inheritance of the 21st Century workforce, teleworking has barely made a dent at many companies. Even the most generous statistics indicate only about 20 percent of employees "telework," a number that has barely doubled in the past decade, according to research firm Gartner. And that's using a very broad definition of telecommuting -- those who perform regular work duties remotely at least one day each month. When the data is constrained to once-per-week telecommuters, only about 9 percent of Americans qualify.
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The end of class-action lawsuits?
Posted: Tuesday, April 1 2008 at 06:00 am CT by Bob Sullivan
Can companies grant themselves a "get out of jail free" card when you sign their contracts? A lawsuit filed in Seattle against AT&T/Cingular may settle that question.
The nonprofit public advocacy group Public Justice is asking a federal court to set aside a provision in old AT&T wireless contracts that prevents consumers from banding together and filing class action lawsuits against the company. The future of class-action lawsuits might be at stake.
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One on one with Ralph Nader
Posted: Friday, March 28 2008 at 05:00 am CT by Bob Sullivan
(VIDEO: Click to a watch msnbc.com's interview with Ralph Nader)
He calls Washington, D.C., "corporate occupied territory," and says we’re living under "corporate fascism." Ralph Nader continues to pound away at the same themes he did in the 1960s when he first took on the automobile industry, alleging intentional neglect of safety measures. Today, though, he has broadened his targets to include banks, credit card companies, binding arbitration clauses and, of course, his rival presidential candidates.
While he's universally regarded, and even revered, as the father of the consumer movement, Nader’s presidential campaigns are roundly criticized by liberals as counterproductive, and even destructive. As part of Red Tape Chronicles’ look at the consumer protection proposals of the presidential candidates, Nader agreed to sit down with me this week in Washington, D.C.
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Where candidates stand on consumer issues
Posted: Tuesday, March 25 2008 at 06:00 am CT by Bob Sullivan
With worries about the economy and the war in Iraq dominating campaign debates and speeches, there hasn't been much discussion about consumer protection issues. That might not sit well with Red Tape readers, who complain constantly about bank fees, credit card policies, misbehaving cell phone firms and even unsafe toys.
But Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and, to a lesser extent, John McCain all have staked out positions on these vital issues.
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A lost laptop, a $54 million lawsuit
Posted: Friday, February 15 2008 at 10:28 am CT by Bob Sullivan
How much compensation does a consumer deserve for the loss of a laptop computer loaded with personal information? Raelyn Campbell figures it’s $54 million -- if you throw in a little extra for lost time and frustration.
Six months after bringing a damaged laptop computer into a Best Buy electronics store for repairs, and three months after the firm admitted losing it, Campbell filed the whopper of a lawsuit recently in Washington, D.C., Superior Court.
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A lost laptop, a $54 million lawsuit: part 2
Posted: Friday, February 15 2008 at 10:25 am CT by Bob Sullivan
Raelyn Campbell's tale of frustration over her lost laptop has generated a high volume of comments, so the original story and the comments it solicited have been moved to this page to provide readers with easier access.
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How Red Tape became 'Gotcha Capitalism'
Posted: Tuesday, January 15 2008 at 05:00 am CT by Bob Sullivan
If you're like most Americans, you feel you're getting screwed all the time. When you open your monthly bills, rent a car or sign up for pay television service, you hear that tiny voice inside saying "Watch out!" You're not paranoid. You're merely paying attention. Hidden fees cost the average American consumer nearly $1,000 a year, $5 or $10 at a time, new research shows.
For the past two years, I've been writing about the kinds of 21st century headaches that lead to consumer paranoia and compiling them in the Red Tape Chronicles. In response, more than 50,000 of you have left comments on the blog. Sometimes you criticize me and my conclusions, sometimes you cheer me, but most of the time you come to share your complaints about unfair companies and government policies. In the past year I've heard from a father whose daughter ran up a $10,000 cell phone bill, a man who lost his entire $179,000 retirement fund to a hacker and countless others who paid hundreds of dollars in surprise bank overdraft charges.
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