Chapter 15/Rip-off of the month

Dear Glen Loyd:

All I had to do was use your name for "extra clout" and the company immediately came through with a remedy for our hot water tank problem. This week we will be getting the electric tank we requested.

Thanks for your help.

Lois Zolkowski
Menasha, WI.

Government bureaucrats are pretty conservative and play it safe for the most part, but somehow when I got to Consumer Protection I talked them into letting me start an outrageous monthly feature: "Rip-off of the Month." It was not only popular statewide with newspapers and TV news, but also got national press.

For example, Newsweek carried our warning about department store bait-and-switch photo portrait services. A Wisconsin mother went in for an advertised $4.95 photo of her little girl. The photo they gave her turned out to be poorly composed with the child's hands cut off. To get professionally composed photos that had been taken, with the child smiling, the woman was asked to buy packages that cost up to $100.
By the way, parents can protect themselves from these tactics by asking if they get to select the bargain photo or if the company chooses it. If you don't get your choice, you may want to shop elsewhere.

Good morning America and CNBC's Steals and Deals carried our warning about Therapy Plus for pain, a $50 "magic wand" for arthritis which didn't work.

Recently CBS carried a warning about so-called ultrasonic devices that are supposed to protect you from mosquitoes, cockroaches, fleas, bats, mice and rats. There is even one specially designed to protect babies. I had exposed these questionable devices several years earlier in a Rip-Off of the Month. The Centers for Disease Control say ultrasonic products are not effective at preventing mosquito bites.

A lot of the Rip-Off of the Month products were sold on late night TV. Be wary of buying those gimmick products. Lots of people send money for the products and never get them.

For example, a Wisconsin couple sent $21 for pasta pots that drain through the lids. They waited for almost two months for the pots and when they didn't, complained to Consumer Protection.

Finally, after Consumer Protection got involved, the couple got the pots in April, almost four months after seeing the commercial and sending in their money.

Two companies filling orders for more than 100 TV-commercial products, from weight-reduction pills to the Sew Smart Sewing Machines, have unsatisfactory records with the Better Business Bureau due to unanswered complaints.

Be careful when sending money out of state for any product. Mail orders are consistently in the Top 10 list of complaints. Buy locally when you can. For example, you could have bought the pasta pots locally cheaper than what they were selling for on TV.

Before you send money, ask yourself what you are you going to do if the product isn't delivered. Not much, when all you have is an address in a city a thousand miles away and the company doesn't respond to complaints.