Complaint resolution service publishes case studies, recall information and consumer news.

Consumer Help Web was contacted by a customer who was suffering from an ongoing problem with furniture giant Levitz.

Our customer tells us she purchased a dining room set from Levitz in 2004. She reports within a week or two of the expiration of her warranty the brace support on the bottom of one of the armchairs separated. This happened to another chair a month later. She states she contacted the company immediately after each incident, only to be told the warranty had expired and no assistance would be provided. Our customer tells us she believes there is a manufacturing defect in the chairs and is concerned for the safety of her family and guests.

Consumer Help Web contacted the company’s senior management multiple times and was stonewalled. To help our customer, we then arranged for free referrals to a local consumer attorney and the contact information for the government agency responsible for ensuring that Levitz addresses consumers when they have these types of complaints.

Posted under Complaints, Customer Service

After another victim of the infamous “British Lottery” scam contacted Consumer Help Web, the advocacy company swung into action and began attempting to make contact via presumed letter drops in Canada.

At the heart of this issue was a customer who was not paid funds reportedly promised to her by this “organization”.

Consumer Help Web is well acquainted with this particular series of activities and has contacted regulatory authorities to provide assistance in their quest for regulatory or potentially criminal action.

Our customer reports that she was the victim of a bait and switch scam in which monies were reportedly paid to her and she took action before the check was returned for non-sufficient funds. Unfortunately, this is one of the most common schemes known to investigators and law enforcement officials throughout North America.

If you receive notice that you’ve won something or just need to send funds to another address once funds are deposited in your account, don’t do it! The scam is that the funds are deposited, but have not cleared. They typically are returned as having insufficient funds, but by then, the victim has already sent the actual money to the criminals.

Posted under Complaints

Air travelers heading into and out of fast-growing St. George, Utah soon will be able to fly by scheduled jet aircraft now that the federal government is investing $17.2 million to help pay for a new airport for the community, Marion C. Blakey, the Administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), announced today.

The new FAA grant is the largest single federal grant for an airport in Utah. The city will use the initial grant money to buy 277 acres of land for the new airport site, which is approximately five miles from downtown St. George. About 1,300 acres are needed for the airport, and the city plans to acquire the additional land over the next two years.

The new airport will include a new 9,300-foot runway large enough to allow scheduled commercial jet airlines and business jets to fly into St. George for the first time. The airport will be a state-of-the-art facility, which will handle twice as many passengers as the existing airport. The new runway will have the latest in lighting systems and navigation technology.

Scheduled to open in 2011, the new airport will use an approach procedure designed to keep aircraft as high as possible and to the west of Zion National Park in order to lessen the noise impact on the park.

The airport was necessary because St. George was the nation’s fastest-growing metropolitan area from 2000 to 2005 and the community now totals more than 160,000 residents. “This community is growing so fast that it deserves the kind of service many other places have enjoyed for decades,” Blakey said.

Posted under Travel

Update

To date, 175 cases of illness due to E. coli O157:H7 infection have been reported to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), including 28 cases of Hemolytic Uremic Syndrome (HUS), 93 hospitalizations and one death.

FDA is working closely with CDC and the state of California. FDA has determined that the spinach implicated in the outbreak was grown in three counties: Monterey, San Benito and Santa Clara in California. Spinach grown in the rest of the United States has not been implicated in the current E. coli O157:H7 outbreak. The public can be confident that spinach grown in the non-implicated areas can be consumed.

Consumers are advised not to purchase or consume fresh spinach if they cannot verify that it was grown in areas other than the three California counties implicated in the outbreak.

Other produce grown in these counties is not implicated in this outbreak. Processed spinach (e.g., frozen and canned spinach) is also not implicated in this outbreak.

Industry is working to get spinach from areas not implicated in the current E. coli O157:H7 outbreak back on the market.

Investigators from FDA, CDC and the state of California are working to narrow the area implicated in the current E. coli O157:H7 outbreak even further.

States Affected

The 25 affected states are: Arizona (7), California (1), Colorado (1), Connecticut (3) Idaho (4), Illinois (1), Indiana (9), Kentucky (8), Maine (3), Maryland (3), Michigan (4), Minnesota (2), Nebraska (9), Nevada (1), New Mexico (5), New York (11), Ohio (20), Oregon (6), Pennsylvania (8), Tennessee (1), Utah (18), Virginia (2), Washington (3), Wisconsin (44), and Wyoming (1).

Laboratory Findings

The Utah Department of Health (UDOH) and the Salt Lake Valley Health Department (SLVHD) have confirmed that E. coli O157:H7, the same strain as that associated with the outbreak, has been found in a bag of Dole baby spinach purchased in Utah with a use by date of August 30, 2006. Laboratory tests were conducted by the Utah Public Health Laboratory (UPHL).

The New Mexico Department of Health announced on September 20, 2006, that it had linked a sample from a package of spinach with the outbreak strain of E. coli O157:H7. The spinach was eaten by one of New Mexico’s patients before becoming sick. DNA fingerprinting tests determined that the strain from the spinach matches the strain from patients in the outbreak. The package of spinach that tested positive was “Dole Baby Spinach, Best if Used by August 30.”

Five (5) Recalls

On September 22, 2006, Pacific Coast Fruit Company of Portland, Oregon initiated a voluntary recall of products that may include spinach supplied by Natural Selections Foods. Pacific Coast Fruit Company stopped making all products with spinach supplied from California on September 14, 2006. The recalled products are:

Baby Spring Mix Salad Kit (4.6 lbs), Chef on the Run- Bacon Spinach Salad (9 oz. plus 2 fl. oz. dressing), Chef on the Run - Spring Greens Salad (5 oz. plus 2 fl. oz. dressing), Chef on the Run - Willamette Valley Salad (10 oz. plus 2 fl. oz. dressing),Trader Joe’s - Baby Spinach and Greens with Bleu Cheese, Candied Pecans and Cranberries with Raspberry Vinaigrette Dressing (10 oz.), Trader Joe’s - Baby Greens and Spinach Salad with Wild Maine Blueberry Dressing (10 oz.), Mediterranean Veggie Blend Kit - 15 lbs, and My Brothers Pizza Spinach and Garlic - 15 oz. and 36 oz.

Most of the salad products can be identified by the labels Trader Joe’s, My Brothers Pizza or Chef on the Run and are in clam shell containers. Pizza products are in round cardboard bottoms with a plastic over wrap. All salad products will have a “USE BY DATE” on or before Sept 20, 2006. Pizza products will have a “USE BY DATE” on or before September 23, 2006.

The products were distributed through various retail outlets in Alaska, Oregon, Washington and Idaho. There is no international distribution.

On September 22, 2006,Triple B Corporation, doing business as S.T. Produce, of Seattle, Washington, initiated a voluntary recall of its fresh spinach salad products with a “Use By” date of 8/22/2006 thru 9/20/2006. Spinach used in these products may have been supplied from Natural Selections Foods of California. The recalled products were distributed in Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Montana to retail stores and delis and sold in a hard plastic clamshell container.

The products recalled by S.T. Produce are: NWG Spinach Salad (5 oz.),Spinach Salad, QFC (5 oz.), Charlie’s Spinach Salad (5 oz.), Charlie’s Tabouli & Goat Cheese Salad (10 oz.), NWG Tabouli & Goat Cheese Salad (10 oz.),Tabouli & Goat Cheese Salad, QFC (10 oz.), T/H Spring Mix Salad (5.5 oz.), T/H Mozzarella Spring Mix Salad (5.5 oz.), T/H Baby Spinach Salad (5.5 oz.), Walnut and Blue Cheese Salad w/ Grilled Chicken Breast (6.5 oz.), Larry’s Market Tabouli & Goat Cheese Salad (10 oz.), Charlie’s Seasonal Greens Salad (2.5 oz.), Charlie’s Seasonal Greens Salad (4 oz.), Charlie’s Baby Spinach Salad (6 oz.), Charlie’s Baby Spinach Salad (5 oz.) and Caesar Bowtie Noodle Salad Kit with Grilled Chicken Breast (6.9 lbs).

On September 19, 2006, RLB Food Distributors, L.P., West Caldwell, NJ, initiated a voluntary recall of certain salad products that may contain spinach with an ‘Enjoy Thru’ date of 9/20/06. See: http://www.fda.gov/oc/po/firmrecalls/rlb09_06.html. The products recalled by RLB are: Balducci’s Mesclun Mix 5 oz., Balducci’s Organic Baby Spinach 5 oz., Balducci’s Mixed Greens 5 oz., FreshPro Mesclun Mix 5 oz., FreshPro Organic Baby Spinach 5 oz., FreshPro Mixed Greens 5 oz., FreshPro Salad Mix with Italian Dressing 4.75 oz., and FreshPro Salad Mix with Ranch Dressing 5.25 oz.

On September 17, 2006, River Ranch, of Salinas, California, announced a voluntary recall of packages of spring mix containing spinach. River Ranch obtained bulk spring mix containing spinach from Natural Selections. The following brands are involved: Fresh N’ Easy Spring Mix and Hy-Vee Spring mix containing baby spinach, distributed to retailers in Texas, Iowa, New Mexico, Georgia and Ohio. Product was packed in 5 oz. bags and 5 oz. plastic trays. Products that do not contain spinach are not part of this recall.

On September 15, 2006, Natural Selection Foods, LLC, of San Juan Bautista, California, announced a voluntary recall of all products containing spinach in all brands they pack with “Best if Used by Dates” of August 17, 2006 through October 1, 2006. These products include spinach and any salad with spinach in a blend, both retail and food service products. Products that do not contain spinach are not part of this recall.

Natural Selection Foods, LLC brands include: Natural Selection Foods, Pride of San Juan, Earthbound Farm, Bellissima, Dole, Rave Spinach, Emeril, Sysco, O Organic, Fresh Point, River Ranch, Superior, Nature’s Basket, Pro-Mark, Compliments, Trader Joe’s, Ready Pac, Jansal Valley, Cheney Brothers, D’Arrigo Brothers, Green Harvest, Mann, Mills Family Farm, Premium Fresh, Snoboy, The Farmer’s Market, Tanimura & Antle, President’s Choice, Cross Valley, and Riverside Farms.

The affected products were also distributed to Canada, Mexico, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Iceland. No illnesses have been reported from these countries. FDA continues to investigate whether other companies and brands are involved.

Symptoms of E. coli O157:H7 Illness

E. coli O157:H7 causes diarrhea, often with bloody stools. Although most healthy adults can recover completely within a week, some people can develop a form of kidney failure called HUS. HUS is most likely to occur in young children and the elderly. The condition can lead to serious kidney damage and even death.

Lettuce Safety Initiative

The FDA developed the Lettuce Safety Initiative www.cfsan.fda.gov/~dms/lettsafe.html in response to recurring outbreaks of E. coli O157:H7 in lettuce. As a result of this outbreak, the initiative has been expanded to cover spinach. The primary goals of the initiative are to reduce public health risks by focusing on the product, agents and areas of greatest concern and to alert consumers early and respond rapidly in the event of an outbreak. This initiative is based on the 2004 Produce Safety Action Plan, intended to minimize the incidence of food borne illness associated with the consumption of fresh produce.

FDA continues to work closely with the CDC and state and local agencies to determine the cause and scope of the E. coli 0157:H7 outbreak in spinach. Please check www.fda.gov for updates.

Posted under Health

GE Commercial Finance Fleet Services today announced that they will be reporting damage information on their fleet vehicles to Carfax for inclusion on Carfax Vehicle History Reports. GE Commercial Finance Fleet Services maintains thousands of cars throughout North America. Now, individuals purchasing off lease GE Commercial Finance Fleet Services’ vehicles can use this data to better understand a vehicle’s history and help guide a mechanical inspection before buying.

“We’ve been working with Carfax for a few years now to report service information on our fleet vehicles,” said Paul Seger, vice president of asset remarketing for GE Commercial Finance Fleet Services. “Including information we have about vehicles involved in accidents was a natural next step. We encourage anyone buying a used car to use this information to make sure the vehicle has been properly repaired.”

Since 2004, GE Commercial Finance Fleet Services and Carfax have partnered to bring valuable information to used car buyers and sellers. Their partnership led to previous studies showing that disclosure of vehicle history information through Carfax Vehicle History Reports may substantially raise the resale value of wholesale units.

“Buyers of GE fleet vehicles in the wholesale market have just hit the trifecta,” said Larry Gamache, communications director at Carfax. “They now have access to GE’s service information, these new prior damage records and, the bonus, a significant number of these cars will be Carfax One Owner vehicles. They should command a premium in the wholesale market as they’ll have huge curb appeal to consumers in the retail market.”

Posted under Automotive

A federal judge has issued a temporary restraining order against a nationwide operation that claimed it could reduce consumers’ debt by up to 60 percent, leading many people into financial ruin and bankruptcy. The Federal Trade Commission charged five companies, including Homeland Financial Services, National Support Services and Prosper Financial Solutions, and their principals with deceptive and unfair practices in violation of Section 5 of the FTC Act.

“These defendants are charged with targeting consumers who were knee deep in debt and luring them with false promises,” said Lydia Parnes, Director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection. “Consumers should be leery of anyone who says they can eliminate your unsecured debt, or that you can pay it off for pennies on the dollar. Debt negotiation can be very risky.”

According to the FTC’s complaint, the defendants have falsely claimed that, for a non-refundable fee of up to 15 percent of a consumer’s unsecured debt, they could reduce all of their unsecured debts, including credit card balances and medical bills, by as much as 40 to 60 percent. To the extent that the defendants initiate negotiations with creditors, they typically have begun only after a consumer has paid 30 to 40 percent of the fee, which could be up to three months after a consumer has stopped making payments to creditors, as the defendants have advised them to do, the complaint stated. The defendants rarely have negotiated settlements with all of a consumer’s creditors, and even when they have successfully negotiated an account, in many cases, the settlement amount is significantly more than 60 percent of what they owe.

In many instances, the complaint stated, the defendants have not contacted a consumer’s creditors to offer a settlement, and consumers who have stopped making payments have been sued by creditors or debt collectors, resulting in garnishment of their wages, additional interest charged to their account, interest rate increases, and late fees. According to the complaint, many consumers who have enrolled in the defendants’ program have seen their credit rating worsen substantially, and typically within six months of enrolling, most consumers have left the program and have found that their debt has grown as a result of penalties, fees, interest, and other charges.

The FTC charged the defendants with misrepresenting how much they could reduce consumers’ debt; not adequately disclosing the likelihood that consumers would be sued if they took the defendants’ advice and stopped making payments to creditors; not disclosing that consumers’ account balances would grow from interest, interest rate increases, late fees, and other charges; and falsely advising consumers that negative information that appeared on their credit report as a result of participating in the defendants’ program would be removed upon completion of the program.

Posted under Finance

In cooperation with the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), Playskool, of Pawtucket, R.I., is voluntarily recalling about 255,000 Team Talkin’ Tool Bench toys following the deaths of two young children.

Playskool received reports that a 19-month-old boy from Martinsburg, W.V., and a 2-year-old boy from League City, Texas, suffocated when oversized, plastic toy nails sold with the tool bench toys became forcefully lodged in their throats. Though the toy nails are not considered a small-part, and the toys are intended for children age 3 and older, Playskool is voluntarily conducting a recall as a precaution to prevent additional incidents.

The Team Talkin’ Tool Bench™ is a 20-inch tall plastic toy tool bench with an animated red toy saw, a yellow toy drill and a blue toy vice. The toy talks and makes various sound effects, including tool sounds. The product also includes a toy hammer, screwdriver, two 2″-inch plastic screws, two 3-inch plastic nails and pieces to build a small toy plane. The red Playskool logo is on the front of the brown surface of the tool bench.

The toy was sold at Toys R Us, Wal-Mart, Target, KB Toys stores and various other stores nationwide from October 2005 through September 2006 for about $35.

Consumers should immediately take the two toy nails away from children and contact Playskool to get information on returning the nails for a $50 certificate for a Playskool (or its related companies’) product.

For additional information, call Playskool at (800) 509-9554 anytime.

Posted under Recalls

A San Jose, Calif., executive of Samsung Semiconductor Inc. - the world’s largest manufacturer of a common computer component called dynamic random access memory or DRAM - has agreed to plead guilty and to serve jail time for participating in a global conspiracy to fix DRAM prices, the Department of Justice announced.

The charged executive, Thomas Quinn, participated in the price-fixing conspiracy in his capacity as vice president of marketing for memory products at Samsung Semiconductor Inc. Quinn was charged with one-count, alleging participation in an agreement to fix prices of DRAM and to coordinate bids in an auction held by a DRAM purchaser.

Under the plea agreement, which must be approved by the court, Quinn has agreed to serve eight months in prison and to pay a criminal fine of $250,000. In addition, Quinn has agreed to assist the Department in its ongoing investigation.

“Prison time for price-fixers remains the most potent deterrent to illegal cartel activity,” said Thomas O. Barnett, Assistant Attorney General in charge of the Department’s Antitrust Division. “Today’s action sends a clear message: those who engage in price-fixing schemes will be held accountable for their illegal conduct.”

Including today’s charge, four companies and 13 individuals have been charged and fines totaling more than $731 million have resulted from the Department’s DRAM investigation. The $731 million in criminal fines is the second highest total obtained by the Department of Justice in a criminal antitrust investigation into a specific industry.

DRAM is the most commonly used semiconductor memory product, providing high-speed storage and retrieval of electronic information for a wide variety of computer, telecommunication, and consumer electronic products. DRAM is used in personal computers, laptops, workstations, servers, printers, hard disk drives, personal digital assistants (PDAs), modems, mobile phones, telecommunication hubs and routers, digital cameras, video recorders and TVs, digital set top boxes, game consoles, and digital music players. There were approximately $7.7 billion in DRAM sales in the United States in 2004.

According to the one-count felony charge filed today in federal court in San Francisco, Quinn conspired with unnamed employees from other memory makers to fix the prices of DRAM sold to certain original equipment manufacturers from on or about April 1, 2001 to on or about June 15, 2002, and to coordinate bids on a Dec. 5, 2001 Sun Microsystems Inc., auction. The price-fixing scheme directly affected sales to U.S. computer makers Dell Inc., Hewlett-Packard Company, Compaq Computer Corporation, International Business Machines Corporation, Apple Computer Inc., Gateway Inc., and Sun Microsystems Inc., the Department said.

Quinn is charged with carrying out the price-fixing conspiracy by:

- Participating in meetings, conversations, and communications with competitors to discuss the prices of DRAM to be sold to certain customers; and

- Agreeing with competitors to coordinate bids submitted to Sun Microsystems Inc.

Quinn is the fourth Samsung executive to agree to a prison sentence in the DRAM investigation. Three foreign-based Samsung executives, Sun Woo Lee, Young Woo Lee, and Yeongho Kang, have already pleaded guilty and agreed to serve prison terms ranging from seven to eight months and to pay fines of $250,000 each. In addition, four Hynix Semiconductor Inc., executives, Dae Soo Kim, Chae Kyun Chung, Kun Chul Suh, and Choon Yub Choi, were charged with participating in the DRAM price-fixing conspiracy and agreed to plead guilty and serve jail terms ranging from five to eight months and to each pay a $250,000 fine. In December 2004, four Infineon executives, T. Rudd Corwin, Peter Schaefer, Gunter Hefner, and Heinrich Florian, pleaded guilty to the DRAM price-fixing conspiracy. The Infineon employees served jail terms ranging from four to six months and each paid a $250,000 fine.

Also, in December 2003 the Department charged Alfred Censullo, a Regional Sales Manager for Micron Technology Inc., with obstruction of justice. Censullo pleaded guilty and admitted to having withheld and altered documents responsive to a grand jury subpoena served on Micron. Censullo was sentenced to serve six months of home detention.

In total, four companies have been charged with price fixing in the DRAM investigation. Samsung pleaded guilty to the price-fixing conspiracy and was sentenced to pay a $300 million criminal fine in November 2005. Hynix, the world�s second-largest DRAM manufacturer, pleaded guilty and was sentenced to pay a $185 million criminal fine in May 2005. In January 2006, Japanese manufacturer Elpida Memory agreed to plead guilty and pay an $84 million fine. In October 2004, German manufacturer Infineon pleaded guilty and was sentenced to pay a $160 million criminal fine.

Posted under Customer Service, Products

The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children has offered parents a wonderful opportunity by making its Kidz Smart DVD available for free.

The non-profit’s site features a quote from Bryan Cranston, the father on the TV show Malcolm in the Middle, who says, “I believe in this cause so much, I made this DVD with my own money. I hope it helps you and your children stay safe in a world that seems to be growing more dangerous every day.”

Consumer Help Web has always supported this amazing organization’s work, and we urge all parents to watch this video with their children and help keep them safe.

Consumers can order the DVD by clicking this link. And when you’re done, why not pass the video along to another family so the word can continue to spread?

Posted under Products, Safety

As the cost of high-speed Internet service declines and connection speeds become more important, high-speed service overtakes dial-up in market share for the first time, according to the J.D. Power and Associates 2006 Internet Service Provider (ISP) Residential Customer Satisfaction Study SM released today.

The study finds that 56 percent of residential ISP customers subscribe to high-speed Internet service—an increase of 11 percentage points from 2005. Correspondingly, market share of dial-up service has dropped from 55 percent in 2005 to 44 percent in 2006. This trend is expected to continue, as the intent to switch service providers among dial-up customers has increased by 3 percentage points from 2005 to 21 percent in 2006, while switching intent among high-speed customers has essentially remained flat since 2003 at 11 percent.

The average amount subscribers report spending per month for high-speed Internet service has steadily decreased since 2004—down by $1.99 to $42.13 in 2006. During the same time period, the average amount dial-up service subscribers report spending has also declined; however, the drop is less significant—falling $0.69 from 2004 to $18.45 per month in 2006.

“Although high-speed Internet service is still considerably more expensive than dial-up, bundling high-speed with other products, such as telephone and video service, has made it an increasingly attractive option for many customers,” said Steve Kirkeby, executive director of telecommunications and technology research at J.D. Power and Associates. “This is not to say that dial-up services are completely out of the picture, as dial-up still holds a significant portion of the market. More specifically, customers are often willing to pay more for faster Internet speeds, provided they are getting other services for less. Our research shows that customers are increasingly expecting offerings and incentives that recognize their loyalty, and high-speed Internet is a critical piece of the most attractive bundled offers.”

The study, now in its ninth year, measures customer satisfaction with high-speed and dial-up Internet service providers based on seven factors. They are: performance and reliability; cost of service; image; customer service/technical support; billing; e-mail services; and offerings and promotions.

Included in the study for the first time, WideOpenWest! (WOW!) ranks highest in satisfying high-speed Internet customers. WOW! receives the highest ratings from customers in performance and reliability, image, customer service, billing, cost of service and offerings and promotions. Bright House Network’s Road Runner follows WOW! in the rankings and performs well in the billing, performance and reliability, and image factors. BellSouth ranks third in the segment.

Across all providers, the study finds that DSL subscribers are significantly more satisfied than their counterparts who use cable modems to access the Internet. Aggressive pricing by traditional telephone companies has led to cost of service being the largest gap in satisfaction between DSL and cable subscribers. Despite the discrepancy in overall satisfaction scores, cable modem penetration continues to climb, with 32 percent of all households subscribing to Internet service—up from 28 percent in 2005. DSL subscriptions are up as well, climbing from 16 percent of the market in 2005 to 23 percent in 2006.

PeoplePC, a California based national provider of dial-up Internet service, also makes its debut in the study, and ranks highest among providers in the dial-up Internet service segment. PeoplePC is a subsidiary of EarthLink. PeoplePC receives the highest ratings from customers in four factors: cost of service, billing, e-mail services, and offerings and promotions. BellSouth follows PeoplePC in the segment rankings and performs particularly well in customer service. EarthLink ranks third in the segment.

The study also finds several other key Internet usage patterns:

* Seventy-eight percent of households subscribe to an ISP—up 9 percentage points from 2005
* High-speed subscribers spend an average of 22.6 personal hours per week on the Internet
* Dial-up subscribers average 22.2 personal hours per week online—up 3 percent from 2005
* Data transfer speed is particularly important to both high speed and dial-up subscribers.

The 2006 ISP Residential Customer Satisfaction Study is based on responses from 10,787 residential customers of Internet service providers nationwide.

Posted under Products