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

New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo announced that an upstate New York furniture chain must stop deceptive pricing schemes and deliver overdue furniture.

Utica-based Affordable Furniture received a cease and desist letter that gives the company two weeks to deliver all overdue furniture.  The company will also change its sales practices so that sales prices are disclosed showing the manufacturer’s suggested retail price (MSRP), the store’s “customary” price and any sales price.

Posted under Complaints

The Office of New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer today announced that it has worked with the nation’s leading online marketplace to help prevent shipments of dangerous stun guns and other illegal weapons in New York.

Under the voluntarily action, eBay will take a series of steps to block the sale and shipment of such weapons to New Yorkers.

“State law specifically prohibits possession of stun guns and related weapons,” Spitzer said. “We are happy to work closely with eBay to ensure that the internet is not used to facilitate illegal activity.”

After receiving tips that illegal weapons were being purchased on eBay, the Attorney General’s office began an investigation earlier this year. The office was able to confirm quickly that the weapons were readily available over the internet. Investigators, posing as ordinary consumers, purchased 16 stun guns from 16 different sellers through the eBay auction website.

Among the items purchased were a 900,000-volt Taser stun gun valued at $57, an “Air Taser” stun gun that shoots a darts delivering a disabling shock for $400, and a stun gun made to look like a cellphone for $50.

With eBay’s assistance, the Attorney General’s office then contacted the 16 sellers who together are believed to have sold more than 1,100 stun guns to New Yorkers between September 2003 and August 2005. All but two of the sellers were located out of state.

eBay cooperated in the investigation and was never a target of the Attorney General’s probe.

The Attorney General’s office reached agreements with sellers to discontinue the sales and pay a fine. Information on sales of stun guns has also been reported to local district attorneys

In addition, as a result of the investigation, eBay has taken the following steps:

– The company implemented a messaging system to deter New Yorkers from participating in stun gun sales. Under the new system, anyone from New York, who bids on an illegal weapon will receive an electronic warning that purchasing a stun gun is illegal in New York; and

– The company is sending letters to sellers of stun guns to warn them that sale and possession of stun guns in New York is illegal;

New York is one of seven states that ban electronic “stunning devices.”

Posted under Products

After President Bush signed a federal highway bill last month, New Yorkers began seeing a new benefit — auto leasing returning to their state.

Mercedes Benz was among the first of the auto manufacturers to annouce they would start leasing operations in New York again. That is because the highway bill bans vicarious liability, a law that holds a leasing company liable for a driver’s negligence.

“This antiquated law has hurt the retail auto industry, and we are pleased that Congress has put an end to it,” said Greater New York Auto Dealer Association President Mark Schienberg.

Schienberg’s organization estimated that vicarious liability had cost New York consumers $280 million in excess costs since 2003 because auto manufacturers were unwilling to assume responsibility for vehicles they are not required to assume in other states.

Posted under Automotive